US Trip 2017 – Day 18 – The Crown of the Continent

The route this day took us from Choteau to Glacier National Park, where we visited both Many Glacier and the Going to the Sun road. We ended the day in West Glacier.

Approximate time on road/out caching: 13 hours
Total miles driven: 230.8 mi / 371,4 km
Total cahes found: 21
Total DNF: 0
States visited: Montana
Famous places visited: Glacier National Park
Most memorable cache: GC9871 Top o’ the Pass
Biggest surprise: How much time we had to find more caches once we got to West Glacier
Weather: Mostly sunny
Highest temperature: 84°F / 28,8°C
Lowest temperature: 55°F / 17,8°C
Roadwork: Yes

To Glacier!

Since the main goal this day was to visit Glacier National Park, also known as the Crown of the Continent, we didn’t have too much caches planned along the way to the park. There really wasn’t that many caches we could find anyway. The first one we stopped at was GCVJE9 something old, and something much,much older.

Roadwork, forest fires, slow traffic

We stopped at only two more caches before reaching Saint Mary, the gateway to Glacier. But we encountered both heavy road work, road closure due to forest fire and extremely slow traffic (not heavy traffic, just slow traffic).

Many Glacier

Even though there’s no caches out there, we still wanted to visit Many Glacier. It wasn’t that far out, and judging by the photos it should be worth the detour. It was! And we got to find some caches along the way as well.

Going to the Sun

After Many Glacier, and another cache, the Going to the Sun road was next. We started at the visitor center, and quickly realized that we were not going to be alone in the park today. Cars and people everywhere!

The first cache inside the park was GC986F Sun Point, which took us on a very short hike to a magnificent view!

Parking nightmare

There was so much cars in the park, that we had to skip the next cache and head straight to GC9871 Top o’ the Pass. The road to the top felt like a parking lot, heavy and slow traffic, and people trying to park everywhere.

Parking at the visitor center was also very difficult. We had to drive around for 5-6 minutes before we finally found a place to park. But wow, the view was amazing from here!

Let’s go back

After the visit to the top, we decided to head back to GC9869 Baring Falls, to see if we could find parking this time. And we did! And a short hike later, we arrived at Baring Falls. We’re glad we went back! We spent some time there, taking lots of photos. It was a very colorful place.

Mountain goats

The next stop was at GC9877 Waterfalls, another full parking lot. We shouldn’t complain too much, since we’re also filling a spot ourselves, contributing to the crowd. But this lot was full due to the mountain goats in the area.

Too bad most people didn’t continue to see the great view only a few feet further out.

Mountain water isn’t warm

After a quick stop at GC9872 Wall of Fame, we continued to GC9865 Swim Hole. There was people swimming there, crazy people…

Stopping by the lake

The last cache inside the park was GC9859 Old McDonald had a Lake. Another lake, and another great view. And a very nice hotel, too bad it was already full when we booked lodging for this day.

Hello, Hertz?

While stopped at the Apgar visitor center, I tried calling Hertz to figure out why they wanted to charge us more than twice the price we were guaranteed when making our reservation. That took forever, being sent back and forth between the departments, until they closed for the day. None could help me. Asking them on Facebook however yielded som results. But they couldn’t help me until after we had delivered (and paid). (More on this story when we return the car)

Food or more caches? Both!

We made it out of the park a lot earlier than we had thought we would. And since our hotel was right outside the park entrance, we had plenty of time to do more caching. So we decided to head down the highway and see if we could find some caches and some food. We found both. A total of 7 extra caches, and food in the very appropriately named town of Hungry Horse.

Sunset from the room

A few caches later, we were back at the hotel. And the best about this hotel, was the balcony on our room. Just sitting there, watching the sunset, was the perfect way to end this day! A wonderful day!