Trip to Glacier 2025
Updated: Aug 19, 2025
Glacier Trip June 2025
Day 0 Friday
Flight
We woke up at 2:30 AM to get to the airport by 4. Even that early, the lines were the longest I’ve ever seen. With the excitement of the trip, Not a lot of sleep was had before or during the flight..
Day 1 was all about getting settled. Me, Julie, and Zack got there first, we went to the Airbnb and took an inventory of what we might need and then went back to the airport to pick up Ana. Important lesson was learned that the airport we flew into is Glacier International airport and NOT the Kalispell city airport, learned that one the hard way. After we picked up Ana we ate and then went grocery shopping. I think we all didn’t want to spend time in a Walmart so we kinda rushed through and ended up missing some things,
We had the best BBQ though! We went to Desoto BBQ, and had an AMAZING bbq meal. When you walked in the door the daylight was hitting the smoke just right.
A quick note on Huckleberry: Huckleberry is a phenomena out here. It's kind of hard to describe the taste, its like a more tart, yet sweeter blueberry, but also nothing like a blueberry, its one of those things you just have to try. And out here they find a way to put it on and in everything. The special note about huckleberries is that they cant be grown commercially, people have tried, but they only grow in mountainous environments and at the elevation there. so all the huckleberries harvested are picked by hand, from the wild. Peak huckleberry season is in august, so we didn't see any while we were out, but apparently the season causes quite the draw to the area. Huckleberries are also a key food for wildlife and specifically bears, infact: if a female bear doesn't eat enough huckleberries in the season, they're chances of having off spring is greatly diminished, it's something to do with the sugar the bears need. So while huckleberries are being harvested, there is a legitimate bear risk when doing so.
After this huckleberry cheescake infusion, We called it an early night because we were exhausted from the trip and wanted to wake up to see the sunrise the next day.
Day 1 Saturday
Morning at glacier
We woke up and got out the door at 4:45ish, raced to Fish Creek Campground, and got to see the sunrise across the water. It was a crisp morning, refreshing to some and cold to others. This lake is Lake McDonald, the largest lake in Glacier National Park, and a place we would return to frequently.
Once the sun broke through it got noticeably warmer. This was supposed to be the warmest day of the trip but honestly it never got too hot, the lack of humidity makes a huge difference.
After this sunrise we drove up the going to the sun road a bit, and stopped at a pull off for some photos with Stanton Mountain
After we had our fun here, we parked and found our way towards McDonald falls.
We didn't really know what to expect for this trail and kinda just hopped on it because it was there. But once we got to the falls, they were a sight to behold.
This water comes from a melting glacier many feet above, so this water is cold and is coming with a force!
Ran into some mule deer, one rounded the corner very quickly and snuck up on us a bit. The deer in the headlights look was real for both of us. This was one of our first encounters with wild life. You can tell when you do encounter wildlife that we are on their turf, because they don't particularly care you are there, and will walk the trails along side you.
The rest of the hike was just a loop around but we still saw some pretty cool sights along the way!
Went to Apgar and saw this beautiful site, we really just needed coffee, which was a lesson learned for the future. First time getting Montana Coffee Traders Coffee, and I can say for sure now that I'll be a customer of theirs moving forward!
Flathead Lake and dinner
We then headed back to the Airbnb. Some sunbathed, some fished, and I went out and got some more groceries that we missed yesterday. After the neccessary trail snacks (and togo coffee mugs) were acquired, We wanted to go check out flathead lake, as it’s the largest natural body of freshwater in the western US. So we drove 30 mins south to the lake, we just wanted somewhere to go so we checked out West shore state park. It was really more of a campground more than anything else, but there was still a good view of the lake from there. The thing that was most impressive was the level of seclusion of some of the campsites, some had a view like this from the spot!
After we went to the state park we wanted to find some restaurant that was on the lake, so we went to “the Raven” The vibes were pretty stellar there. I tried a lager from flathead brewing company, Julie had a huckleberry beer that was nice but I’m glad I didn’t get a whole one. It was a very subtle flavor. Interesting enough the server was a J1 student from Serbia, which was different to see in this part of the country.
By the time we got back we called it a day. We had another early morning ahead of us. The hard part about being here is that the days are SO long, So naturally I wanted to stay up. I was down on the dock at our Airbnb while Zack was fishing.
Day 2 Sunday
Avalanche Lake
A lot of our days started early, we woke up and drove to the park, We had seen the sunrise the day before, but Apgar was a little more accessible then where we were before, so to see the sunrise again from there was worth it, plus I didn’t necessarily want to start our hike in the dark, but we might have been fine.
After we saw this sunrise, we went up the going to the sun road up to the point where it was closed, which was at Avalanche Lake. The hike starts in a well groomed area, where it’s all wood planks to lift foot traffic off of the vegetation. Learned a good bit about the different trees, Cedar, Hemlock, Spruce, Larch, Maple, and cottonwood
This is Avalanche Creek, It seemed like a falls, but it was not. This is where the cedar trail splits off and the avalanche lake trail begins.
We kept stopping for photos, only to realize that there was much more to see!
We saw avalanche lake. This was the first time I started to utter the phrase “The view doesn’t get any worse” We stopped pretty early once we got to the lake and took photos, but the trail kept going on and it opened way up to the beauty that is Avalanche lake. This was a great time to get a snack in after hiking all that way.
After Avalanche here we went back to Apgar, where I got some coffee and Julie got some ice cream. The plan originally was to kayak on Lake McDonald but we were all exhausted from the hike so we just headed back to the Airbnb. Ana made some chicken Alfredo. After we were rested, we were itching to go somewhere so we went up to Whitefish to check that out.
Some quick commentary on Whitefish: This is a very expensive area, there appears to be an influx of Californians who move to the area, and it puts a bad taste in some of the Montanan's mouth. Mostly because the thought is that they are bringing their Californian ideals, designs, and culture to the area. I highlighted the "modern" architecture because this kind of new construction was popping up all over this area, and it sticks out as looking very different from the rest of the surrounding area.
We went to "Thirty Eight" a beer garden in the area. They had live music here, and most importantly beer! I got a lemon coconut huckleberry ice cream sandwich. Which the flavor combination was really good but the cookie was too hard for an ice cream sandwich. We played a card game (Egyptian ratscrew), where my competitive nature got the better of me(I won).
There was supposed to be a chance to see the northern lights. We went back and forth on whether or not to go up to lake McDonald to see them, but it was supposed to be cloudy up there, we were tired, and we didn’t want to be up there from 10pm-2am. We ended up just figuring we could see them from the Airbnb. I knew my old friend Drew was out here so I hit him up and he was going to try and see them with us as well, but he ended up leaving early.
We had a fire, made some s’mores, after the s’mores were made the girls went to bed and me Zack stayed up to try and see them, but it got to be about 12:30 and it was cloudy, so the odds weren’t in our favor.
Day 3 Monday
Bison and Flathead
After going going going the last few days, we took Monday to sleep in. “Sleep in” was still like 7
Made a nice breakfast and enjoyed it on the deck there.
We made a day out of going down to The CSKT Bison Range, which is 18,766 acres at the center of the Flathead Indian Reservation.
We saw some Bison and Antelope. Lots of birds. And SPECTACULAR views.
Some More views
I wanted to rent a boat and get out on the water on Flathead Lake. Unfortunately, it was a set time situation, so we did sort of rush out of the wild life refuge to get to where we were renting the boat. We had gotten a call saying that the weather had turned and they were seeing if we wanted to change our reservation. Really with the way our schedule was set up it wouldn’t have worked well to do another day, so I really wanted to do it. I also knew it was going to be cold, so I had told everyone to expect a cold day on the water. The issue was really rain and some white caps on the water. But it didn’t look that bad when we got there. They even upgraded us to a bigger boat because it would handle the waves a little better, which they were right. After some capitulating, we got out on the water and I put my boating knowledge to work. It was cool to go out and go past wild horse island, we saw a bunch of big horn sheep on the island scaling a rock face. There was an island called Cromwell island that had this massive mansion, most expensive property in Montana, 78 Million dollars for the property. Private island, supposedly it’s been abandoned since it was built. The water was kind of choppy so I could only go so fast, and I wanted to hit the wave dead on instead of letting them hit the side. So we went way out past wild horse island then went back around. Didn’t use all that much gas, when were in some protected waters I could let the throttle down a bit and we flew across the lake. That was a memory that will stick with me for a long time.
After we got off the boat, we back tracked. a bit to get some gas, picked up Julie, and drove back to the AirBnB. For dinner, Zack grilled some smash burgers that turned out phenomenal. The plan was to get up early and drive 3 hours to the other side of Glacier Park the next day, So the night before. we prepared some food and our gear for the long day to follow.
Day 4 Tuesday
Many Glacier/Grimmel
This was the best day of the trip. By far.
We were out of the house by 4:30. The drive was a little under 3 hours, the sun rise was cool to see, as we passed through Lewis and Clark National Forest. We also got a chance to see the prairie side of Montana as we had to go around the mountain range to get to where we were going.
As we approached the entrance to the Many Glacier area, The road turned into gravel. We made our way to park at the many glacier resort and started walking toward the trailhead for Grinnell trail.
The road past the resort was closed, we thought that just meant vehicle traffic, so we started walking that direction. As we made our way to the trail, we were met by a park ranger that looked more like a police officer then a ranger, and we found out that the area we were at was closed to all traffic, including hikers. Sure enough there was a sign that was very clear, but we didn’t see it. The ranger kinda kept creeping behind us till we made out way out of the closed area. We made our way around the resort and then up the trail.
There was initially a bit of a worry for bear, as we heard some noises that sounded like bears, we knew that this area was more likely for us to see wildlife. But after we saw a few hikers pass ahead of us, there was some peace of mind knowing there were other people on the trail making noise and hopefully keeping any wildlife clear.
Grinnell valley area is home all kinds of wildlife and wild flowers. It was by far the prettiest trail we did.
The trail comes to a fork where one path goes up to the glacier and the other goes down to the lake. It’s closed to go all the way up to the glacier, but we went up to the point where it was closed. The views were insane. And we had ourselves a little snack up at the top of the trail. Saw a little marmot eat some pasta that someone had left up there.
A note about Grinnell: Grinnell Glacier and Lake is named after George B. Grinnell, one of the notable people involved with founding Glacier National Park. He led many conservation efforts to protect wildlife in the area and noted the importance of keeping the glaciers here untouched.
We made our way down to the trail to the lake. While we were on the way to the lake there was this bee that kept following me and Ana. Also The trees were really spooky looking.
when we got to this bridge by hidden falls, the bridge was out. There were some logs down the river a bit that people were crossing. As we made our way across the logs, Ana fell in a bit initially.
We made it to the actual lake, and we all took a second, Zack tried his hand at fishing, I just went down the way and had a snack.
The girls got cold so we packed up and started heading back. I had a little too much confidence going across the logs, and tried to step on the same log that i stepped on crossing over, and when I did, the log went down and I got submerged up to my waste in the river. In the process of that unfolding I reached out and stabbed my hand on a branch somewhere, and was bleeding pretty heavily. after I got out of the river I managed to ring my socks out and empty the water from my shoes. It wasn’t super pleasant to squish the rest of the way, but if thats the worst thing that happened on the hike, I'm ok with that!
Everyone else saw that and choose to find a different route around. We bypassed the hidden falls, People were cold (I was wet and cold) and we had sandwiches in the car that we were thinking about so we just wanted to get back to the car.
While we were on the way back, it started to rain/freezing rain/snow/hail I’m not sure what it was, it was coming down like snow, felt more like freezing rain, but it was ice so Julie kept thinking it was hail. I was fortunate to have a rain coat, all though I didn’t really care as I was still wet from the waste down. It was uncomfortable but it was a really cool experience to see, and to hear it and the wind blow through the trees.
While we were on the way back, 2 moose found there way on to the trail, and Zack said he saw a baby moose near them, so we weren’t trying to get anywhere close to them. We made our way up and around to a different trail, but by the time we got up to that point in the trail, the moose had moved up towards that trail, so we backtracked and went back on the original trail, (while shouting and singing The Banana Boat Song to make as much noise as possible so that the moose wouldn’t come back that way)
Seeing the storm and the rain move through the mountains was really cool (and cold) and I’m very glad that we got to see that happen.
We got back to the car, out of the wet socks (should have brought a change of socks, lesson for next time) ate our sandwiches and food, and then we headed out of the park.
I had just mentioned that I was ok with not seeing a bear and was surprised that we didn’t. No sooner was that said that we saw some cars stopped ahead because there was a grizzly down by the river. This was the ideal way to see a Grizzly, and we can check that off the list now.
We made our way back a scenic way, and went through the south end of glacier.
There was a point that the road goes up as high as 5700 feet, and you could see the clouds whipping across the pavement which was pretty surreal
When we got back to the Airbnb we had some chicken skewers, beans, and cilantro lime rice. (not pictured because it disappeared as soon as it was ready)
Having the grill there was a god send, because it worked so well and made some great food.
We had a fire, and our new friend Jimmy came around. Jimmy was this white Labrador that was in the area that we are pretty sure was to protect a goat farm nearby. But at night this dog roamed around the neighborhood. He was definitely a smart dog, and honestly we felt better with having him around, and I’ll explain why later.
Ana was leaving the next day, which was a hard reminder that this trip was ending. While the three of us weren’t leaving until Thursday, planning to drop someone off means we were sort of limited in what we would do Wednesday
Day 5 Wednesday
Day on the Lake/Kalispell
After the day we had the day before, sleeping in again was nice. A big breakfast was made, and we hung out around the lake house. I inflated a kayak and went out on the lake. It was cool to get out on the water and see the island that was on the lake, I think I lost some air though because going out was much easier than going back. that thing did not want to move.
After I got cleaned up from that we headed out to Kalispell and went to Norms Soda Fountain, where they made old timey soda’s from syrup still. Drew met us there and we recanted our adventures to him. It was good to see him, and hopefully we see each other again soon.
We then checked out some of the shops around Kalispell, Dropped off Ana at the airport. And then the three of us headed back up to Apgar for one last view (and mad rush on the gift shop)
Back at the AirBnB, we burned through the rest of the firewood, after a dinner of whatever was left in the fridge (which turned into hotdogs and some sides).
This is such a silly story, but we had to take the trash out, and the way it was situated we had to take the trash way up this hill (and into the dark) just previously we had heard a noise, that noise got the attention of Jimmy, who just happen to be around us (we had fed him some hot dogs) It’s one of those situations where if a dog is alert to something, we probably should be to. But it was reassuring because Jimmy followed us up and back. It just felt a little safer with him around.
Day 6 Thursday
Departure
The morning we left was very somber, none of us wanted to leave. I had one last morning coffee on that deck, We packed our stuff up and cleaned the Airbnb as best we could. Honestly the flight back was probably the easiest part of travel though, the Kalispell airport is actually really nice, quick to get through, not crowded. Traveling home was relatively uneventful and we all are planning our next trip back to here or another national park!
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