Glacier National Park & Yellowstone National Park are two stops you’ll have to make whenever you’re in Montana.
Let’s break it down.
Glacier National Park
This park wasn’t even in the original plan to go and see, so because of bad timing on our part (we forgot to book a campground the first night of our arrival), we got to go to the national park.
You can also camp inside Glacier National Park, but do your research on campgrounds. It’s also important to note, you’re in bear country. I know I’ve mentioned this before in my post about backpacking, but I have no desire to run into a grizzly bear in Montana. I have a feeling they may be more rough around the edges than the ones in California.
Avalanche Lake
So because it was raining (Montana weather), our hiking outdoor adventure was cut a little shorter than normal.
You can take a shuttle, or drive, the Going to the Sun road. Which takes you all around the park and has stops at different places where you can do different hikes. We shuttled up to the closer drop off point, which takes you on two trail options: Trail of the Cedars and the Avalanche Lake Trail.
Both easy hikes, well maintained, and only slight elevation change. This is perfect if you’re wanting to stretch your legs before heading up to the longer hikes. It only took us about 2.5 hours, and this was including photographing a lot of the trail up and taking lots of pictures of the lake.
Yellowstone
AH! The crown jewel of the national parks.
If you only get the chance to see one national park in your lifetime, go here. Do not stop, pass go, and come here.
Although, I’ll have to come back. Turns out Yellowstone was on track to expect some early snow this year. On September 12th, it snowed. 2 feet.
So I didn’t get to see Old Faithful go off, I didn’t have gloves or a scarf so the wind chill and snow were quite cold, but- bison charged the road and if they weren’t wild I was close enough to one to pet it.
So all in all, it was successful. I’ll definitely go back. For now, enjoy seeing Yellowstone as a winter wonderland.
