Glacier National Park
Weekly Retrospective #4
Welcome to another weekly retrospective! Spoiler alert: this post contains a review of our two favorite trails we’ve completed during van life, and our second favorite drive. 👀
Welcome to Glacier NP 🌲
On Wednesday evening, we enjoyed a beautiful drive from Great Falls to the east side of Glacier National Park. I knitted and listened to a podcast on copywriting while Brian drove and listened to podcasts ranging from DeFi to survival in the wilderness, the sun setting on our left side behind red-rock walls and rolling grasslands.
We arrived at the Rising Sun campground just after sunset, fingers crossed for a camping spot. The odds were against us, as half of the campground had been cleared out after a bear incident. Based on past incidents, it seems a bear got too curious and ventured into an empty tent in search of food. Glacier is home to both grizzlies and black bears, both of which can be incredibly dangerous to encounter. And yet we, as humans, pose a greater risk to them. Most of the signage in Glacier pleads with campers to “save a bear” by storing food and odorous cosmetics responsibly because the park has to remove any bears that are caught scavenging for human food in tents or campsites. Today, grizzlies occupy just 2% of their historic range, most of which is in national parks.
Despite there being less camping spots, we managed to snag a spot in Rising Sun! We ended up staying there through Thursday so that I could focus on work—specifically the Wisereads newsletter. Brian spent some time exploring the campground, which is adjacent to the massive St. Mary Lake. After dinner, we went on a short walk to the lake to skip rocks and enjoy the last light of the evening.
We lucked out with getting a last minute reservation to the Many Glacier road on the east side for Friday, which granted us access to the Grinnell Glacier trailhead. I hiked this trail with a couple friends in 2019 and have since been dying to come back to Glacier to see it with Brian.
At first light on Friday, we tucked away our window shades and got ready for the 45 minute drive to the trailhead. Just outside the campground, traffic came to standstill as a mama black bear led her babies across the road to a patch of juicy huckleberries.
This was easily a highlight of the trip for me. There’s something magical about glimpsing wildlife in their natural habitat, where they’re free to roam as they please. Caught up in the moment, I snapped some blurry pictures on my iPhone rather than taking the time to set up my big camera. We watched as they stood up to gather berries and shortly disappeared into the forest.
I was on cloud nine as we started our hike towards Grinnell Glacier, a 10-mile out-and-back trek that many say is a must-do in the park, in addition to the Highline trail. The route takes hikers alongside Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine, offering stunning views of the Grinnell Lake below as you gain elevation.
The opaque teal of the lake is otherworldly, and I promise this is how it appears in person. The milky blue of the water is created by *glacial flour,* incredibly fine sediment that a glacier creates as it rubs against the rocks underneath. Glacial grinding produces boulders and larger particles too, but these aren’t suspended by the water that feeds into the nearby lakes and streams. The tiny particles of glacial flour scatter sunlight, particularly shorter blue and green wavelengths. You’ll see this distinctive tiffany blue in the streams and lakes of Glacier when the light hits just right, all the way west to Kalispell.
At the top, Brian treated himself with a dip in the iceberg-laden waters of the glacier while I snacked on some jerky, garnering some curious sniffs from ground squirrels.
On the way back down, we kept a quick pace and arrived back to the parking lot just in time for lunch. After I nursed a headache and my swollen fingers (dehydration is my greatest foe—I’m on the hunt for some packable electrolytes), we headed out to the St. Mary campground. I was happy to have a slow afternoon and evening in the van to work, rest, and cook a hot dinner. We wrapped up the night by finishing our watch of the LOTR trilogy.
Fun fact: only a couple of campgrounds in Glacier are first-come, first-served; the rest are reservable and book up months in advance. It was pretty wild that we found spots in both Rising Sun and St. Mary’s, which we attribute to the season coming to a close.
Going-to-the-Sun Road ☀️
We were up before the sun once again on Saturday, this time to tackle Glacier’s scenic drive through Logan Pass. Named Going-to-the-Sun, it runs east-west and is home to the park’s signature red jammer buses. At our own risk, we took our van on this windy road characterized by overhangs, tunnels, and tiny parking lots. We started from the east and drove west, which is arguably the less scenic direction. On a whim, so we flipped around at the western switchback to see it all again—going east. (This was also a hack to bypass the timed reservation system for the road coming from the west.) From there, it was all what I would call “money shots.”
Compared to the Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain, Going-to-the-Sun has worse infrastructure for vans, which aren’t technically allowed on the road if they’re over 21ft long. It’s also a mile lower in elevation, so the climates are less distinct along the drive. These details just barely make Going-to-the-Sun our 2nd favorite drive compared to Trail Ridge, but it’s a stunning drive nonetheless.
We parked on one of the many pullouts and made a quick breakfast before embarking on two short hikes from the Logan Pass visitor center. On our walk up to the trailhead, we came across this guy. Brian spotted the Bighorn Sheep first, briefly thinking it was a statue before it took its first step.
This guy broke the rule of maintaining two-bus lengths of distance between us. Doesn’t he know the rules?! We snapped a few pictures, making sure to leave him a wide path in the direction he was headed.
If you’re curious like I was, this dude would not win a fight against Glacier’s postcard icon: the mountain goat. The goats have been known to overtake the territory of sheep when they’re in competition over rocky terrain, thanks to their aggressive nature, so I was surprised we didn’t see any on our trip. Mountain goats are native to Glacier, but in the Tetons, they keep them at bay so that the local sheep population can thrive.
Our first hike of the day was just a quick jaunt on the first part of the Highline Trail, a 15 mile out-and-back route traveling just below the park’s peaks. The part we previewed was nestled up against a rock wall with a system of chains for hikers to hold. (We’re thinking that these are much more essential in inclement weather.)
The views on this hike were incredible. So incredible, in fact, I might try to convince Brian to come back another summer to do the entire hike and stay at the Granite Park Chalet, a backcountry hut that serves as a hiker hostel.
From there, we took a stroll on the Hidden Lake Overlook trail. It’s a well-maintained trail with a boardwalk and loads of people, but it was perfect to get in a bit more movement and some views before heading back to the van.
Having glimpsed the Hidden Lake, we headed back to the van for lunch and made the rest of the way to the west side of the park. Brian hit another cold plunge in Lake MacDonald while I worked, then we made camp in the Flathead National Forest near the Ryan Field private airstrip.
Winding Down Another Week 🍂
We enjoyed our pancakes and some focused work on Sunday before driving over to Kalispell’s Walmart parking lot for the night. Although it may sound a bit ratchet, our van becomes an oasis as soon as the window covers go up. (Cracker Barrel is another convenient and established place to stop in the city, which actually designates part of its parking lots to RVs and overnight rigs.)
Monday morning, we got to work at The Black Rifle Coffee Company shop, then made our way to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. We were greeted by a bonfire-orange and cotton-candy pink sunset at the border after stopping for a meal of short ribs, peas, and rice.
Thus far, Coeur d’Alene has shown itself off as a little gem on the water of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Here, we’ve enjoyed some working time at the public library with expansive views of green spaces and a cup of coffee at the local coffee company.
Although we wish we could stick around in Idaho a bit longer, our itinerary takes us onward! Here we come, Washington :)
What We’re Consuming
Quantum Computing Since Democritus by Scott Aaronson. Brian and one of his friends, a former coworker, started a book club for the two of them to discuss this challenging read. Following what we learned in a Huberman episode, Brian has been testing himself after every chapter to better remember what he learns. Funny, I think there’s actually a software for that…
The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. I’ve been listening to this inspirational read on Spotify, which follows the author on a month-long Alaskan hunt in the remote wilderness. He intertwines research and anecdote in a way that feels fresh and insightful. I’m now fully convinced that I need to seek more discomfort in my daily life.
Instant Pot spaghetti. Don’t knock it till you try it! Brown your meat on sauté mode before adding the sauce and at least two extra cups of water with the noodles. Noodles are best broken (😬) and crisscrossed under the sauce. Pressure cook for 8-12 minutes depending on your noodle cook time. Voilà, less dishes!
Learn Great Copywriting in 76 Minutes with Harry Dry. This episode is part of David Perell’s How I Write series, recommended to me by my boss. It’s directly applicable to a project of mine at work, but it’s also just an entertaining and insightful look into the most compelling ads we encounter as consumers.
Whole grass-fed milk. We’ve been going through about a gallon of milk every 3 days—at that rate, we’ll end up consuming 120 gallons per year. I’m just now learning that this is a fraction of what one cow might produce during a peak year! We both grew up drinking glasses of plain milk with meals, earning us lots of weird looks when we brought that habit to the college dining halls. Luckily, we found each other.
That’s all for now! Stay tuned for another recap on our van life adventures.
Try Liquid IV if you haven't. Super tasty electrolyte packets. Reasonably priced at Costco. Yeehaw