Glacier National Park – Going to the Sun Road

We got up early to enjoy Apgar and be ready for our Red Bus Tour up the Going to the Sun Road to Logan Pass. The Red Buses were built just for this purpose and have been ferrying guests over Logan Pass since the 1930’s. They have been refurbished a couple times, but these are the original Red Buses.

I highlighted in yellow our route. The Going to the Sun Road was built to enjoy the natural beauty of the area, rather than to quickly get you over the pass. Note there is only one switchback on the entire road, though there are plenty of sharp curves.

After passing by MacDonald Lake, we quickly gained altitude. You can see here why it may be better to leave the driving to someone else so you can enjoy the scenery.

Several waterfalls splashed right onto the road next to us as we passed the Weeping Wall.

Haystack Falls cascades down the mountain and right under the road.

The Three Arches is just a beautiful piece of civil engineering.

You will definitely see wildlife. Here are some mountain goats grazing on the mountain. We also saw some bighorn sheep on the way up.

The vistas are so majestic and rugged it really takes your breath away. This photo looks back along the Highline Trail, which cuts right into the rock of the mountainside above the road.

The visitor’s center fills up pretty quickly, as Logan Pass also serves as the trailhead for many popular hikes. However, patience will pay off, and you can usually find a spot after cruising the parking lot a few times. Note that both the Canadian and USA flags fly here as this is an International Peace Park, with part of it extending into Canada.

The views up here are worth the drive.

This mountain goat seemed to enjoy daring any tourists to pass by her. I say her because she was grazing with her kids.

When it was time to go back down the mountain, I offered to drive. I think the strong consensus was to let the professional driver take us safely back down! 🙂

The drive down was just as spectacular as the drive up! We enjoyed the stops for photo opportunities both up and down the mountain.

We highly recommend taking a trip in a Red Bus. The drivers are knowledgeable and fun, and we enjoyed the company of people in our group.

We had one more destination in mind, however. We took highway 2 to the other side of the park. It’s also a beautiful drive, even though it was built to get you to the other side quickly and efficiently as possible. The railroad had been looking for the best route through the mountains, but it was an Indian guide who showed them Marias Pass, which crossed at only 5,200 feet in elevation. This was just what the railroad needed, and they soon connected West and East Glacier by rail. The road followed many years later. Until then, you had to load your automobile onto a rail car in order to cross the pass!

In East Glacier the railroad built another amazing lodge, the Glacier Park Lodge, originally called the Big Tree Lodge.

Guests would travel there by rail and would walk from the train station, which you can see in the distance, to the hotel. In fact, many guests still arrive by train today.

Entering the lodge you can understand why they named it the Big Tree Lodge. These trees in the lobby are not decorative. They are structural, supporting the entire weight of the lodge.

Even though the lobby is huge, it also feels very comfortable and inviting. As with most lodges, you can cozy up to the fireplace with a good book.

It’s fun to just wander through the lobby looking at the art and exhibits, such as this stuffed mountain goat.

We really enjoyed visiting the Glacier Lodge and plan to make a longer visit to the east side of Glacier National Park in the future. There is so much more to see, including the Many Glaciers area.

We felt very blessed to have been able to enjoy this area as long as we did, but July 4th was approaching and we had plans to be in Mount Rushmore for that, which we’ll share in our next post.

Al & Deb

Little Bighorn and Devils Tower (163)