The weather was getting warmer and warmer throughout our time in Montana which was starting to make any longer hikes uncomfortable by the afternoon. Since we had heard so much about Whitefish Mountain we saw this as a good excuse to see what the mountain was all about.
When we arrived at the mountain, the clouds rolled in and we saw some sprinkles of rain before the sun returned and the heat turned up.
The kids wanted to try the alpine slide and summer tubing. The tubing was lots of fun and we were there early enough that there were no lineups. The alpine slide on the other hand, the kids and my husband had to wait over an hour and a half to come down. The staff did tell us that they are planning to add a second alpine slide to help alleviate the crowds. If this is something you do want to try, be sure to be there early and head straight up the hill for the alpine slide before doing anything else.
After waiting that long to be able to come down on the slide in the heat, the kids wanted to go somewhere cooler and maybe come back later to use our other slide tickets.
We loaded into the car and headed off to stock up on items we can’t get back home, but the heat had taken it’s toll on the kids so we went back to the campground to pick up our trailer and head over to check into the KOA West Glacier where we could have power to cool down the trailer for the kids.
West Glacier KOA is a gorgeous campground and is one of the nicest campgrounds we have ever stayed at. This is definitely a resort style campground with lots of activities, pool, cafe and restaurant on site. The campground is extremely well maintained and all of the staff were very friendly and helpful. This was a nice place to stay for the end of our vacation.
To read about everything we got up to on this trip to Glacier National Park check out the links below:
After having a nice quiet day to recover, it was time to get back to hiking.
I tend to wake up before anyone else when we are camping and I enjoy the peacefulness before the campground wakes up. I used this morning as a chance to head down to the lake and watch the sun rise since I was up about 6am. At some point my daughter woke up and came to join me down on the beach.
We hoped to be able to make the guided hike to Avalanche Lake in the morning. This is a very busy trail head as there are a number of trails that start from this parking lot. It can be tricky to find parking, so may be worth considering the park shuttle if you want to hike in this area. This is a 5.7 mile hike with a total elevation gain of 730 feet if you only go to the lake and turn around.
Luckily the hike left a few minutes late and we were able to catch up to them after finally finding a parking spot.
The first portion of this hike is along a boardwalk called the Trail of the Cedars. This is an accessible 0.8 mile trail that is part boardwalk and part paved path. It is a loop that is great for all ages and abilities with benches throughout for anyone who may need a rest. You could easily use a stroller on this path, or if you are in a wheelchair this is one trail that you could enjoy. The ranger stopped a couple of times for us to really take in the beauty of this rainforest and the size of the trees as it also gives a sense of this areas past.
Avalanche Canyon is the stop just before we turned onto the trail to Avalanche Lake. The colour of the water in this canyon is that stunning blue that doesn’t look real.
Then it was off up the trail to Avalanche Lake which started off steep and then became more of a gradual climb. Our ranger asked the kids to use their observation skills on the first climb, to see how many different coloured rocks they could observe. This was a great way to keep the kids moving and not realize how steep it was.
During the hike we passed an area where there had been a slide, saw massive boulders and enjoyed the hike. The nice part about this hike is that most of it is located within the trees so you don’t have to worry about the heat quite as much.
When we reached the lake, the kids thought it was a good time to have an early lunch so they could then wade in the water. There are lots of fallen rotting logs from a previous avalanche in this area. The beach area around the lake is quite large and so it was easy to find a spot to sit together and enjoy the view. There is no shade at the lake, so something to take into consideration when planning your day.
After some fun in the water, the kids asked if we could see where the trail lead that went around the lake. We started out on the trail and got up the one side when a family coming towards us warned us of a bear not far up ahead that did not appear to be shy of people. We decided that it wasn’t worth the risk and it was time to turn around and we would head back down to the car.
By the time we got back to the car it had gotten quite hot out, so we decided to go for a drive to keep the kids a bit cooler and see if we could find some ice cream.
Just outside the gates at West Glacier there is the West Glacier Cafe which has a good selection of ice cream and ice cream treats. A perfect spot to stop on a hot day.
The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out by the lake and cooling down as needed.
What is your favourite ice cream flavour? My kids were taking full advantage of any opportunity to have Huckleberry ice cream.
To see what other fun we got up to on our Trip to Glacier National Park check out the links below:
For the next 3 nights we were booked into Fish Creek Campground on the west side of the park. We had popped into the campground the day we drove the Going-To-The-Sun road to see if they had any sites available that would keep us in one site for our entire time there. Well, luck was on our side as we were able to obtain a better site than we had originally booked and for all 3 nights.
We camped in Loop C which we would highly recommend if you camp here. There are no hookups and generators are not permitted in this loop. The reason we like this loop is that the sites are quite large and some of them even back onto Lake McDonald. Our Site was one of those sites that backed onto the lake. While the site doesn’t open up right onto the lake, there is no one behind you and it is a very short walk down through the trees to be on the beach. This is especially nice when your children decide to wake up early in the morning since you can take them down there for a nice walk or to throw rocks.
Or even an early dip! We did go for a nice swim later in the afternoon as well when the air had warmed up considerably more.
We decided today would be a good day to take it easy so we didn’t overdo the hiking with the kids. We spent some time playing board games and walking around the campground in the morning.
When the kids started to get a bit antsy we headed over to the visitor centre in West Glacier to see what they would recommend for hikes with the kids or anything we maybe weren’t aware of. We also used this time as a chance to go for a drive and get a better lay of the land and a sense of how long it would take to get to trail heads from the campground.
A fun stop is Apgar Village where there is a nature centre. This is a log home nestled in the trees, with interactive hands on exhibits about the park. This a great place to drop in on a warm day as it is located in the shade. It is a great place to learn about the park and the wildlife you may possibly encounter. The rangers here had a wealth of knowledge and information to share with us and we had a great time chatting with them about the changes they have seen over the years in the park. There are scheduled ranger led talks in front of this building throughout the summer.
After dinner was the perfect time to go and check out McDonald Lake Lodge. The kids thought it was a neat lodge with the log beams, and even more exciting was the fact that the Red Jammers are parked here at night. They also enjoyed checking out the gift shop and seeing if there were any items they wanted to use their spending money on.
We finished off the night with a special treat at Eddie’s Cafe in Apgar Village. You can sit out on the patio and enjoy watching the people go by while watching the lake. A slice of Huckleberry Peach Pie, an order of Huckleberry Cobbler and a slice of Chocolate Overload Torte were what were ordered. My husband and the kids had dessert and shared bites of each. The servings were quite large, and I was surprised the kids finished theres. My youngest said the Peach Huckleberry pie was the best and delicious.
When you travel with kids, do you build in a rest/quiet day? Do you plan out your trips in advance or just roll with it?
If you missed the previous posts about Glacier National Park, you can find them here:
When you ask our kids what was their favourite part of our trip to Glacier National Park, they will tell you it was our hike to Iceberg Lake. This was a great accomplishment for them and they were pretty proud of themselves for having completed it. This was a 12 mile hike with an elevations gain of 1364 ft.
We left the camp site early in the morning to ensure we would make it to the trail head with plenty of time. This trail is located in the Many Glaciers area of the park. The park was so peaceful on our drive over. We lucked out and saw a fox wandering down the road during our drive. The views were lovely, but be prepared the road is a little rough in this portion of the park.
We chose to join the Ranger led hike up to the lake due to the frequency of bear sightings in the area and we also thought it would be a great way to learn more about the park. The meeting location for the hike was in front of the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, as the trail is located behind the cabins. We were the only family joining the ranger led hike with kids so we did discuss it with the ranger before leaving and we were told we were more than welcome to join in. Our concern was if if your children would be able to keep up with the group. Our kids more than kept up throughout the hike.
Our ranger Diane went through how the hike would work, and anything we needed to be aware of before heading out. As well she wanted to make sure everyone had sufficient water for the hike.
The hike starts out with a fairly steep climb, but then levels out a bit more and the rest of the hike isn’t too bad even though it is a steady climb. Our ranger always seemed to know when everyone would need a break for a few minutes and would stop to tell us some facts about the area we were hiking through.
We did take a longer break near the halfway mark at Ptarmigan falls which is in a lovely wooded spot with some great rocks for sitting on. The break was long enough for a snack and for everyone to be able to run up to the washroom if needed. There is a pit toilet here.
Shortly after this break we hiked back into the opening and the views really opened up. Walking along a cliff edge there were some great views and we could get a sense of where we were heading to.
When we were nearly there the trail was loaded with wild flowers on either side and a small gorgeous blue lake . It was beautiful and a nice surprise.
Iceberg lake did not disappoint and was a great spot to sit and enjoy our lunch. During our lunch we even had the chance to see a chunk of ice and snow fall into the water, creating waves. Some people chose to jump in for a swim, but this is glacial water so extremely cold. There is a pit toilet not far from the lake, for those who may need it before heading back down. The colour of the water in Iceberg Lake is actually that colour, there has been no editing done on these photos. It really is something else.
The day was starting to warm up considerably so we figured we better get going as we wanted to make sure the water we had left would last us all of the way down.
To keep the kids motivated and also to ensure we didn’t startle a bear, the kids and I sang our way down the mountain. I may have also had a secret stash of M&M’s to sneak the kids one every once in a while.
The kids did well and were pretty proud of themselves when we completed the hike. There was a small amount of whining towards the very end, but I think we were all feeling it at that point, since it was a hot day.
The general store at the trail head serves up great soft serve ice cream, so the kids were rewarded with a big cup of it each. That seemed to energize our two completely. After they finished they wanted to race to the car, and with their energy, no one would have known they had just hiked 12 miles.
One can’t drive through the Many Glaciers area without stopping on the side of the road for at least a couple pictures of the mountains.
We headed over to the St Mary visitor centre to pick up our trailer where we had dropped it for the day before making the drive over to West Glacier. As trailers cannot be taken on the Going-To-The-Sun Road, we took the long way around the bottom of the park along highway 2. This is a very scenic route, where there were a number of picnic areas. Driving along highway 2 around the park takes approximately 2 hours.
We were booked into Fish Creek on the west side of the park for the next couple of nights. Will discuss the campground in detail on the next post as we arrived quite late this night.
Have you hiked to Iceberg Lake? Any favourite memories?
If you missed any of our previous posts from our trip to Glacier National Park you can find them here:
When driving the Going-To-The-Sun Road you want to head out early for great light and views without the crowds. The parking lot at Logan’s Pass fills up very early. If it’s full on your drive over in the morning, try to aim for 5pm or later on the way back over and you will probably be able to find a spot. Plan for a full day to explore the road as there are hikes all along the route as well as pull offs and some picnic spots near the bottom on the West side.
There are lots of pull offs along the road to stop and take in the views which we appreciated. The road is narrow and winding so you are not able to take trailers or vehicles that are wider than 8ft or longer than 21ft. If you have a truck where you can fold in mirrors you will find that at certain points you will have to fold them in when passing vehicles going in the other direction.
Once on the other side of the park our first stop was Sacred Dancing Cascade which is a pull off with a very short boardwalk/path to see the falls.
We took being on the West side of the park as an opportunity to stock up on a few grocery items and drove over to Kalispell as we knew we were going to be camping on the West side later in the week and would have time to explore this side of the park.
After a picnic lunch of grocery pick up we started making our way back up over Going-to-The-Sun Road. We had noted a few spots we wanted to stop on the drive over.
There are lots of waterfalls all along the road which are pretty neat to see. Note how low the barriers are along the road, which meant our oldest was too nervous to get out and look at some of the pull offs.
When we reached Logan’s Pass some of the parking spots were starting to open up so we lucked out. Since the sun doesn’t set until quite late we decided we would take the hike to Hidden Lake. This hike is for a large part a boardwalk and stairs to protect the surrounding landscape. The hike is 3 miles with an elevation gain of 500 feet. The trail is fully exposed so, this is best done early morning or early evening and make sure to have water with you.
Watch for mountain goats along this trail as this is their habitat and they will stroll right across the path. Make sure to give them as much room as possible when you see them coming as they are wild animals. We also saw California ground squirrels and a marmot.
Our youngest loved spotting all of the wildflowers along the trail.
This is a beautiful trail and the views are stunning the entire way. We couldn’t believe that we were here and that this was real.
When you reach Hidden Lake there is a viewing platform and this tends to be a busier spot on the trail. The trail continues on if you wish to do more hiking. When we were there, people coming from that portion of the trail warned of bears, so we decided that was as far as we would go.
Once we got back to the parking lot the visitor centre at Logan’s Pass was closing up. Being that it was getting fairly late it was time to keep heading back to our camp site.
At this time of the evening the road was much quieter. We lucked out and saw a black bear on the side of the road on our drive back down. As always, keep your distance and leave the animals alone. There was a family in a vehicle in front of us on the road that were harassing this bear. I pulled out my zoom lens and took this photo from a distance.
Being that it was quiet, it was a great time to stop at the Jackson Glacier pull off so the kids could see the shrinking glacier and get a sense of how quickly glaciers are disappearing.
We then headed home to get a good night’s sleep as we had planned to join a full day ranger led hike the next day. This campground is very open and does get quite windy in the afternoon, early evening. This area of the park sustained a forest fire in 2003 and as such there aren’t any big trees yet. Some of the sites appeared to be a bit more private that others. These are small pull through sites with no hook ups.
If you are visiting the park in June, it is best to check the road conditions to find out if Going-to-the-Sun rd has opened yet. The road typically opens late June and remains open until Thanksgiving, this however is all weather dependent.
Have you driven the Going-to-the-Sun road? If you have driven this road, what were your favourite stops or hikes?
Don’t forget to come back each week for more details of our trip.
If you missed the previous posts, you can find them here:
The kids were up early and raring to go for our first full day in the park. We were hoping to get in a couple ranger guided hikes to waterfalls.
Since we were up so early it gave us a chance to take our time and pull off at the scenic lookouts on our way to our first hike.
The first hike we joined was the hike to Baring Falls. This is an easy child friendly hike that is 2 miles with a 400 ft elevation gain. This trail follows along the lake for a portion as well as through a burn site from a forest fire that happened in this area in 2003.
This would be a quick hike if you did this on your own, but with the ranger it was a couple hours due to stopping to tell us stories of the parks history. It was neat to hear about the huts and accommodations that had been located in this area and see the photos. Once we got to the falls then we were left to do our own thing and hike back at our own pace.
Since this hike was short enough we had time to head back to camp for lunch and to refill water bottles before we needed to be at the dock for our ranger led boat tour of St Mary’s Lake. One our way back to our campsite we lucked out and saw a young grizzly in the distance at Two Dog Flats. We pulled over, I put on my zoom lens and was able to capture a shot while the kids watched through their binoculars from their seats.
There are three ways to access St Mary’s Falls. You can take the boat tour of the lake which will cut off part of the hike, you can hike from the Baring Falls trail head or hike from the St Mary’s Fall trail head. The Baring Falls and St Mary’s Falls trailheads are located along the Going-to-The-Sun Road. If you choose the boat tour option you can join a ranger led hike to the falls and you will cover 3 miles with an elevation gain of 250 ft, making this a great option with young children. If you hike from the St Mary Falls trail head , the hike is 5.2 miles with a total elevation gain of 700 feet.
During the boat tour of the lake, the ranger told us stories and information about the park and the surrounding area, as well as answering any questions anyone had about the park. There is the option to sit outside at the rear of the boat or inside the boat.
Throughout the hike you travel through burn site and see varying landscape. Part of the trail is along a cliff over the lake. We had a great ranger for this hike who really engaged the kids and kept it interesting.
At the waterfalls, we were given a bit of time to sit and have a snack and look around. There were some families who had hiked in on their own that were enjoying swimming in the water at the falls.
On the hike back to the boat, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for wildlife. We stopped and watched a moose off in the distance for a bit with our binoculars. He was swimming so it was neat for the kids to see.
Have you done either of these hikes? What wildlife did you encounter?
Don’t forget to come back later this week for more of our trip to Glacier.
If you missed the first post about our trip to Glacier National Park you can find it here:
Glacier National Park is situated in Northwest Montana in the Rocky Mountains. The park has a number of entrances, but we chose to start our vacation off on the East side of the park as it is the closest to our home.
The east entrance is located in the village of St Mary which is just over 3 hours from Calgary.
We crossed the border at the Piegan-Carway Port. As it is a small port, be prepared to wait in a line up during busy summer months.
We had been a little late at trying to book a campsite within the National Park so our first night we camped at KOA St Mary. This campground is not very well maintained, with sites overgrown and lots of Cow Parsnip throughout the sites (beware with little ones as it can cause nasty burns on your skin). It is completely open with no privacy between sites. One thing to be aware of at this location is that the wind whips up in the afternoon so make sure to stow away any loose items before heading out for the day.
St Mary KOA is situated on a lake so can be a nice spot to cool off in the morning or evening.
Being that we couldn’t bring fresh food across the border, we had to pick up groceries after checking in at the campground. The staff at the KOA told us the closest grocery store was Browning. Browning is about 45 minutes from the KOA and with road construction in the area it took us longer.
We found out on our way back that there is a small grocer right in St Mary outside the park gate which had more fresh options than the store did in Browning. These are small grocers so you can pick up your basics, but don’t expect anything fancy. It was sufficient to get what we needed to make meals while on this side of the park.
Our first stop with any National Park is always to the visitor centre to get the lay of the land, pick up maps and chat with the rangers to get a sense of must do hikes. We also like to pick up a copy of the schedule of activities. In Glacier National Park there are quite a number of ranger led hikes as well as kid geared activities.
Of course we had to grab a photo with the park sign. The nice thing about going in the evening is that the visitor centre tends to be quiet, giving us a chance to chat with rangers a bit longer and for the kids to collect their Junior Ranger Books to complete throughout our time in the park.
There are some great views from the St Mary visitor centre along with a number of paths and shorter hikes.
We arrived at the park early enough to find out about the children’s evening program at the campground just inside the park. The kids really wanted to attend. They had lots of fun learning about some of the wildlife we may encounter in the park.
Check back later this week to see what we got up to on our first day in the park.
Have you been to Glacier National Park? What were your favourite spots, hikes or memories?
To read about what else we did on our trip to Glacier, check out the links below:
We had a great night in Halifax and a great sleep at the hotel and actually ended up all sleeping in for the first time on our trip.
With sleeping it didn’t give us any time for some more exploring since we were meeting up with an old friend for brunch so we could catch up and meet his girlfriend. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Ardmore Tea Room on Quinpool Rd. It is a greasy spoon type of restaurant where the servings are a good size and the prices are right. We had a great visit and caught up on all of the most recent news.
Once breakfast was over we were headed back to Truro, but not without a stop at Darthmouth Crossings which everyone out east had been talking about. This is similar to any of the new shopping plazas being built full of “outlet” stores.
Once we were back in Truro we met up with Dave’s oldest sister for a walk in Victoria Park. We followed the path up to the waterfalls and on the way back stopped under the shade of a tree for a visit and to let our daughter stretch her legs some. There are quite a few trails in this park, so next time we are out we will have to explore more of them, since we didn’t really have time on this trip.
Check out what we got to on some of the other days of this trip:
We set aside a day and night on our trip to head into Halifax. We both love this city as it was somewhere we had both lived at some point.
We headed for the city shortly after breakfast to be able to enjoy the day wandering around and doing a little shopping. Our first stop was the Delta Barrington to see if we could check in early and park the vehicle. The room was ready early so we could off load our stuff before heading out by foot to explore the city. They definitely welcome families at this hotel and were quick to get a crib for our room. They also gave our daughter a little gift pack which consisted of a phthalate free dinosaur which was just the right size for her little hands and a little board book. She loved these gifts and we can’t keep the book out of her hands!
Once we were set we headed down to the waterfront for some lunch at Salty’s. This is one of the best waterfront restaurants for fish and chips and a great view. It was a busy spot out on the patio. The restaurant did not disappoint.
We wandered along the boardwalk running the length of the harbour area making our way to the Keith’s brewery.
We did not go for a tour on this trip, but instead turned up towards Spring Garden road to wander and maybe some shopping. The rain started to come down pretty hard as we were making our way up this road so we stopped to buy an umbrella so we could keep wandering. Once the rain lifted we ventured into The Halifax Public Gardens. These are lovely gardens that are open to the public during the day and are locked up at night. They are a great spot to enjoy a picnic lunch.
After wandering around downtown Halifax we made our way back to the hotel for our daughter to have a nap. She was not having any of that, so I thought it might be nice to take a drive out to Fisherman’s Cove since it is written about in all of the tourist information.
I have to say that it is not what it is cracked up to be, however there was a nice little beach area where little ones can splash about in the ocean water. Since it is a shallow cove the water isn’t too cold either. Our daughter had her first step in the ocean here.
After our little play in the water our daughter was sleepy so we loaded her in the car and headed back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel she was ready to go again and full of energy so we changed into dry clean clothes and figured we would grab some food down on the boardwalk. We grabbed a bite from one of the huts and sat at one of the picnic tables set up in the harbour. We got to see Theodore Tugboat up close as well. Maybe next time we are out there we will have to take her on a tour on Theodore.
What is your favourite thing to do in Halifax?
Check out what we got to on some of the other days of this trip:
Day 9 – Our first full day in Nova Scotia was set aside to visit with my sister-in-laws and their families as well as Dave’s grandmother and parents. It was a warm day so the little ones had fun playing in the kiddie pool and getting to know each other. It was great to catch up with everyone and this was their first time meeting our daughter.
After which we took some family photos and enjoyed a nice dinner.
Day 10 – Was a nice relaxing day. The kids played together in the morning and then after lunch Dave and I headed out to catch up with friends and their little ones for a bit. When our visit with friends was over we made our way over to Dave’s oldest sister’s place for a swim in the pool and some more visiting.
Day 11 – Dave’s parents took us out to Masstown Market for lunch. This is a large fruit and vegetable market as well as some grocery goods, deli counter and some household goods. They also serve lunches and ice cream. We had a wander around the market checking everything out before sitting down to a great lunch. I had a half a sandwich and salad. The salad was a spinach and strawberry salad which was fantastic. While Dave enjoyed another lobster roll.
To read about more of our trip check out the links below:
