Going-to-the-Sun Road In Glacier National Park
The most visited place in Glacier National park is 'Going-to-the-Sun' Road. It begins from Lake McDonald on the west side of the park and it ends at St.Mary Lake on the east side of the park. We can travel through this route in car, motor-bike, tour buses or bikes and you can see some of the best views of the Mountains, Glaciers , waterfalls by the road and you might also see some animals . The route has designated parking spaces, to do some small hikes or enjoy the beautiful scenaries. I visited the park three times, drove through the road multiple times and still I am enthusiastic about these view.
The highest elevation point on this road is Logan Pass visitor centre and from there you can hike to Hidden Lake or go for Highline trail, if we are lucky, we can see mountain goats, Big horn sheep and Grizzly bears. In each of my trip I have seen one of these animals near Logan Pass visitor center.
In our recent trip, on first day, we drove from Lake McDonald side of the road through the park during the sunset time. It was a beautiful sunset to watch over these mountain ranges and there were lot of waterfalls by the road. We stopped at multiple places and took couple of photos.
Glacier National park has been designated an International Dark sky Park. On the second day, we came to Logan Pass vistion centre from the St.Mary side of the road to take night photos. As it was cloudy we could only take few photos in the park .
On 3rd day, we stayed at St.Mary Lodge near the entrance of St.Mary visitor center, there are couple of restaurants and gas stations here. We had planned for a hike to Hidden lake at Logan pass visitor centre as we did this hike last year and we wanted to do it again, but due to Bear activity, the trail was closed. I was little disappointed but was able to captured the photos and video of Big horn sheep. And we got to see the sunset over the mountain from the Logan Pass it was a good view. While driving on 'Going-to-the-Sun' Road we also saw the black bear swimming in the lake, it was fun to watch and we were able to see it from safe distance through camera and binoculars.
On 4th day, we went to Two Medicine lake which was on the west side of the park and in return we came to the Glacier National Park , through 'Going-to-the-Sun' Road on the Lake McDonald side.
On 5th day, we were leaving the park, and we wanted to go through' Going-to-the-Sun' road again, and wanted to take photos of the Jackson Glacier and some waterfalls by the road. We were able to take the photo of the Jackson Glacier but the weather changed drastically so clouds and mist covered the mountains till Logan Pass visitor centre and after that, it was sunny in the park. Huh !! :)
“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” -William Shakespeare
