St. Mary, MT (Day 3)

Friday, September 13

We learned a useful piece of information while we camped at KOA East Glacier the other day — they rent rental cars! This is helpful because our RV is too big to drive the Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park which is the only thru-road through the park. Glacier NP does offers free shuttles, but we thought we’d enjoy our experience more if we had our own vehicle — especially with the kids. They’re not so good at the waiting game.

So, Andi and I woke up early Friday morning to drive our RV from the campsite at St. Mary’s back to KOA East Glacier to pick up the rental car we’d reserved. We toyed with the idea of riding one of our Rad Power Bikes to KOA and leaving it there locked up while we used the rental car, but decided it’d be safer to pack up the RV, drive it to KOA to pick up the car, and then bring the RV back to our campsite.

This is an example of one of the iconic shuttle busses that drive the Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park:

Once our RV was back at St. Mary’s campground, we ate breakfast and then loaded up the rental car with snacks, kid’s activities to keep Tory and Aden entertained in the car, and a picnic lunch for later. Then, we hit the pavement for the Going-To-The-Sun Road scenic drive. Andi purchased an audio tour on iTunes called “Going-To-The-Sun Road” by GyPSy Guide that told about the landmarks and history behind the creation of the roadway as we drove along it. It was interesting!

One of the first landmarks we came to on the Going-To-The-Sun Road was Jackson Glacier, one of 26 remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park. When the park was formed in 1910, there were over 100 glaciers and now there are only 26 left. That’s hard to believe! We learned that the glaciers are rapidly melting due to global warming and other factors which is a big problem for the plants and animals who live in these habitats.

A glacier might look like a section of snow and ice on a mountain from a distance, but it’s more than that. A glacier is a slow moving river of ice that carves the landscape over time. Both Tory and Aden were fascinated by this, and especially by the fact that scientists believe glaciers in the park will be gone by the year 2030. Tory will be 19-years-old then; Aden 17. The kids couldn’t believe that they might not have a chance to take their kids to Glacier National Park one day to see the very glacier they were standing before today. Afterward, Tory and Aden piled into the rental car and drew pictures of what they saw. As a parent, it was moving to see what an impact Jackson Glacier had on both of them.

As we traveled farther west on the Going-To-The-Sun Road, the weather became colder and more cloudy. It was 55 and partly sunny when we left and now 49 degrees with 55 mph wind gusts at Logan Pass. I’d really wanted to hike the Hidden Lake trail that took off from the Logan Pass Visitor Center, but there was no way we were doing that today. It was miserable outside!

The view from the top of the mountains were still incredible though.

We followed the Going-To-The-Sun Road all the way to Avalanche Creek on the west side of the park where we parked and then hiked the Trail of the Cedars loop. This was an easy 1 mile loop on raised boardwalk that weaved through massive cedar trees. Tory threw a fit because she was tired of walking and she was hungry. I gave her a snack-sized pack of Cheez-Its to tide her over until lunch and told her to “suck it up” for lack of better words. It was an easy one mile walk! And her poor attitude was ruining the experience for the rest of us.

After the trail loop, we walked back to the parking lot where we left our car and grabbed our picnic lunch. There was a clearing with picnic tables close to there, so we sat and ate: deli turkey, hummus, carrots, snap peas, crackers, sliced apples and grapes.

Tory and Aden were in much better spirits after lunch. We hopped back into our rented Saturn Vue and returned on the Going-To-The-Sun Road in the opposite direction from which we came. Driving from west to east provided a better view of the landmarks, Andi and I thought.

We stopped at Logan Pass Visitor Center on our way back to check it out and to use the restrooms. They were pit toilets outside the building and it was so cold and windy! Poor Aden had to go to the bathroom so badly, he barely made it in time with the long lines. Inside the visitor center wasn’t much better. It was packed inside (I think people were escaping the cold weather) and there wasn’t much to see. We left without even looking around.

As we continued on our drive east toward St. Mary, Andi thought he saw a bear from the road. We pulled over in a turn-out and got out of the car to look. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. Driving by in a car doesn’t do it justice; better to get out and stand beside it to see the view in all its glory.

No bear that we could see, so we hopped back into the car and continued our drive along the Going-To-The-Sun Road.

After we returned to the RV, Tory and I did school while Aden and Andi laid on the back bed and read books together. We were all so sleepy because we’d taken motion sickness pills earlier in the morning in preparation for the curvy scenic drive. I fell asleep for 30 minutes after Tory and I finished her school. The kids laid in bed and watched cartoons for a bit and Aden worked on his computer. I felt so much better when I woke up.

For dinner, we ate leftover sloppy joes with steamed cauliflower and broccoli and then hopped back in the car to take a sunset drive. We considered hiking down to St. Mary Falls, but it was so dang windy and cold. A few minutes into our hike, we thought better of it. This area of the park had been burned by a wildfire in recent years, so there was absolutely no wind protection.

It’d been a big day of driving and sightseeing. We returned to our RV at St. Mary Campground and piled onto Aden’s bed to watch an episode of Family Reunion on Netflix. Aden was asleep before the show was over, and Andi wasn’t far behind him. I read to Tory in her bed for a while before turning in myself.

Tomorrow, we plan to explore a new part of the park called Many Glacier.