{"id":5694,"date":"2023-08-10T21:57:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steveandmarleneontheroad.com\/?p=5694"},"modified":"2023-11-17T19:21:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T23:21:16","slug":"august-10-2023-trip-11-day-17-glacier-national-park-going-to-the-sun-road-west-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steveandmarleneontheroad.com\/?p=5694","title":{"rendered":"August 10, 2023 : Trip 11, Day 17 – Glacier National Park: Going to The Sun Road West End"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hook’s Hideaway is one of the closest places to stay near Glacier National Park. It is still a bit of a drive. We start out on an unpaved road that provides some wonderful scenery. Then we take a long drive down the highway until the mountains of Glacier National Park are visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here we are at the park entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baring Falls Trail is a short hike from the road down to the river. Baring Falls is the last and largest of a series of waterfalls on the trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For a short hike, the trail has numerous great views and lots of flora and fauna. The mountains on the opposite side of the river help you to understand why mountains are sometimes called majestic. We saw many flowers and a bird while we were hiking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our second hike at St Mary’s and Virginia Falls Trail was a slightly longer trek. It was a little over three miles. It also had a fairly large altitude gain. We found out along the trail that there were actually more waterfalls on the trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trail begins above St. Mary’s Lake. In the distance, you can see Virginia Falls on the side of the mountain. We also captured a zoomed photo of the falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The hike along the St. Mary River on the way to St. Mary’s Falls provided many different aspects of the river. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Mary’s Falls has three levels. It is interesting to note that the entire river shown in the previous pictures flows through the very narrow falls shown here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From St. Mary’s Falls, we turned to go up the mountain toward Virginia Falls. We saw some magnificent panoramas on the way up the mountain. We also saw several other waterfalls on the trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Virginia Falls was very interesting. There is an upper falls and a lower falls. The first picture shows both. The second is just the upper falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These mountain views were from very close to Virginia Falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are some of the flowers we saw on the hike to St. Mary’s and Virginia Falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After our hike, it was a short drive to the St. Mary’s Visitor Center. We captured a couple more photos of St. Mary’s Lake. Notice the waves on the lake. Also, notice the flags standing straight out from the pole. It was a very windy day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the Visitor Center, we noticed that the mountains rise up quickly from the surrounding rolling hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are some close ups of the glaciers seen in the previous photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hook’s Hideaway is one of the closest places to stay near Glacier National Park. It is still a bit of a drive. We start out on an unpaved road that provides some wonderful scenery. Then we take a long drive down the highway until the mountains of Glacier National Park are visible. Here we are 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