Bear Paw Meanderings

This is a great time of the year to visit Glacier National Park. You are going for several reasons. First, there is never a bad day in Glacier and you will experience that for yourself. Second, Going-To-The-Sun Road should be open around the sixteenth of June so you are seeing it when it has the most snow on it of the season which is a wonderful time to traverse this great road.

Third, this is a great time to come in the Lake McDonald area so that you can see that wonderful phenomenon called Alpenglow.

Look up at the north end of Lake McDonald each morning about 5am and you might see what looks like fire above the mountains that form Logan Pass. Then look into the lake, and you will see that same fire mimicked. It is not a sunrise. It is caused by the sunrise but it is something different called Alpenglow and it happens in the mountains from afar at times, and at other times turns the whole sky rosy red for a few minutes. A few minutes is what it is all about. You have to get up early and watch carefully. Many days there is no Alpenglow at all. But sometimes, when it is out, it is the most glorious part of Glacier National Park.

Then there are the flowers just coming out now. There are the Glacier Lilies, there is the Bear Grass and there is my most favorite of all the Blue Camus flowers. Those flowers are the most incredible blue and will take over a whole meadow this time of year, particularly on the east front around East Glacier. They are also a great time for viewing bears too as the Camus are a bulb plant which all bears seem to love very much.

June does not produce the large crowds that July and August do so maybe this would be the perfect time for you to pack the kids, the Hupmobile and head to Glacier quickly!