DFT 25 - Montana - Glacier NP

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Glacier now has a timed entry system. And the pass go up for sale 90 days before your trip or at 7pm the night before you want to enter. 3 months ago I was able to get a permit for all our days but not always the earliest times. So we have had to plan around what time we can get into the park. 

Wednesday we didn’t have a pass until 1pm. So we started the morning on the Northwest Side at the place called Polebridge. We were able to visit the Mercantile and get a famous Huckleberry Bear Claw. The Polebridge Mercantile had been in business since….and is one of the most iconic buildings in Montana. We hiked the Covey Meadow Loop in the North Fork Area of the park.

Then headed back down for our 1pm park entry to the Going to the Sun Road. We drove all the way up to Logan Pass. EG kept saying she didn’t think it was real and she was actual seeing a projection 😂. When we came back down we stopped to let the girls swim in Lake McDonald. Then we had dinner and ice cream in Apgar Village. The dinner was okay but your typical park resort food. But they did have Huckleberry flavored ice cream and I had a huckleberry drink with dinner! 









Thursday we spent the day in the part of the park called Two Medicine. On the drive over we stopped to see the historic Izaak Walton Hotel. We also stopped and saw goats at the Goat Lick overlook. When we got to Two Medicine we picnicked in the parking lot and some goats decided to join us. Then we hiked a trail called Aster Falls. On the way out that night we stopped at the East Glacier Lodge which was awesome! The Amtrak stops right outside of it across the street and you can get off the Amtrak and walk to the hotel. One day…I’m going to do that! We drove back to the West Glacier side and had dinner at the Glacier Highland Restaurant. It was okay food. I had a burger with bacon and huckleberry jam. And Daniel had Bison meatballs. 








Friday Daniel wanted to hike the Highline trail so our park entry was set for 7am. Unfortunately the Highline trail is still closed especially considering the weekend before we got here there was another snow storm. But we went head and got in the park early. On the way into the park we saw a Grizzly asleep on the side of the road 😳 


We were going to hike Avalanche Lake but it is a really popular trail and we couldn’t find a parking spot. So we drove on up to Logan Pass and decided to hike Hidden Lake which was also still covered with snow but not closed. It was quite an interesting hike. I carried C on my back in the Lillebaby(which is quite possibly the best baby purchase I made back in 2017). Walking up was bad but coming down was pretty crazy. I fell several times just because it was snowy and slick. Once I just fell and hit my butt but it scared C and then she proceeded to cry the rest of the way down.  There were some nice people who helped us make it down. The guy put C’s hood back up several times when it would fall. And the girl had her hiking poles and let me use them on the last snowy part to get me down quicker. We did bribe C throughout most of the hike with a stuffie so both girls goat a mountain goat stuffie once we made it to the 

bottom 🤷🏻‍♀️. After the hike we were starving so we drove down to Lake McDonald and had lunch at their pizza restaurant. Again resort food….meh After lunch we headed back to the cabin for a little rest. Then we had a small dinner at Backslope - a Mediterranean restaurant that was pretty good before heading in for a ranger program. Ranger Sally did a great job talking to use about mountaineering and the geography of the park. 










Ice Cream Count - 2

Huckleberry Count -6

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