West Glacier, MT

Sunday, September 15

Lots to do this morning! Today, we had to return the car we’d rented from KOA-East Glacier Campground by 7:00am and then we planned to move on to explore the west side of Glacier National Park. There’s camping all over Glacier, but we found it easiest to use St. Mary on the east side as our home base the past four days. This was partly because we had cell phone coverage at St. Mary’s Campground which allowed Andi to continue working as needed and also makes doing school with the kids easier, too.

After Andi and I dressed and packed up our campsite at St. Mary, we made the one mile drive to KOA East just outside the park boundary. Andi drove the RV while I followed behind in the rental car. Tory and Aden were still in bed - lucky ducks! While renting a car was a little more back and forth, Andi and I agreed that a car made our visit to Glacier National Park much more enjoyable. Without it, we were limited to visiting certain sections of the park, or we would have needed to use the free public shuttle to get around. Our KOA rental car was nothing fancy, but it did the job for what we wanted to accomplish.

By 7:30am, all four of us were in our RV on our way to West Glacier, Montana. Beside the Going-To-The-Sun Road, the only way from one side of Glacier National Park to the other is by going all the way around it. And since the Going-To-The-Sun Road restricts vehicles over 21 ft. long, this was the only route available to us.

On a Sunday morning, the road around the park was practically empty but — oh my goodness! — it was in terrible shape. Oof. It feels like an earthquake every time our RV rattles over bumps and pot-holes, so it was very slow-going 40-mile drive. As we drove through it, most of East Glacier looked like a run-down ghost town. Businesses are very seasonal in this part of Montana and it was apparent they’d already closed for winter.

We arrived at Apgar Campground on the west side of Glacier National Park around 9:30am. Andi drove through the campground to check it out. It was bigger and fuller than St. Mary Campground, and not as private. I selected a short hike called the John’s Lake Loop near Lake McDonald, so we drove to the trailhead and found a spot to park the RV.

Our morning hike was beautiful. We didn’t see another person on the trail (at least the first part of it), though we weren’t sure we were on the correct trail either. The signage was very confusing.

We hiked down to the lake and Aden practiced his yelling skills. His voice echoed off the mountain walls perfectly, which he thought was hilarious. Tory kept herself busy by using downed tree trunks as balance beams.

The trail led us across a river bridge to the other side of the roadway. We stopped to rest on some flat rocks by the water. It was beautiful! The sun was shining down and the wind stopped blowing for the first time in what felt like forever. It was perfect hiking weather.

We continued along the trail which eventually led us back to the RV. Warm sunshine! It felt amazing. We were all in great spirits.

After our hike, we drove the RV to Lake McDonald Lodge, parked, and then walked down to the lake. Lake McDonald is the largest lake inside Glacier National Park filling a valley formed by glacial erosion. The lodge was a busy place with guests wandering around the grounds. There’s also a boat tour that takes off from there, as well as kayak and fishing boat rentals. Tory and Aden kept themselves occupied by the lake shore skipping rocks and building a dam with rocks and stones. It didn’t take long before Aden was shin-deep in the lake — hiking boots and all.

It was awesome people watching down by the lake. Andi and I sat on a bench and watched our kids play and other park visitors going about their business for almost an hour. The air was warm (relatively speaking, in comparison to temperatures over the past week) and life was good.

Eventually, we returned to the RV in the Lake McDonald parking lot for lunch. Andi drove the RV to Apgar Campground and we found a day-use picnic spot overlooking the water for lunch.

Next, we decided to check out the Apgar Visitor Center to collect the kids’ Junior Ranger badges. We completed the activity booklets days ago, but hadn’t made it a point to get their badges until now. No matter how many times we do it, it’s always adorable listening to them repeat the Junior Ranger pledge.

There happened to be a Ranger Talk taking place outside the Apgar Visitor Center, so we ventured outside to listen to the presentation on changing weather seasons in Glacier National Park. Ranger Talks are a great way to learn facts and information about a national park. Tory really enjoys them, but they’re usually about 20 minutes too long for Aden’s attention span. So, he and I walked around the visitor center grounds while Andi and Tory listened to the remainder of the talk.

An older woman stopped Aden to admire his Junior Ranger vest, and he proudly modeled it for her. “Can I take your picture?” she asked. It always makes me smile when people pull out a giant iPad out of their purse to take a picture. She’s not the first person to do so! There must be at least five photos of Aden in his ranger vest floating around on random people’s cameras.

After the ranger talk, we walked to Apgar Village. The west side of Glacier is much more commercialized with gift shops, ice cream parlors, restaurants, etc. Honestly, it’s closer to what I expected Glacier National Park to be like though we enjoyed the quiet nature of the east side as well. Andi bought the kids ice cream cones from Eddie’s Cafe & Mercantile (vanilla for Aden, moose tracks for Tory and salted caramel for Andi), then we walked the long way back to our RV parked at Apgar Visitor Center.

We decided to spend the night at KOA-West Glacier instead of Apgar Campground inside the park. Apgar had zero cell service and KOA-West Glacier was suppose to be really nice. After dry camping the past four days, we also decided it’d be nice to plug into electricity for a night, take showers, and let the kids swim in the pool. That’s where we headed next.

Today was the final day the KOA-West Glacier pool and hot tub were open for the season, so after we found our campsite and got settled in, we headed over there to swim. Surprisingly, we had the pool to ourselves. The kids had fun jumping between the cool pool and warm hot tub while Andi and I relaxed in the hot tub with a cocktail (for him) and glass of wine (for me) and talked about where we’d like to travel next.

After the pool, the kids and I showered in a very nice private bathroom. Hands down, top 3 nicest/cleanest/newest bathroom facilities I’ve seen in all of our RV travels. It’s easy to see why this campground was highly rated!

Back at our camp, Andi grilled a steak which I used to make beef & broccoli for dinner. That’s one of our go-to meals because everyone in our family eats it and it’s really simple to make.

Andi and I decided we’d saw all that we wanted to see in Glacier National Park. It was time to move on, and now we’re excited to spend time in Montana’s Swan River Valley. I think it was a combination of the beautiful weather outdoors + the alcohol + the hot tub that had Andi and I both in unusually good moods. The four of us went for an evening stroll around the campground and stopped in the KOA gift shop to look around. Aden begged for a toy bow & arrow that also came with a plastic knife and Tory asked for a make-up kit. The employee said everything was 50% off because it was the end of the season, so Andi and I said “sure, why not!” The kids were thrilled.

Tomorrow, onto a new Montana adventure!