Glacier National Park East Side Edition

 

We are currently hunkered down in the rig at our campsite right now as the weather on the east side of the park has been a bit extra. There’s a high wind warning in effect currently with 35-45 mph winds with gusts up to 70mph! Somehow we have a solid cell service so I figured I would share how we spent the second half of our day. 

We started the morning in West Glacier and after exhausting what we could see there headed on over to St. Mary’s and the east side of the park. We stopped in at the ranger station first thing as when we were chatting with the ranger during checking at our site last night he mentioned that there was a ban on any soft sided tents due to a grizzly having entered a campground on and ripping open a tent. He thought it was where we were camping so we wanted to get that sorted. Fortunately it was not where we were going to stay but a campsite about six miles up the way otherwise we would not have been allowed to camp even though our tent is on the roof because bears climb and a grizzly on its hind legs could absolutely access the tent if it so chose!

With that sorted we continued up the east side of Going the Sun Road to see what we could explore. I had hopes of hikes to falls and a view of a glacier….. instead we got pouring down rain sideways and a wall of white clouds. We did get a glimpse of a mama grizzly and her cubs as they scampered across the road a ways up from us. I would have preferred a better look at them but that was just not happening. After being thwarted by the weather and my less than ideal view of the bears I was in a bit of a funk so we decided to relocate to Many Glacier. 


Many Glacier was gorgeous. We stopped at the ranger station for a stamp in our book (I’m a national parks pass stamp book junkie) and stopped by the lodge. We grabbed some americanos and enjoyed the vistas before heading back to St. Mary’s to our campsite. 


The rain looks to hopefully be stopping in the next hour so we will be able to cook/eat dinner, set up the tent, and call it an early night. Tomorrow we are continuing our trek east into the Dakotas with a stop at Fort Union Trading Post before arriving at our campground in Buffalo Gap Grasslands which is just outside Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Looking to spend all day Monday exploring the park. 


Now for the pictures:


Grinnell Point in front of Many Glacier Lodge

Columbian Ground Squirrel 

Virginia Falls

Baring Falls


Sunrift Gorge

The roadway over the falls 


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