On the Road: St. Mary at Glacier National Park

St. Mary is located on the east side of Glacier National Park. It’s a very small town with a few places to stay and eat and that’s about it. We “camped” at Johnson’s RV Park. NiceRV park for adults (not much to do for kids) located on a hillside overlooking St. Mary Lake, but the views are amazing. There is a small café on the premises which has the best homemade bread. Yum!

The entrance to the park is about 1 mile from town and the beginning of the Going to the Sun Road which winds across the Continental Divide at Logan Pass and the drops down into West Glacier. The road is 52 miles between the east and west sides of the park and has some of the most spectacular scenery accessible by car in the U.S.

On our first foray into the park, we stopped at the St. Mary’s Fall trailhead and hiked in about 2.5 miles to see St. Mary’s Falls and Virginia Falls. I just love waterfalls and I wasn’t disappointed. The water at the foot of the falls is this eerie green color from the glacial melt. Winston was a trooper – this was his second longest waterfall hike on this adventure.

On our second trip into the park, we actually did the whole drive over Going to the Sun Road. We passed Haystack Creek Falls which cascades down the mountainside right at the roadside, going under the road and continuing on. Next stop was Logan Pass Visitor’s Center where you can see many of the glaciers in the distance and meadows of wild flowers. We also saw our first marmot up close and personal and boy was he vocal! I had no idea they “talked.” We had a lovely picnic alongside the river and after lunch Winston went to dip his paws in the water.

Because Glacier National Park is so large and the geography is so diverse, I’ll have another post on the beautiful destination.