One Year Anniversary Trip to Glacier National Park

Time is such a wild concept. It goes so slow in the moment but looking back it flew by. I cannot believe it has been 1 year since Mitchell and I got married. This year as been a wild ride with super high highs and very low lows. I am so glad to have found a life partner who can celebrate wins and who can stick out loses. September was a crazy month for me, I had a record amount of sessions and weddings in this month. So when the opportunity came for Mitchell and I to take a few days away I was so grateful. The mountains have been my happy place ever since my first encounter with them back in 2018 while I was in the Austrian Alps with my German class. So naturally when on a road trip to Montana to photograph a wedding, you take a few extra days to head to Glacier National Park.

Our trip was short but was for sure the break we needed from the world. Mitchell recently started a new job so he didn’t have vacation saved up yet. But he did have some extra comp time from having to work a weekend so we were able to take 3 days off of work. So we left Friday morning and drove straight to Missoula for my wedding Saturday. I photographed the wedding Saturday and early Sunday morning we left Missoula and headed to Glacier National Park. It was about a 3 hour drive and I was grateful Mitchell likes driving to I could quick get some wedding sneak peeks edited before we lost service for a few days.

We entered the park through the west entrance and we thankful snagged a last minute camp spot in the Avalanche Campground in Glacier National Park. This trip sort of fell together last minute, when looking into how Glacier National Park works we learned there are different permits you have to buy for different areas of the park. Thankfully it was later in the season and we were able to make the reservations we needed.

We had very little time at the park. We arrived Sunday afternoon, set up camp and decided to explore the west side of the park first. So we drove down to the Apgar Visitor center we wandered down a random trail for awhile, then drove up Lake McDonald and watched the sunset. We also had dinner at the restaurant in the Lake McDonald Lodge and it was super good. After watching the sunset we headed back to our campsite and planned out how we were going to spend the rest of our time.

Monday was our only full day at Glacier National Park, and we had a lot of ground to cover. We woke up early and started driving East down the Going to Sun Road. I love how Glacier National Park is set up, where basically everything you need is off of the Going to Sun Road, that takes you all the way across the park. We started our day stopping at all the stops and taking in the views of the park. We stopped at Bearing Falls Trail. We saw 3 waterfalls Bearing Falls, St Mary Falls, and Virginia Falls and the gorgeous St Mary Lake.

After our first hike we had a parking lot lunch then headed back West, stopping at Logan Pass to hike the Hidden Lake Overlook. Originally I wanted to do the whole Hidden Lake Hike, however at this point and after already hiking 7 miles that day, we were tired and just completed the Overlook. Before our trip we had just purchased our new Jeep Gladiator, and I was not well versed in Jeep culture, but I guess Jeep owners like to “duck” each other. So at Logan Pass we got our first duck on our door handle! I probably geeked out a little to much but I thought that it was super cool. So now I am also convinced I need to make a Jeep travel account for our family so that we can duck people too.

After taking our time heading back to our campground we made one last stop at Lake McDonald Loop this trail was under construction but we gave it a go anyways. We ended our night making Hot Dogs over the campfire and going to bed early. Our bodies tired from hiking almost 10 miles in 1 day.

Tuesday was our last day at Glacier National Park and there was 1 more trail I wanted to complete before we started the 14 hour drive home. We woke up at sunrise. Took down camp then headed over to the final trail, Avalanche Lake.

After our monring hike we climbed into the truck and we drove back East down the Going to Sun Road. Taking in the views while we still could. We made one final stop by the park entrance sign to take come pictures and then we headed back home. We got home around 3:30 Wednesday morning, slept for awhile then we both got up and went to work.

It was the perfect little adventure and I am so glad we were able to make this trip work!