Hiking in Glacier’s Backcountry
July is blooming time for the yellow Glacier lily.
Visiting Glacier National Park in the summertime? Yep, it is just as busy as it sounds! With over 3 million visitors a year, Glacier is one of the most popular National Parks in the U.S. That means traffic lines, vehicle reservations, and full parking lots. Nevertheless, don’t let this get in your way of spending time in one of the wildest and most authentic parks of all.
Two Ocean Glacier
High up north in Montana lie these glacial wonderlands that inspire so many. Not surprisingly, Montana is known as “Big Sky” state or - my personal favorite - “The Land of Shining Mountains”. Established in 1910, the park was home to over 100 glaciers. Today, that amount has shrunk to roughly two dozen - and the glaciers keep getting smaller.
Family Time
My dearest cousin Meike!
We met up with my cousin Meike, who came all the way from Belgium to visit us! We picked her up at the train station in West-Glacier, where the Amtrak stops on its way from Seattle to Chicago. It was her first time visiting the U.S., and my first visitor from Belgium! Needless to say, I was really happy to have her with us on this trip.
Glacier Campgrounds
The first couple of nights, we camped at Two Medicine Lake and Apgar. Both campgrounds in the west are excellently run by the Park Service. We paid about $20 a night, and enjoyed the facilities that came with it. We watched bighorn sheep licking coals from the fire pits, swam in Lake McDonald, and waited for the Going-To-The-Sun Road to open up. Officially the scenic road’s latest opening, snowplough crews managed to complete the job on July 13th. The park gets snow almost year-round, and its mountain peaks are still snowcapped throughout summer.
How to get Backcounty Permits in Glacier
Longing for some peace and quiet, we decided it was time to put on our backpacks and escape the crowds and reservation systems… Just kidding: Camping in a national park requires planning and reservations, too! Not our strongest asset, but we made it work. :)
Working our way through the yellow Glacier lilies.
We headed to the backcountry office in Apgar village in the wee hours of the morning. Turns out that most camping permits were already gone, but we happily settled for the last remaining permits, made our way to the shuttle bus, and started the hike!
Moose antlers in the woods.
PS: If you are, just like us, pretty last-minute and in need of camping permits, you will want to get there early, too! Glacier’s backcountry office opens up at 7:30 AM, but it gets very busy during summer. Combined with the fact that you need a vehicle registration - which we did not have -, we got to the office at 5:30 AM… Only to find out that there were already 3 other hikers waiting in line! Speaking of dedication :-)
Itinerary of the hike
Day 1: Loop Trailhead - Granite Park (4.2 miles)
Followed the popular trail up to the beautiful Granite Chalet. No liquor license, alas, so no beers or any other drinks here. But you are rewarded with a million-dollar view and lots of friendly people.
Time to rest after our first day of hiking
The campground is just half a mile away, tucked away between the trees. There’s a stream and a pole to hang your food. Oh, and a very nice pit toilet.
A pit toilet with a view.
Day 2: Granite Park - Flattop Mountain (9.9 miles)
We hiked all the way back down, which was way easier than going up. Then we set out for the other side of the valley, following McDonald Creek and eventually crossing it to the other side. There’s a cool suspension bridge. We went up, slowly but surely, up the hill until we could no longer see nor hear the road. Thick brushes and thousands of wildflowers embraced us as we followed the trail.
Seeking shelter in our tents.
Eventually, beautiful waterfalls greeted us - along with swarms of mosquitos. Time for head nets, rain gear, and Deet spray! This campsite, too, has a pole, a nice privy, and nearby water sources.
Day 3: Flattop Mountain - Stony Indian Lake (14.5 miles)
Running away from the mosquito’s the next morning, we stopped for nothing or no one. We did notice, however, large amounts of bear scat… Could this mean something?
Around noon, we were admiring a young male elk, when all of a sudden, a bush on my right looked a little… hairy. I squinted my eyes - as I often do - to see what it was… And it was a Grizzly cub! First, we were complete in awe and in love with the playful, furry cub… But then it dawned on us: Where’s mom?? And at once, mama bear came out of the bushes and guided her cub safely away from us. A beautiful, intimate, and precious encounter.
The afternoon turned out to be pretty spicey: We encountered many snow patches, some snow bridges, and lots of bushwhacking. So, we sang and clapped our way through the dense bushes and ferns, to scare no bears or other animals. But in turn, we got scared when we smelled the scent of death… Right on the trail, there was a mountain goat carcass, half-eaten and decayed. After that, we clapped even more loudly and vigorously and rushed our way to Stony Indian Lake: A beautiful alpine lake, where we plunged in the icy cold water and ate dinner alongside lively mosquitos and ground squirrels.
Day 4: Stony Indian Lake - Fifty Mountains (8.2 miles)
An easy day back to Fifty Mountains Campground, which we passed the previous day. We took a nap in the fields full of Glacier Lilies and read some poetry. Meike spotted singing Western toads in the melting snow puddles.
North of the campsite, we passed the remains of an old backcountry patrol cabin. A peaceful day and night…
The hills are alive… ♫
… which turned into a heavy storm with thunder, lightning, and rain that same night. We got out of the tents to stake them deeper into the ground and looked up to the sky, shiveringly. We were in the hands of Thor now, nothing more we could do…
But we survived! And the creepy sound just outside of our tent? That was a deer passing by, licking up our pee. The deer here just love pee for its salt.
Thank you, Glacier, for a full and rich experience. If you have the chance, go out there! It's worth the trouble and the wait.
Thanks for reading!