Glacier National Park/West Glacier
July 28, 2025
Columbia Falls MT
Columbia Falls is Nestled in the Northeast corner of the spectacular Flathead Valley. It is a community of about 3,700 people located just 18 miles south of West Glacier.
We checked into the Columbia Falls RV Park, a resort-style destination close to restaurants and attractions and just a 15 minute drive to Glacier National Park.
We discovered on our last trip to this area that Huckleberry food is a staple of Montana and the Rocky Mountains.The huckleberry cannot be grown commercially, so it must be hand-picked from the fields and meadows that border the mountain ranges. Huckleberry products are very popular. Huckleberry jam, syrup, pie, ice cream, candy, lollipops, and on and on. They are also a favorite treat of bears!
For our treat, we stopped at the Huckleberry Patch and purchased two Huckleberry Milk Shakes with whip cream! It was soooo delicious! It was the perfect balance between sweet and tart!
Glacier National Park
We visited Glacier National Park in 2018 and were very underwhelmed. I was surprised to discover that Ken decided to add it to our trip itinerary. We add Glacier to our trip to help kill some time before our August 2 reservation in West Yellowstone.
During our last trip to this area, the weather was cold and foggy. This time the weather forecast was for sunny, warm weather. Beautiful weather makes all the difference and allowed us to understand why so many tourists love this park.
Glacier is one of the National Park’s that has a timed entry system, and it is a screwy one. If you access the Park via the West Entrance, you must make a reservation online, selecting the 2-hour window during which you want entry. This is an extra $2 fee per day. We were able to get a reservation the night before we wanted to do the drive.
Going-to-the-Sun-Road is a 50 mile paved road that traverses the entire park. As we drove along, the scenery included glaciers, valleys, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, and wildflowers.
On the road, we passed several of the vintage 1930s buses which are a part of the park’s history and heritage. Their roll-back tops were perfect for getting full views of the stunning mountains. So, we decided to take the top off of our Jeep so we could have a similar experience.
The Weeping Wall was a favorite spot where we drove through a waterfall. It wasn’t one of the larger Waterfalls, but there was some water that fell on our heads!
The drive was beautiful and we enjoyed it much more than last time. However, the glaciers were not nearly as impressive since we have seen and touched some very large glaciers in Canada and Alaska.
Not all GNP entrances require a reservation, so the second day we we took the paved Camas Road for eleven miles to the Camas Creek entrance of GNP. From that point we were on the Outside North Fork Road. It was mainly gravel, but, well maintained. The scenery was wonderful as we drove through meadow, grasslands, pine forests, and a section of privately owned properties (cabins and ranches). There was a short stretch of paved surface just before we reached the area of Polebridge.
In Polebridge, we were twenty-two miles from the Canadian Border. This tiny community is totally off the grid and powered by Solar Panels and a Diesel Generator. A cafe, saloon, hostel, and a Mercantile/Bakery make-up the base camp that has served the North Fork community for 100 years. The Bakery didn’t start up until 1994, but, is the hotspot of the community.
Our main objective in Polebridge was to purchase their famous Huckleberry Bear Claws. They were so good…just the right amount of sweetness! In fact, they were so good, Ken went back in and purchased 2 more breakfast!
As we left Polebridge and drove towards GNP, we discovered another road to take back to the park. It started out as just a gravel road and ended up being the worst, rutted, washboard, road I can remember traveling. It was slow going for about 20+ miles. We were happy when we returned to park civilization!
We had two beautiful days in the West Glacier area and that was enought for us. Now it’s time to get closer to Yellowstone!
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