Glacier National Park: The Nation’s Tenth Spectacular Crown Jewel
covering one million acres and straddling the Continental Divide
Sunday, August 6th, 2023 ~ The day after visiting Waterton National Park and Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village in Canada, the tour continued.
On our way to Glacier National Park, we passed Chief Mountain, sacred to Indigenous First Nations. Some young men still do vision quests atop of the mountain.
After crossing we crossed the international border into Montana, we arrived at Glacier, which became a National Park in 1910, the country’s 10th. Joining with Waterton National Park to the north in Alberta, Canada, Glacier became part of the International Peace Park in 1932.
We learned there are 50 glaciers in the park, 25 named and 25 unnamed. Jackson Glacier is the only one visible from the road.
The surrounding landscape is gorgeous. Thankfully, the Canadian wildfires raging last August didn’t obscure the views.
We began our tour in the Many Glacier area.
The Many Glacier Hotel was built by the Great Northern Railroad and opened in 1914. According to our tour guide, you must have a reservation at the hotel to drive your car up the gravel road since parking is limited.
The hotel books a year in advance, as do most of the accommodations in Glacier National Park so plan ahead early. Standard rooms run $247-312 and deluxe rooms are $500-700.
One last look at the beautiful Many Glacier view from the hotel terrace, then it was time to board the bus to head to East Glacier.
There were stunning views everywhere we looked.
We stopped at the St. Mary Lodge and Resort in St. Mary Village for lunch at the Snowgoose Grille.
After a delicious bison quesadilla lunch, the tour company had a sweet surprise for us. Outside, the iconic Glacier red buses were waiting to take us on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway.
…to be continued.
Gorgeous! Glacier is at the top of my to-go list. Breathtaking!
Gorgeous views and I can't wait to hop on that cute bus and go up the highway to the sky....