Traveling east to west, Going-to-the-Sun Road is a 50 mile-long scenic drive through the park. The road, which was opened in 1933 with all the major structures finished in 1937, has received several distinctive honors, including being registered as a National Historic Place, National Historic Landmark, and Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
The road is famous, too, having appeared in the opening credits of the classic horror film The Shining, and having received several distinctive honors, including being registered as a National Historic Landmark, a National Historic Place and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The road crosses the Continental Divide via Logan’s Pass, which can accumulate up to 80 feet of snow in the winter.
Although the park receives an average annual snowfall of around 138 inches, Glacier has a long history of wildfires. The park recorded 64 fires in 1936 and experienced a severe fire season in 2003 when 13 percent of the park’s land burned.
Located along Waterton Lake, Goat Haunt is considered the center of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Visitors wishing to cross the border into either country need to present their ID before receiving a mountain goat-shaped stamp in their passports. According to an article I found on MentalFloss.com
According to this article on AmtrakVacations.com Glacier National Park is home to 26 glaciers, down from approximately 150 in 1850. That number is expected to continue its rapid decline as climate changes shrink their size, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Of the existing glaciers, the largest is Harrison Glacier, at 1.6 million square meters.
There are a whopping 762 lakes in Glacier National Park, 131 of which are named. The largest lake in the park is Lake McDonald, at 9.4 miles long, 1.5 miles wide and 464 feet deep. While Lake McDonald isn’t considered a prime fishing lake, visitors flock to catch a sight of the many wild animals that live along its shore, including moose, black bears and mule deer. The park is also home to 2,865 miles of streams, the longest of which is Upper McDonald Creek at 25.8 miles.
There are a total of 175 mountains in Glacier National Park, the tallest of which is Mt. Cleveland at 10,448 feet. Logan Pass, the highest point on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, located along the Continental Divide, comes in at 6,646 feet.
The largest glacier in the park is called Blackfoot Glacier; it measures approximately 18 square kilometers (7 square miles) and is so large it can be seen for kilometers. – JustFunFacts.com
I found this cool fact on OutdoorPhotography.com – Between 1910 and 1913, the Great Northern Railway built nine chalets. Visitors would travel by horseback from one chalet to another in order to see the park, which took several weeks to accomplish. In 1915, the average visitor spent over a month in the park.
Glacier National Park lodging includes approximately 78 campgrounds with more than 1200 different sites. They are separated into classes. 13 are class A or B campgrounds. The remaining are considered backcountry.
Glacier is the second leg of our National Park road trip! Next up is Banff National Park in Canada.
I'm a wanderer, website manager, and storyteller. I live in sunny SC with my husband of 30 years and our goldfish, "Please Survive"(long story!). When I'm not untangling CSS or wrangling PHP you'll find me writing my next tale, planning my next road trip, or just hanging out with the grandkids.
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Montana is on my travel bucket list! Now adding the Sun Road at Glacier NP for sure! The views are breathtaking.
Wow, what stunning photos. I have never been to Montana before. I will have to visit one day. Have fun in Canada!
What an absolutely stunning looking location! I bet this is such a breathtaking route to take the pictures are just incredible. Thank you for the information on taking this trip.
This looks like such an amazing place! I’d love to be able to visit here someday!
I would love to take my camera and visit the glacier national park. The views are breathtaking and I would love the opportunity to practice my skills. I wish that I lived close. 🙁
All of your photos look amazing. I would love to visit this National Park. It really looks stunning!
Those are some amazing and gorgeous photos. It makes me feel like I am right there. Nice post.
Sucha beautiful place to explore. I will include this on my bucket list.
Oh my gosh, your photos are amazing. I’d love to check out Glacier National Park.
This is definitely a total WOW! I wish I could be here right now and experience the beauty of this wonderful place.
Nice pictures..! Thanks for sharing, you did a great job with this post, I felt like I’m already there.
This is a good way of disconnecting to the busy city. The views are tremendous. Windows down, long drive and good friends would be perfect.
This is a gorgeous national park to visit. Ironically I was just right beside it practically when visiting Montana and Yellowstone on a media trip last month. Yellowstone was so incredible. I can only imagine how stemming Glacier is to see in person.
stemming – was supposed to be amazing – thank you autocorrect. LOL
I’d love to visit Montana one day. This looks like a beautiful drive and a wonderful way to get back in touch with nature. I love disconnecting from technology and just being one with nature.
Oh this looks fantastically amazing. I’ve never been to Montana, but it’s on my list. Definitely want to plan this.
Those colors are surreal! I would love to see that in person. I know the water reflection is extraordinary.
It looks GORGEOUS! I’ve never been to the park, but it’s definitely going on my bucket list. The scenic drive sounds like the perfect way to get a feel for the park and see all it has to offer visitors.
OMG, Montana looks like a postcard. So beautiful and picturesque. I need to plan a visit. WOW! I’m going to add this park when we do go.