RVentures with Doug and Chris: A Glimpse of Glacier National Park

I stood there in awe ... just trying to take it all in. As we walked from our campsite to the shoreline of Lake McDonald, the endless beauty of Glacier National Park lie before us.

Patches of snow still on the mountains ...

Deep blue water flowing on for miles ...

Cascading hillsides of green pine trees ...

From near our campsite at Fish Creek, I was getting my first glimpse of Glacier National Park.

Doug was first captivated by Glacier's beauty nine years ago when he did a bike tour around the park with a few of his biking buddies. From the moment he got back home, his only traveling ''bucket list'' item was to take me there for more camping and hiking. Earlier this year, we decided that Glacier would be our main travel destination for this summer. With the arrival of Covid, however, we were a little unsure if this trip would be possible. The eastern border of Glacier lies next to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, so entrances and services on that half of the park are currently closed due to the pandemic. Only one of the seven campgrounds in Glacier is open, limiting our options for camping in the park. But, as luck would have it, we were able to snag a spot for four nights in Glacier's Fish Creek Campground ... And so, we got ready for a ...

Glimpse of Glacier National Park!

When we arrived at the park, we quickly settled into our campsite and scoped out the area around us. We started on the trail near our campsite that led us along the shore of Lake McDonald. I got a little nervous when the path took us farther into the woods since we had no bear spray, and I was sure that Doug would be able to out run me if necessary! Doug just rolled his eyes slightly as we turned back, and probably muttered to himself how highly unlikely it would be that we would be lucky enough to even catch a glimpse of a grizzly.

Like many first time tourists, we were eager to see it all. Since Going to the Sun Road is the only road accessible for anyone visiting the park right now, it was the one we needed to take in order to access any of the open hiking trails. There is, however, a vehicle length restriction of 21 feet for this road which is exactly what the Baby Beest measures. We had our fingers crossed that the park rangers wouldn't stop us for being too long because ... We were ''Going to the Sun''!

If that deer isn't concerned
about the steep drop off at the
side of road, Baby Beest isn't
going to be concerned either!

The Going to the Sun Road starts out fairly flat as it runs along the Lake McDonald shoreline. The Avalanche Creek area is the point at which the road starts its famous twists and turns and begins to gain some serious elevation. I am happy to say that we made it up to Logan Pass which is the location of the Highline Trailhead, the one trail that Doug had his heart set on hiking.

But alas, we found out once we got there that we are going to have to settle for a glimpse of the Highline Trail. In late July it was still closed to hiking since there was still snow on the trail. I suppose that I should be disappointed, but when Doug pointed out that the trail runs alongside the mountain ridge on the right side of this picture below, I was secretly happy to save that RVenture for another time!

We did try our snow climbing skills on the Hidden Lake Overlook trail that starts out behind the Logan Pass Visitor Center. This was challenging enough for me, so I am glad that I didn't have to use these snow climbing skills on a higher, narrower trail like the Highline. There were also a lot of people out on this wide trail, so we are both thinking that social distancing would get to be a bit more difficult as the trail narrows.

On the way back down, we found a scenic parking spot on the side of the road.

I will cook dinner any time when the view out of my kitchen window looks like this!

We watched the sun disappear behind a distant mountaintops and quickly started back down in order to stay well ahead of the hundreds of other sunset spectators.

While it is only 32 miles from our campground to Logan's Pass, it took us almost an hour and fifteen minutes to make the trip each way. Since our hiking options were somewhat limited up there with the snow and road closures, we decided to get a glimpse of the trails closer to our campsite.

Howe Lake Trail

Getting there is half the fun! We were told to ''just follow this gravel road up about six miles to the trailhead'' ... the ranger forgot to add the fact that this road was a bit rough, steep, narrow and twisty at times! Doug kept Baby Beest on the road while I prayed that we wouldn't meet another big vehicle like ours going the opposite direction.

Once we got there, it was a delightful 1.6 miles hike through a forest of wildflowers to a serene mountain lake.

Rocky Point Trail

Our favorite ''let's take a hike'' hike. We started out from our campsite and followed a loop through the forest and out to Rocky Point. On the way back the trail followed the lakeshore back to the camping area. Gorgeous lake and mountain views everywhere we looked!

McDonald Creek Trail

In order to find a parking spot, it is best to plan to arrive at the trailheads either early in the morning or around supper time. So one morning we decided to get up with the sun, drive to the trail head parking area, and enjoy our coffee overlooking McDonald Creek. We then hiked along the river and through beautiful pine forests until we got to the waterfall at the end of the trail. Doug was unsuccessful in his search for moose that we were told frequented this area, but it was nice to have a beautiful 8+ mile hike done and be back lounging in our hammock by 11 am.

Avalanche Lake Trail

This is a very popular trail, and even more so this year with so much of the park closed off. I knew that I would be pushing my luck to get Doug up early two days in a row, so we tried the late evening time frame for this hike. We arrived at the trail head around 5 pm and luckily snagged a spot that didn't leave Baby Beest's back end hanging out in the road. After eating dinner (during which time the area seemed to empty out more), we started our 2.3 mile out and back hike. There still were plenty of people on the trail, but for the most part, the trail was wide, so we didn't have to don our lovely masks very often. The path started out along a massive river gorge and led us through a pine forest where the evidence of avalanches dragging down huge pine trees was definitely visible.

There were rumors of a bear sighting as we approached the lake, but we were OK to have missed him and just enjoy the sheer beauty of Avalanche Lake and its distant waterfalls.

During our four days there, we experienced just a glimpse of Glacier National Park. But that is alright. A place as beautiful as Glacier is best enjoyed in small doses of ...