Our long drive from Colorado up to Essex, MT
After the long drive up from Colorado, we stayed the night in a small "town" called Essex, MT. The idea for our 8 day road trip was to hotel one night after the drive to Montana, and one night prior to driving back home from Canada to Colorado, camping all other nights in between in the beautiful national parks. Partly due to our late attempt at planning the trip (everything was quite booked up), and also partly because I got us a hotel in Kallispell, MT 2 weeks too early (read before you click folks) we ended up settling on this cool cabin based campground in the mountains just south of the park.
This wouldn't be the last time my weak attempt at planning fell apart, but each time added to the experience, and further reminded the family that winging it can work too. If you are travelling to that area and need a short place to stay, I do recommend Glacier Haven Inn. It is a bit on the rustic side, but great staff and a unique and beautiful stay.
Glacier Haven Inn in Essex, MT
Leaving Essex, MT and exploring Glacier National Park on Day 2
With the rising sun on Day 2 we tossed our gear into our car, and headed to the western side of the park. With no campground reservation (yep, recurring theme?) we had to ensure we were to our planned campground as early as possible to get in line for a spot. The excitement of this morning however was knowing we'd be travelling up and over Going to the Sun Road. A route many believe to be the most beautiful drive in the US. A lofty claim (I think we prefer Trail Ridge Road in Colorado), but what better time to drive it then during sunrise?
Best road or not, it certainly did not disappoint. The views here are gorgeous in ways the Colorado Rockies cannot be. A combination of the mountains my family knows so well, mixed with glaciers, waterfalls, and green valleys. While it was a shame to rush the drive to get to our campsite, sunrise was the perfect time to tour this road, both for the beautiful light it offers, but also the lack of traffic and tourists. A lesson we repeatedly used throughout the rest of our road trip was to rise early and enjoy the parks as they were meant to be seen.
Pulling into camp that day was fairly uneventful, we did manage to secure a campsite at Rising Sun, our first choice "Many Glacier" was closed to tents due to grizzly activity. The campground is well maintained and beautiful, as well as being centrally located to activities both on the western side of the park, and the stunning scenery up in the Many Glacier area. As a tip for those visiting this campground, reserve a site ahead of time towards the western end of the campground. While we did end up getting a site as an early walk in, we also got placed in a spot that had almost no shade, and no breeze. Not an issue if you only plan to sleep each night, but a rough time if using the campground for mid day leisure. It wasn't until about 6:30 pm (in July) that the sun finally hit a nearby peak offering up shade.
The star of the hike "Mr Awesomeness" got comments from nearly every hiker we passed.
With a day and a half of travel behind us, and our campsite set, it was finally time to hit the trail and experience the hype for ourselves. Grinnell Glacier was our goal. The hike begins in a colorful forest in the Many Glacier area of the park and passes along the shorelines of Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine, both are beautiful turquoise lakes fed by the glaciers up above. As you climb up out of the basin along the cliff edges the views open up to stunning scenes of the mountains. Eventually Grinnell Glacier lake presents itself as you round a bend, and it suddenly becomes clear that everything up to this point was oh so worth it.
Despite running on little sleep, and lots of hot sun we were able to push through and achieve our goals. The trail sadly was closed about 3.5 miles in due to some unsafe snow conditions, and I believe the kids could have ran laps with the mountain goats, but the adults were spent and ready for some rest.
In the next post I'll go over some more of Glacier National Park with sunrises and wildlife to come! Eventually sharing our absolutely stunning trip in Banff National Park in Canada. Stay tuned and thank you for letting me share!
