Montana Day 5: Lake McDonald - Going-To-The-Sun Road, Trail of the Cedars, and Avalanche Lake
Today was our last day in Glacier. (Sob!) We have had so much fun
on our first family vacation with Edmund. He has been a dream the entire trip
being so smiley despite his lack of sleep and loving his nature hikes. It’s fun
to see that he takes after his parents and has a love of the outdoors. Since we had
packed everything up the night before and we wanted to make sure we had plenty
of time at Lake McDonald, we headed out early down the Going-To-The-Sun Road.
good bye st. mary
Going-To-The-Sun
Road
Distance: 42 miles (one way)
Number of Times Our Stomachs Turned Upside Down: Too many to count
The Going-To-the-Sun Road is one of the highlights of Glacier
National Park. It is a road that winds through the mountains and is the only
road that travels through the heart of the park, allowing visitors to get from
the west side to the east side (and vise versa). The road affords some of the
best views of the park and has many stop offs to allow for visitors to take
pictures. Although we had gone about halfway up the road to go to Logan Pass,
we hadn’t made it farther than that bend and we were pretty excited to see what
was on the other side.
Mom taped some of the driving so that she could remember what it
was like to drive on the road and to give others a chance to see what it was
like. With steep jutting cliffs and waterfalls landing on the side of the road,
it was the most amazing road that either mom or dad have been on. The views
were spectacular with rocky cliffs falling into deep pine forests. There was a short rock barrier between the road and the edge, but it wasn’t big enough for our liking.
Dad made sure to stay far enough from the edge.
the view after logan pass
this road is amazingly constructed
waiting for the lead car
finally, a picture without edmund strapped on
Note: We would highly suggest you turn your volume way down for the videos since the video camera was outside of the moving car, which means lots of wind noise.
There was a section of road that they were doing construction on so the road was only one lane wide. They took turns letting each direction travel through the narrow construction area. We can't imagine the amount of work that went in to making this road and that it now takes to keep it driveable.
Once we approached Lake McDonald, the road lowered between the tree
tops and we were in a dense forest. We turned off of the road to head over to
the Trail of the Cedars for our early morning hike.
Trail of
the Cedars
Elevation Gain: Approximately 0
Distance: 0.7 miles
\The Trail of the Cedars was a lovely hike through an old cedar
forest. The trees were mammoth in size and held some of the largest trees that we had
ever seen. Because the mountains trap moist air from the Pacific, the trees are
able to thrive this far east. We walked through the shaded forest floor,
enjoying the streams that passed by and the forest floor that was carpeted with
moss and ferns. We broke off from the trail about half way through to hike the
trail up to Avalanche Lake.
trail of the cedars
these are some crazy tall trees
Avalanche
Lake
Elevation Gain: 505 feet
Distance: 5.8 miles (round trip)
The hike to Avalanche Lake was one of the nicer hikes that we took.
The trail starts at Avalanche Gorge where there is a very swift stream that cut
fantastic bowls and smoothed shapes in the rocks surrounding it. The hike was
nice and cool since the trees were large and shaded the trail nicely. There was
a portion where wind must have taken down a large number of trees which were
cut and pulled to the side of the trail.
avalanche gorge
trail to avalanche lake
The view of Avalanche Lake was nice, although Avalanche Lake
itself was not that impressive. It was a fairly shallow lake and was muddier in
color than some of the other lakes we saw. The lake is rimmed by steep cliffs
on three of the sides, including Bearhat Mountain and Mount Brown. Waterfalls
cascaded across the other side of the lake from the melting of snow off of the
Sperry Glacier. The sun was hot on the lake, but luckily the water was again frigid.
We enjoyed the view and then headed back down to finish the Trail of the
Cedars.
happy to be out of the carrier and hanging with dad
this water is TOO COLD!
view of avalanche lake
Mom would like to thank the large number of people on this trip
who told her how amazing she was and how impressed they were that she was hiking
up a mountain with an 11 month old on her back. He is one heavy lug and she
appreciated the encouragement.
After finishing the Trail of the Cedars, we headed over to the Lake McDonald area to get some lunch. We couldn’t believe how much busier it was than St. Mary or Many Glacier. There were a lot more places to lodge on this side of the park, making it almost impossible to find a parking spot. We luckily found one a bit of a ways out and walked towards the hotel to eat at Russell’s Fireside Dining Room.
dad and edmund at lake mcdonald lodge
the lodge lobby
back side of lake mcdonald lodge
beautiful lake mcdonald
After having a long lunch, we walked around the outside of the hotel and enjoyed the views of the lake. We walked along the stones and dipped our feet in, but we couldn’t keep them in for long without them becoming numb. After we had our fill of views of the lake, we headed back to the car and drove to Kalispell so that we could catch our 6:00 AM flight back to Ohio the next morning.
mom enjoying the cool water
dad enjoying the lake
We had the best time on this vacation with memories that will last
a lifetime. It was so much fun celebrating a wonderful wedding with friends and
getting to enjoy some of the most amazing beauty that our God has created. We
feel so blessed to have been able to take this time away and enjoy nature at its
finest with our family.
