Day 13: Glacier NP

We woke up very early this morning in order to get to our campground and then into Glacier National Park for our timed reservation window. Our campground is about 10 minutes from the west entrance so we were able to leave the camper, go to the visitor center, and get into the park on time. We traveled on the Going-to-the-Sun road, which is about 50 miles through the park and said to be the most scenic drive on the planet! It is absolutely stunning. We stopped at Lake McDonald first, which is over 500 feet deep and carved by a glacier. Then we ended up driving all the way to the end and just enjoying the scenery (and a black bear that ran out in front of us). The west side was our favorite but the east side is beautiful too! On the east side, we stopped at the visitor center and then headed back through. We made a few scenic stops and saw the Jackson Glacier which is the only glacier you can see from the road. We learned that there were 150 glaciers here in the 1850, but now there are only 25 left.

We stopped at Logan Pass and the continental divide. It was good to wait until later in the afternoons to do this because the parking is crazy! We visited this visitor center too and then headed out for a hike up Hidden Lake Trail. This hike was awesome! It’s only about 1.5 miles but half of it is over snow so the hiking is slow at times as you slip and slide around. The views are incredible and we finally saw big horned sheep!!! My trip is complete! lol They were all over the mountain. Some crossed the boardwalk, and we saw a couple on the mountain ledges and peaks too! We were only able to go to the Hidden Lake overlook because there were many bears on the second half of the trail and it was closed, but that was perfect for us. The boys ran down while the rest of us inched down sliding on the snow. We loved this hike!

On our way back down the road to the west entrance, we saw a family of big horned sheep with two babies, four elk, and a deer. It was a great day. We visited West Glacier village before heading back to the campground for the night. To Canada tomorrow!
































































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