It's been years since I have had a real vacation. The type you pour over travel books, chat with travel agents, book tickets, and board planes. Well, on our penny pinching budget these days, any trip we take will have to be closer to home, and be of a shorter duration. I'm not totally blowing off a nice far away destination, but any more of those far from home trips will have to be budgeted a few years in advance. Living in the Great Northwest affords lots of opportunities in about as many directions. Such trips can be done in less than a week if needed. A five hour drive will land you just about to a hundred or more great locals ... from the Pacific Ocean ... to the Rocky Mountains; east and west. From beautiful British Columbia to a place called Hell's Canyon in North Central Idaho (north, south). While throwing darts over my shoulder at a map last week ;) ... the dart landed at Glacier National Park in Montana. Having only briefly visited the park as a teen (and I mean brief) ... I'm anxious to get on the road. If you have any suggestions about sights to see along the way, please do share in the comment section. Oh Happy Trails!
Glacier Park slide show
Shown Photo website and information
6 comments:
We have yet to visit Glacier, but it's on our list.
What I'd really like to do is ride Amtrak from Spokane, which takes you right into Glacier to one of the lodges. That would be cool.
Hey, anything that gets me out of driving is cool.
Take me along.
I will be very quiet, you won't even notice me.
OH MY! Where to begin? GNP is my favorite park, while Yellowstone is my Hub's and son's! We will be in Glacier in early September! Not knowing how much time you have there and whether day hiking is an option, I would suggest hiking for sure the Hidden Lake Trail. It starts out at the Logan Pass Visitor Center (get there early as the parking lot fills up quickly!)You can even go all the way down to the lake providing the trail isn't closed due to bear activity as it was one year (2005) when we were there. Otherwise you will enjoy the overlook complete with mountain goats running all around! You can do this in just a couple of hours time.
Another option is to do the Grinnell Glacier Hike. (Again, check to make sure it's not closed due to bear activity). The best way IMO,is to take the boat ride across the SwidtCurrent Lake, walk a short distance and then get on another boat that will take you across Lake Josephine (I believe). This is up at the Many Glacier Hotel area! They offer ranger-led hikes that once you disembark you can just go the lake itself or you can hike all the way to the glacier. You can also go on your own as well, Both of these are options to look into. I consider this an all day hike.
If you enjoy a nice evening relaxing, I HIGHLY recommend catching David Walburn at the Many Glacier Hotel. He performs his own music to a slide-show photo presentation. He does 3 different shows, one on Montana (excellent), one on Lewis & Clark (very good) but the best IMO, is "Cabin Song" which chronicles his journey to Alaska to build a cabin with some friends right out of college!
Oh my, I am so excited that there are probably horrendous typos in this! I'm going to see about doing a couple of copy and paste links for you here.
http://www.davidwalburn.com/home.html
To spare you having to scroll through my archives, here are some links for my posts about last years vacation, particuliarly GNP. I hope these help!
Connie
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/bear-spray-101.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/hiking-in-glacier-national-park.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/guys-backpacking-trip.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/on-our-own.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/winding-down.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/sperry-chalet.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/dayhike-to-sperry-glacier.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/hiking-down-to-lake-mcdonald.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/wrapping-up-glacier-national-park.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/hike-to-grinnell-glacier-glacier.html
http://edelweisstexas.blogspot.com/2007/08/last-look-at-glacier.html
WOW! Major overkill huh?
Oh, when I mentioned Grinnell Glacier hikes, the one to the glacier is peretty much an all day hike, but SO worth it! To just go to the lake area itself, is a half day hike. Another really nice hike is to St Mary's Falls and if you continue on, I think the other falls is Virginia Falls. Also, if you are considering crossing the border nto Waterton it will IMO pale in comparison once you've seen the American side! Also, in Babb which is outside the many Glacier area of the park, there is a diner called the Babb Diner. They have the best Buffalo and Black Bean Chili!!!! Their other food is good but we ALWAYS have their chili! If you like honey, there is some exceptinal honey from Babb as well!
Connie
Geez, another comment!
Phil mentioned Amtrak. In 2005, we stayed at Galcier Park Lodge where Amtrak comes through. To ride the train we drove to West Glacier (AKA Belton) and rode the train back to Glacier Park Lodge (East Glacier). It was a one-way trip and there was the logistics of cars and such but it was well worth it for the scenery. It was however, VERY crowded!
Connie
How wonderful!! Have a fabulous time!
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