Glacier National Park 4K (2021) [West Glacier]: GTTSR, Apgar, L. McDonald, Grizzly Bear (short form) 

This is the short-form, highlight centric cut, of Part 3 of noBears’ 6-Part Glacier National Park 2021 series. On our 3rd day we decided to take it easy, as the previous day's hiking was pretty brutal.
We never had a chance to visit the West Side of Glacier in 2019, so we figured "what better time to explore it" than a zero-day.
We set out from the St. Mary KOA, & hopped on the Going to the Sun Road. We stopped at Upper St. Mary Lake.
We then made our way up to Logan Pass. Crossing over the Continental Divide, we made our way down the other side of the GTTSR to Apgar Village.
Along the way, we stopped at a beautiful little water hole area called Red Rock. We got some sick underwater footage with the GoPro here. The water was so crystal clear.
We then drove a little ways to McDonald Falls & McDonald Creek. Pictures don't do this spot justice. They never do.
A little further down The Road we got our first real look at Lake McDonald. When you see those famous pics of Glacier with thousands of multi-colored stones just below a glassy lake-bed behind a majestic mountain backdrop… this is where those pics are taken.
Lake McDonald was stunning. We had the shoreline basically to ourselves. Buldo wished he’d brought the packraft. But that’s ok, he’d get his money’s worth with the Alpacka the following day.
Next it was Apgar Village. This is the area where most visitors call home base if they’re primarily staying on the West Side of Glacier. Frankly, we were surprised at how small and quaint it was (a good thing). We were expecting tons of families & screaming kids. It was nothing like that.
Apgar sits right on the shores of Lake McDonald. There are some great little gift shops, local artisans, fly fishing retailers, & of course… somewhere to get Huckleberry Ice Cream. Worth the trip in itself.
We spent a few hours in Apgar, & decided to try and time the sunset back on top of the Continental Divide at Logan Pass.
People often complain about out & back trails. The thinking is… a loop trail is better because you never see the same vistas twice. We’ve never understood this argument, as you still get a totally different viewpoint on the way back of a way one trip. It’s not like you have eyes in the back of your head on the way there.
This is a good example of why the Going to the Sun Road was just as incredible heading back. Not to mention that it afforded us to be on the side of the road with the direct 2,000+ foot drop-off to the valley floor below.
We didn’t time the sunset at Logan perfectly, but we DID catch some incredible light up there. Fog was just rolling through, & clouds from a recent storm made the late afternoon sunlight penetrating through them look ethereal.
We got some great footage at Logan, & decided to head back to the cabin at St. Mary for a well deserved dinner.
However, the Glacier Gods weren’t done with us just yet.
We knew that this time of day was our best chance to see some bears. Grizzlies tend to feed in the early morning & late afternoon. It’s a lot cooler, there are less people around, & their food sources are out & about for the same reasons. We kept a vigilant eye out on the way back.
It paid off big time, as we got to see multiple Grizzlies right off of the GTTSR.
The first was meandering the edge of a forest in a big field about 100 yards from the road. We only got to watch that bear for a few minutes, but it was an incredible experience.
We got back into the car, & drove about a ¼ mile before we got the best Grizzly Encounter we’ve ever had on any of our trips.
A car in front of us pulled to the side of the road. We knew something was up, as there really wasn’t anything else to look at on this stretch of road. Sure enough, there was a HUGE Brown Bear feeding on berries directly off of the side of the road. When I say that this bear was close to us…. It was less than 50 feet the entire time we watched it. And we got to watch it for a good 10 minutes.
We were WAY too close to a Grizzly, so we counted ourselves incredibly lucky that we could observe it from the safety of the car (despite the fact that Buldo got on the roof to watch it). It was an amazing experience that we basically had all to ourselves. Ironically, the car that spotted the bear pulled off too far ahead of where the bear ended up walking. So we had the best seats in the house. Only one other car drove up & stopped in the time that we were out there.
Anyway, it was an incredible capper to an already amazing day. We went back to the cabin, found out they’d just lifted the campfire ban (for the 1st time in weeks), & cooked up an amazing dinner as we reflected upon a near perfect day!
We hope you enjoyed joining us on Part 3 of this 6-Part Glacier National Park Series. If you liked what you saw, please consider “liking” & “subscribing”. It really helps the channel, & gives us the incentive to keep pumping out content for you.
Love & Respect Always to Ya Mutha and Ya Mutha’s Brothas,
noBear