A Weekend in Glacier National Park

*Scroll to the bottom for the at-a-glance weekend rundown!

We spent a weekend at Flathead Lake in Montana for a family trip, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a couple nights at Glacier before we headed back home to the PNW. Like many national parks, it’s a mellow, nondescript drive out to the park until you get in the gates (cue Jurassic Park music). The landscape of this place is out of this world and is definitely at the top of my list of favorite national parks!

First off, I would highly recommend planning out your trip well in advance. If you can, get permits and campgrounds starting on March 15, during their initial release (check out backcountry camping info here). We decided to do the trip a little last minute and did a bunch of research to make sure we’d be able to get camping spots - and then weren’t able to at all. Basically, if you want to backpack, you have to be at a ranger station at 7AM two days before you want to hit the trail. For a multi-stop trip, you definitely will want to have a backup plan because the chances of getting all the walk-in spots you want are pretty slim. The ranger station opens at 7:30 and by 7 there is already a line - so get there early!

Since you have two days to kill before you start on your trek, you’ll want to have booked somewhere closeby to stay the first night so you can be at a campground in the park before 7AM to get a car camping spot for night number two. People start lining up before 7AM and the rangers come out at 7:30 to hand out the walk-in spots. If you’re not there early (and sometimes even if you are), you won’t be one of the lucky ones.

We were not lucky in either case. Since we had planned to spend most of our trip on the east side of the park, we headed in to Two Medicine Lake to talk to the rangers and figure out Plan C. The lake was beautiful and I would highly recommend it for sunrise if you’re lucky enough to get the campground. The rangers were super helpful and had a list of campgrounds along the east side, outside of the park. We picked a place called Chewing Blackbones which was only about a 30 minute drive from the Many Glacier entrance. It was a pretty basic campsite:  you can pay extra to be along the Saint Mary Lake, or a basic fee to be along some trees in a grassy field. They do have showers, but when we were there it looked like someone had potentially cleaned up a murder scene in the shower recently, so we were just happy to have closeby restrooms we could use and stayed dirty (you’re camping anyway, who needs showers??). Other than that, it was a fine place to sleep after a long day exploring the park. Cut Bank is also an option - it’s a primitive campground kind of in between Two Medicine and Many Glacier and seemed to be the only one that ever had space. However, the ranger warned that they don’t update their status as often as the other campgrounds, so if you do plan on sleeping there, have a backup plan as well.

Having spent a lot more time driving around than we’d anticipated, we powered into Many Glacier to do a hike before sunset. Since we know our hiking speed, we knew Iceberg Lake would be manageable in the amount of time that we had, but it didn’t make us feel very confident when we passed a ranger at the trailhead and he looked down at his watch incredulously.

Iceberg Lake is a beautiful hike. It is pretty tree-free, so bring sunscreen and a sunhat if you’re doing it in the summer! It starts out in the trees, crosses a small, rocky river (and waterfall), and then climbs out onto a ridgeline with a view of the valley all around you. We passed throngs of people heading down the trail as we were heading up and felt pretty good about our decision to hike it late in the day (and we had our headlamps packed just to be on the safe side). After about 3 miles you realize you’re looking at the big mountain area that hugs the lake, and the last 1.8 miles get exciting as you’re anticipating your destination. We passed a big grouse in a tree that scared both of us as we walked by just before we ducked back into the trees at the lake. At this point, we passed a couple who told us they were the last ones there - we’d have the whole lake to ourselves!

There’s a little bit of a fake out when you finally arrive at your destination. You’ll see signs pointing you further up the trail for the lake, but to your right you’ll notice a perfectly alpine-lake-colored alpine lake that will be very tempting to check out. However, this is a very fragile meadow and even though there are user trails marching out to a viewpoint, please stay on the trail to Iceberg Lake - it’s worth the wait!

A very short climb from here takes you to a sign pointing to pit toilets to the left and the lake to the right. We hung right and I literally stopped in my tracks and gasped when we saw it. It is actually breathtaking. Giant chunks of ice bobbed in the perfectly blue-green water and the light was shockingly bright reflecting off the surrounding mountain. As we stood there staring in awe, we noticed movement to our right and realized that off the trail a little ways were a mama and baby moose! We were a safe distance away, so we pulled out the zoom lens and snapped some shots of them grazing. Moose were something we had both hoped to see at the park and we couldn’t believe our luck at coming across some so soon into our first hike!

We spent much longer at the lake than we had meant to, but we’d also hiked in faster than we thought we would, so it evened out. I was intent on running through the freezing water to hop on one of the icebergs, but between the mosquitos and the really, literally freezing water, decided to save it for next time. We watched some ground squirrels scurrying around and took in the view before heading back toward the trailhead.

The sun was even lower in the valley than it had been on the way up, and the light was nothing short of spectacular. We spent most of the way back jogging because we stopped so often to marvel at everything, we realized trail running was pretty much the only way we’d get back before dark.

We both were carrying bear spray and I had on the bear bell to make sure we wouldn’t sneak up on any bears on the way back (especially since it was dusk, when animals are most active). Make sure you have both while you’re in the park -they are definitely necessary here! About a half mile from the trailhead, we heard a rustling in the bushes and stopped abruptly - there was a bear moving around in the trees, and a little too close for comfort. We backed up a bit and waited to see what it was doing and caught a glimpse of a cub, too! The bears were moving parallel to the trail toward a curve and we waited to see if they would cross the trail or stay in the woods. Basically, if you see animals on the trail, it’s just a waiting game - don’t ever try to pass them (especially if babies are involved!) since you can’t predict what they’re going to do. Eventually, they crossed the trail ahead of us, and the baby black bear stopped right in the middle to turn and look back at us for a moment before heading into the woods on the other side. Even though we had zero luck with the campsites, we were thrilled that we’d seen both a moose and some bears on our first hike in the park!

After our power hike, we stopped at the Many Glacier Hotel parking lot to take in the sunset. On the hill just north of the hotel, an adult grizzly and her two cubs were running around, so we grabbed the binoculars and watched them for the better part of an hour before heading out to our campsite.

The following morning, we passed through the town of Babb on our way in to Many Glacier. Stop there and get gas just so you can meet the local welcoming crew, two giant puppies that just run wild around the town and want to say hi to everyone! Before the park gates, the land is all for cow grazing, and there are cows hanging out on the hillsides and in the road everywhere - don’t get too excited when you see them - I kept thinking they were bears. Also on the road in, a giant bull moose was lumbering along in the grass so we pulled over to watch him for a while. Those things are BIG!

Our hike for the day was Grinnell Glacier, and even though we arrived early, the parking lot was nearly full. This is a pretty tough hike and there’s no tree cover, so make sure you have enough water and some protection from the sun!

We hopped on the trail and had literally taken maybe ten steps when someone ahead of us yelled, “Hey, there’s a bear!!” We paused and looked around to determine where we were in relation to it, and saw it a ways ahead of us, still in the trees. It was far enough away that it was safe to quickly head up the trail, but we paused a good distance away with the zoom lens and binoculars to watch the bear. We’re still not totally sure if it was a grizzly or a black bear - it was pretty small, but it had the telltale hump of the grizzly bear - and there were 3 cubs!! At one point, mom crossed to the other side of the trail and the cubs tried to climb up a tree together. One of them sat back on her haunches to chew on a flower and it was literally the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. We spent a good 30-40 minutes watching them before they wandered too far to catch with the binoculars.

The trail started out (when we finally started it) pretty mellow, meandering through the woods and past a couple lakes. There’s a dock at Swiftcurrent Lake (with a small side trail heading down to it), and another at Lake Josephine, which is also a pickup spot for the ferry. Past the second lake, there’s a fork in the trail to take you down to Grinnell Lake or up to Grinnell Glacier. Very differently from our hike the day before, this one was crowded with people heading up. Patience is a virtue on national park trails as you get a decent mix of regular, seasoned hikers who are very aware of trail etiquette and newbies who are out enjoying the views.

The trail meanders up once you pass the lakes, gaining elevation quickly. The views just get more and more spectacular the higher you go. There’s a giant waterfall a couple miles in, after which you’ll be just at the edge of the ridge, looking down on Grinnell Lake. We saw a marmot somewhere along this point and I nearly had a heart attack. They’re my favorite animal and I was very excited to see one up there.

Continuing up the ridgeline, you start to realize you’re getting closer and closer to Grinnell Peak. We crossed back into the trees (with a mom and baby mountain goat sighting), and then started up the final, steep push to the glacier. As soon as you crest the hill, the view is amazing. Don't forget to turn around to take in the view of all the lakes you just hiked past! The glacier itself was pretty much just a lake this late in the season, but no less impressive. I ran down to dip my feet in the freezing water right away and then we enjoyed some hard earned snacks. Pro tip: head down toward the toe of the glacier to avoid some of the crowds. Everyone plops down right at the end of the trail, and we had total solitude down at the other end.

On the way back down, the sun was out in full force, and even though we both had sun cover, we were dying from the heat. This hike is longer and takes a little while, so it’s definitely a good idea to start early in the cooler weather. When we got back to the dock at Lake Josephine, I definitely jumped in for a minute to cool off. It was freezing and SO refreshing!

We hopped back on the trail and were walking along the last mile, close to the turn for the first dock. I was midsentence when a moose lunged out of the woods to my left, literally five feet ahead of us on the trail. She scared me half to death, and my friend, looking down and apparently very engrossed in what I was saying, didn’t even notice her until I pointed and yelled “MOOSE!” She ambled down the trail ahead of us and we stopped to give her some space. There had been a trail crew that passed us a little earlier, and all of them had stopped at the dock to jump in the lake. When we saw the moose start heading for the dock, we watched all of them back up to the edge of the water, not really sure where to go since, you know, there was a giant moose blocking the whole trail. Everyone politely kept their distance, but I think she was spooked a little just by the amount of people waiting for her to move, and at the trail junction, she started running in a way that had us all scattering even from our safe viewing distance. It was pretty unnerving.

She then decided to stop twenty feet away in the middle of the trail, so we played the waiting game again while she decided what to do. Eventually she tramped down to the edge of the lake, got in, and started swimming across it! There was a small boat out in the middle that she was headed towards and I can’t even imagine how crazy it would be to look out from your boat and see a moose headed right for you. I didn’t know they were such good swimmers!

The last mile was uneventful, and we got back to the car and the JetBoil, where my absolute favorite Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai meal was waiting for us.

We decided to head down Going-to-the-Sun Road for sunset, stopping for another hike on the way. We took our time leaving Many Glacier and hopped on the road just past Saint Mary Lake. Less than a mile into the drive, there was a bear jam on the side of the road (everybody stops abruptly, because bears!), and we saw two grizzlies running around and playing on the hillside. We skirted through the jam and continued along the road, with an absolutely dazzling view of the lake the whole way.

If you do nothing else at Glacier, at least drive along this road. It really does have the best views, and if you can catch it at sunrise or sunset it’s somehow even better! We stopped at all the little pullouts and viewpoints we could (there are many) to check everything out. There were some informational signs explaining the previous size of glaciers compared to their size today, and showing that many aren’t even considered active anymore. Glacier National Park is slowly losing its namesake, and it’s heartbreaking to see it in person.

Our main stop on the road was Logan Pass for the Hidden Lake hike. I had planned on jumping in the lake, but the lake itself was closed due to salmon spawning and grizzly bear activity. The viewpoint was open, however, so we headed out to see the lake from afar.

The trail climbs up from the visitor center on a wooden boardwalk (and is so very picturesque). It crossed some marshy land and took us past a couple small waterfalls and what was left of a few big snowbanks. As we approached the viewpoint, we started seeing mountain goats everywhere! There was just one mountain goat kid but tons of adults, wandering around and hanging out in the shade. We watched a couple people approach them to take photographs as we were walking up, even though there are signs EVERYWHERE explaining why you should never approach wildlife. Please don’t do this, y’all! Get a telephoto lens and binoculars and enjoy them from a safe distance. It stresses the animals out and it’s not safe!

We didn’t see a single bear from the viewpoint even though the lake was apparently swarming with them (at least that’s what we assumed since they closed it). As we headed back to the visitor center in the beautiful fading light, however, we approached a group of people watching something in the distance. They pointed out a lone grizzly on the hill to the south who had been wandering around for some time. We stopped and watched him for a while before continuing on down Going-to-the-Sun Road for sunset. The light was spectacular across the mountains, and we hopped out again at the Lake McDonald general store to catch the last streaks of pink and orange clouds across the sky as the sun set.

As we were exiting the park though West Glacier, we were already talking about the next time we’d be back. It is definitely an incredible place, and there is SO much to explore. Overall, planning in advance is the better option, but it’s totally doable as a last minute trip as well. If you want to see tons of animals, head to the east side of the park! If you plan on checking out the northern region, including Waterton Lakes in Canada, make sure you know the rules for crossing the border on foot and bring your passport! And if you really just want to sit by an alpine lake and take in the view, just get out there!

At-A-Glance Weekend Rundown 

Day 1:  Two Medicine Lake (take a swim or kayak on the water), Iceberg Lake hike, sunset at Many Glacier Hotel/Swiftcurrent Lake, camping at Many Glacier Campground or outside the park.

Day 2:  Grinnell Glacier hike (with a pitstop at Grinnell Lake if you're so inclined), lunch in the park, drive west down Going-to-the-Sun Road stopping at all the interesting points along the way, Hidden Lake hike at Logan Pass, sunset at Lake McDonald.