Western National Park Trip: Part 5 (August 2025)

Day 10

This was another travel day. It took us about 8 hours to travel from Dickinson, North Dakota to Great Falls, Montana. There was some beautiful scenery along the way, but it was amazing to be driving on an interstate and have absolutely no traffic in either direction for several minutes at a time. We were both still not feeling well but I was able to get in 2 hours of exercise after we reached our motel in the late afternoon.

Day 11

We both woke up not feeling great but after a small breakfast we started our 2 1/2-hour drive to our 44th national park, Glacier National Park, in Montana. We saw mountains, glaciers, tunnels, waterfalls, lakes, and streams as we traveled the Going to the Sun Road on a cold (55 degrees), cloudy, and rainy day. We entered the park from the east side driving through St. Mary and stopped at the Logan Pass Visitor Center. Unfortunately, between our sickness and how busy the park was we were unable to accomplish our agenda for the day. We were planning on hiking the Trail of the Cedars (2.8 miles), Hidden Lake Overview (1.7 miles), and St. Mary Falls. But the parking lots for all three hikes were completely filled. In addition, we weren’t likely to have been able to complete more than one hike that day because of our illness. Instead, we enjoyed the amazing sights from the Going to the Sun Road and stopped at several pullouts to walk a short distance and see the views.

One of the most amazing sights on the Going to the Sun Road was watching the clouds swirl around the mountain tops and glaciers. It was a generally cloudy day with a few brief showers during the day.

We did have a couple of unscheduled stops that we enjoyed. We found ourselves going through a tunnel that looked intriguing, so we stopped at a pullout parking space and walked back into the tunnel and found an observation area.

Our next stop involved a stop at Logan’s Creek Bridge. The stone bridge was a scenic location to take pictures. Just down the road we stopped again to take pictures of a small waterfall on Logan’s Creek.

We ended our day by completing the drive through the Going to the Sun Road as we drove by Lake McDonald. We were tired and glad to get to our motel in Kalispell, WY with just a quick stop as we passed through West Glacier.

Lake McDonald

West Glacier Village

Day 12

This was another driving day. It was a long, boring trip from Kalispell, Wyoming to Burlington, Washington. There was some nice scenery but between how we were feeling and the 9-hour drive, we were very glad to make it to our motel for the night.