GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
What can say? I can give you facts and figures but I can’t describe the beauty here, and pictures don’t do it justice.
This is a place you have to see and feel and be a part of, yourself. Yes, you have to feel it, because that is how you will know that it is sacred. The native people who lived here knew, and that doesn’t change.
Everything about this place inspires the human spirit.
Lake St Mary is in these first two pictures.
I was relieved to see that there is little in the way of development happening, compared to when I was here 20-odd years ago, unlike the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, which have almost what you could call small towns within them. That’s reflected in the fact that I can mention Glacier National Park to people, and the response is “Where is that? I never heard of it.”
Our campsite, at St Mary Campground. Very private.
Yet many people around the world HAVE heard of it because the park sees more than 2 million visitors a year.
GNP land area is 1583 square miles, and Going To The Sun road, which by my map is 51 miles long, took 10 years to build. It runs through the park, east to west, and there are a few other paved roads around the edges, but there are over 700 miles of hiking trails. If I had my life to do over, hiking in Glacier would be high on my list of priorities.
There ARE bears however! Lots of bears, both Black Bears and Grizzlies. This was their space first, and thankfully it is still their space, along with mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, elk, deer, moose, and even wolverines. (I haven’t seen any of the above yet!)
They are very strict about bear rules, and the saying is “a fed bear is a dead bear”. Even if they are fed by accident. You can have food outside while you are eating it, otherwise it must be inside a closed, hard-sided camper or vehicle. Tenters or tent-campers need to store food in their closed vehicle or in provided bear lockers. Once a bear finds easy edibles at a campsite, he will come back to campsites for more. Bears are not dumb! Hefty fines are imposed if patrolling rangers find so much as a can of coke unattended on your picnic table….and I’m glad. It’s for the bears protection, not to mention the humans protection.
Our fist full day here we travel the Going To The Sun road for as far as it is open, which is 12 miles from the St Mary entrance. Trailers and vehicles more than 25 feet long are not allowed past a few miles in on this road.
Joy and Shiloh would rather look for gophers than at the mountains!
Much of the surrounding area of those 12 miles I drove have extensive fire damage to the forest from last years fires.
It’s sad to see the fire damage, but considered a more or less natural occurrence by those who study such things.
Wildflowers grow profusely all over the place!
The one below is called Beargrass.
The issue I find most disturbing here is the rate at which the glaciers are melting. They are expected to be GONE by 2030!! That’s 14 years! If you want to see the glaciers I suggest you visit sooner rather than later. If you are someone who is still in denial about Global Warming , come see for yourself. These glaciers that have been here for thousands of years, within the past 100 years are diminishing at an astonishing rate. What will happen when they are gone? Drastic changes will occur, beginning with the microbes that live in the glacial ice and water, and on through the chain of life. It this point, it’s too late to stop the process…
I am so touched by the beauty here!
Lake Sherburne. The color of the water is caused by the glaciers breaking off minerals in the rocks. (The dark area on the water is cloud shadows).
It costs $30 to enter the park and have a weeks pass, or you can get in free with your senior pass. Camping at St Mary Campground with no hook-ups is $20 a night, or $10 with senior pass. There are water spigots, toilets and there are showers in Loop C. You can reserve sites in St Mary Campground and a couple others, but the rest are first come first serve. Most sites at St Mary are pull through, but pay attention to the vehicle length limits if you are reserving on line.
The fact that Going To The Sun road is not yet open, only makes me want to come back again, later in the season, and perhaps camp on the west side of the park….yet to be determined though.
There is spotty Verizon service here, but NO AT&T. I drove to Browning, about 35 miles away to get on line, and to give emergency phone numbers to a few friends and family. When I leave the park on the 19th, I’ll be going into Canada, and I don’t know if or when I’ll have WiFi access….probably, but it could be awhile until you hear from me on this blog.
Joy and Shiloh….sleepy babies!
Weather report for Reine! 🙂 Cold! It’s been in high 30’s or very low 40’s at night and in the 50’s during the day with a lot of wind that makes it feel colder! I’ve heard the west side is similar, except generally not as much wind. I don’t know which side you are coming to. I’m wearing my winter coat out and about, and yesterday could not take it off even in the warmest part of the day. But of course in 2 weeks things could be all different…
Take care till the next time all!
Wandering Spirit 
I just wanted to say that I enjoy reading your blog! Are there very many people there? There camping fees seem a bit high given how remote Glacier NP is from most of America. I was there once in the second week of July, and it was still mostly cold. 🙂 Travel safe!!
Hi Larry, I’m back in town so I have Internet and can answer comments!
So glad you are enjoying the blog!
And yes it’s cold! Winter coat weather, big wind. But soooo beautiful. Camp is maybe half full. It’ll no doubt get busy when Going To The Sun opens all the way through.
Micky, I’m so glad you’re enjoying Glacier and thanks for the weather report. I won’t bring my winter coat but will bring stuff for multiple layers to keep warm. I have a windbreaker that I’ve found works great for the outside layer.
If you want to come back in several weeks, check out Emery Bay Campground near Martin City on the West side. It’s a NFS campground about 10 miles from the West Entrance. Reservations accepted (recreation.gov). It’s $14 per night -$7 with senior pass but there’s a $9 reservation fee so our 4 night reservation cost us $37. We’ll be there July 4-8 if you’re back in the area then
Great pictures. We’re really looking forward to our trip – and getting away from the 100 degree heat here at home.
Hi Reine, well plans have suddenly changed a lot because I hurt my back. I’ll be back in Ronan by the buffalo for the 4th because that’s where I could get a reservation for 2 weeks (need to rest) and have electricity and Internet, water,showers, etc. no Canada for now 🙁
Sounds like a good deal over on the west side, for $7 a night. Enjoy this most beautiful place!
We went to Glacier 5 years ago at this time of year and styled at St. Mary CG. We had just purchased a Casita trailer and drove from Texas to Glacier NP to meet up with family who lived in OR. It was wonderful! We didn’t get to drive the whole Going to the Sun road because a lot of it was still under snow, but the part we did was wonderful. We went up the east side as far as we could go and saw a grizzly mom and two cubs and lots of deer. On a short hike, two deer came up behind us and we had to get off the trail so they could continue on. My granddaughter, who was four at the time, was amazed. We spent 4 days on the east side, then drove over to the west side and camped there another 4 days. We loved Lake McDonald and drove up the GTOS road on that side, too. We saw more bears and such amazing scenery! We had to leave without going into Canada, so would dearly love to go back and visit that beautiful country again. It is truly a sacred place. Enjoy every moment.
Hi Marcia, I’m so glad you have had an opportunity to enjoy this most wonderful sacred place. Great that you saw all those bears! I do hope to get back here in the not too distant future. I’m not going to make it to Canada either, had to change my plans. Will blog about that…
Ha, “stayed” not styled.
Happy trails! Enjoy Alberta. I find it gorgeous. I hope you see Banff and Lake Louise, and the area around Red Deer is beautiful in the summer. I will look forward to the next episode of your adventures. God speed!
Oh Maureen, I’m sorry to disappoint you.😕 I’m very disappointed too…I’m not going to Canada now…hurt my back and I have to go someplace and just rest for 2 weeks minimum. Hopefully later….Canada.
Your photos are gorgeous.
We were in Glacier last year and we drove from the West to the East and shortly after we passed through Essex on our way to Two Medicine US-2 was closed due to the wildfires. We had our pick of sites at Two Medicine because of the fires – most campers there are hikers and the majority of trails were closed because of nearby fires.
The Canadian Rockies are absolutely stunning.
Hi Marsha, wow, you had good timing! I haven’t gotten to Two Medicine and don’t know if I will make it now due to this injury. Will blog about it soon…
Love how you see/feel nature.
Thank you Nina. Maybe you see/feel it in a similar way?
Once again, Micky, you have hit the ball out of the park with your beautiful pictures and descriptions of what you see!! Am hoping to leave here on the 30th…my feet are itching big time.
Hi Pat (Freespirit),
Thank you, but words just don’t express this. I wish wish wish they somehow could.
Oh you are almost out the door! I’m so excited for you girl!
Gosh Mickie, what a great post! Your photos are lovely, and really capture the spirit of the place. I’ve always wanted to go there since my brother (as an Explorer Boy Scout) did a 10 day backpacking trip from Glacier NP to Waterton in Canada back in the 1960’s….and with the girl scouts I made a “sit-upon”……No fair!!! At any rate, now that we live in the PNW, the chances of actually getting there have gone up considerably!
Loved the last photo of Joy and Shiloh snuggling…I hope they left room for you!
Oh my gosh Sharon, I made a sit-upon in Girl Scouts too! 😂
Backing in Glacier in the 60’s….Wowowowow! That’s a memory he will never forget!
Oh yes, please do come here. It’s WELL worth it! A truly amazing place.
The glaciers may go away but they will return, you and I will not be here to see it however. Can ‘we’ stop the process – No. Did ‘we’ cause it – NO.
There have been many ice ages during the last 2.6 million years but when people talk about the Ice Age, they are often referring to the most recent glacial period, which peaked about 21,000 years ago and ended about 11,500 years ago. A hundred years or a thousand are virtually meaningless when compared to the length of climate cycles.
Hi Ed. Well we disagree. 😏 That’s a heck of a lot of melting for 100 years. But…this isn’t the place for ‘those’ kind of discussions. 🙃
Hello i have not commented in a while but i do read your blog every day, I also read rvsue’s blog. I just got back from vacation and had not read yours or rvsue’s blog since 6/3/2016 but for some reason i was not able the access Rvsue’s blog. Did something happen that i might have missed during this time frame?
As far as I know this problem of accessing RVSue’s blog has just started today. I’m guessing that the internet service provider for her blog is having problems. But, that’s only a guess. If that’s the problem, they’ll probably fix it in the next 24 hours.
Thanks, so much. I’ll try later and tomorrow.
RVSue is having problems with her webhost. She’s been working to get it resolved but sometimes these things take some time. Keep trying her blog.
Micky, thanks for letting us use your blog to pass along info on RVSue.
Hi Able, not that I know of. But I’ve been fairly much out of contact with no connection where I’ve been camped. I see that I have received Sues blogs…not sure how many, but im behind reading them right now. Notice of them comes in my email.
I’m glad you are enjoying this blog, and I hope you had a wonderful vacation!
Oh wow, thank you Reine and Larry for that info about RVSue. I didn’t know, since I’ve been out, very literally, in the boonies!
What a beautiful world we have the privilege of living in….so wonderful to be able to see it thru your eyes and thoughts. Keep enjoying it all my dear friend. Love the pictures.
Thanks My Sweet Marie, and I’m glad you are enjoying it all through my eyes and thoughts. I love sharing it.