The final stop on the Great American Road Trip was Glacier National Park. We stayed in a small ski resort hotel called Kandahar Lodge. The scenery was breathtaking! If we were skiers, I would totally try to find my way back there in the winter! M got a kick out of the fact that there was a ski room and a hot tub outside (Minnesota kids, right?!)
The only bad part about our hotel was that we picked the wrong side of Glacier National Park to stay on. Unfortunately a large portion of the Road to the Sun was closed due to wildfires in the area. That meant in order for us to get to the east side of the park, we had to drive over two hours AROUND the park. However, we made the best of it! The first morning, we stopped on the west side at the visitor’s center and got M and K’s Junior Ranger workbooks. Then they had the two hour drive to the other side to finish most, if not all of it!
Once we got to the east side (which took a little longer thanks to some road construction and free range cows who decided the road was a good place to be), we stopped at the St. Mary Lake Visitor’s Center and both kids were sworn in for the Glacier Junior Ranger badges. It was so adorable that one woman there started crying.
Then it was off onto the Road to the Sun! From the east side, we were able to get approximately 17 miles up the Road to the Sun to Logan’s Pass. The drive was so beautiful. K was in awe of the waterfalls and water trickling down the rocks. At the Logan’s Pass Visitor’s Center, a few of the trails were open still, and we attempted to make it up to one of the Glaciers. Needless to say, the kids gave up on us half way there. But a Ranger was nice enough to get a family picture with the glacier in the background!
The next, and last day of the Great American Road Trip, we discovered we were 45 minutes from the US/Canadian boarder. Considering both kids had never been to Canada, and I just happened to have brought all of our passports (I always plan ahead!) we decided to drive to British Columbia to have lunch!! We ended up driving to Fernie, a small town in British Columbia. We had lunch at this cute bistro right by the river. We had to keep remembering we were in Canada and the US dollar has a different value, but it was definitely worth it. Considering I had lived in Minnesota my entire life, and our house is closer to Canada than the Twin Cities, you would think I would have been to Canada before this trip. NOPE! So I got to mark a country off my bucket list!
Once we made it back into the United States, we headed for the West side of Glacier National Park to check out Lake McDonald. This lake was so worth going back into the park, as it was so beautiful. The kids loved skipping rocks (or trying to!) and seeing how many different colored rocks they could discover. We also had our last helping of Huckleberry ice cream, which I’m missing, even now.
After we finished up on the west side of Glacier, we found the Glacier Sun Winery. I was super excited because not only does it make wine, but also hard cider! We came out with two growlers of hard cider and two bottles of wine, all with a little hint or more of huckleberry!
I had gone the whole road trip being in ranch country and hadn’t been able to eat a steak. That just seemed wrong. So we stopped for dinner at Jazn’s Restaurant on the way back to our hotel. From the outside, it did not look like it would be the nice, intimate restaurant that it actually was. Considering we had been kicking and driving all day, we really weren’t completely dressed for the occasion…OOPS! However, it was DEFINITELY worth eating there. the food was great, the steak was amazing, and the portions were huge! The kids each ate fettuccine alfredo, and their portion was probably the size I would have wanted!
Glacier was definitely amazing, and Hubby and discussed coming back here, just us and hopefully the Road to the Sun would be completely open.