Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road that passes through Glacier and is often closed to cars in the early season. Our last day in Glacier the road was opened to bikers so we biked 20 miles with over 3000 feet of vertical gain the see the stunning views. Waterfalls crashed onto the sides of the road along the way. It was epic and such a cool experience to share with the couple hundred other bikers that worked their asses off climbing up to Logan Pass, the 6,646 ft summit. We even got caught in a rain shower and took cover under a small rocky overhang until it passed. The ride was definitely the highlight of our time in Glacier.

We spent one day in West Glacier visiting the famous Lake McDonald where the colored pebbles shine through the crystal clear water of the lake. We paddled the lake and ate some huckleberry ice cream after hiking the popular Avalanche Lake trail. Our campsite was off of Hwy 2 right outside the west entrance to the park, very convenient and quite pretty as it was on a huge cliff overlooking the river. We had the space to ourselves so we tried out our gravity shower for the first time and it worked pretty well for us!

The rest of our time we spent in East Glacier. This is where you want to be if you are interested in longer, more challenging hikes and backpacking trails. We picked a 7 mile easy trail to Grinnell Lake that is lined with lakes the entire hike so it was just ridiculously scenic.

A few miles in, we passed a hiker that had seen a momma bear and 3 cubs on the trail. We got a little excited (and scared) and kept our eyes peeled and our bear spray handy. On our way back, it was 50/50 whether hikers we passed had seen the bears or not. We were dying, we wanted to see them SO bad, from a safe distance of course. The last 2 miles or so of the hike the sky turned dark and began constant grumbling. As we are getting close to the parking lot, we are told about ANOTHER bear supposedly towards the beginning of the hike and we’re thinking YES, we’re finally going to see one on this hike. But the skies opened up and thunder crashed, probably scaring the bear and we ran to the van just as it started downpouring and hailing tiny pieces of hail.

We start driving away from the trailhead and a few miles down we have a front row seat of a black bear playing in a field by the road. He was so playful and curious, turning over rocks and pouncing around. We watched him for a solid 15 minutes until he retreated farther into the woods.

We paid for our first two campsites since we started living in the van in East Glacier. The Eastern border of the park is Indian Reservation Land where dispersed camping isn’t really allowed. We were able to get first come, first serve spots in Rising Sun and St. Marys campgrounds and liked them both but preferred Rising Sun as it was a little less popular.

We feel like we barely skimmed the surface of exploring Glacier and would love to return to do more of the hikes and backpacking that Glacier has to offer.