Earlier this year, I posted my US Travel Bucket List here on the blog. It was fun to put together, and I really wanted something tangible that I could refer to, rather than just having the ideas swirling around in my head. I have always loved traveling and have a pretty strong urge to see as much of the country (and world) as I can. If you have that same itch, I highly recommend writing out an actual list of places you’d like to visit. It is so helpful to see it in ink, prioritize and, make a plan of attack (even if some of the places fall into your “10-year plan”).
I married a man that doesn’t quite have that same travel bug, BUT he is willing to get on a plane when I ask him to and be an awesome sport. He would never initiate a travel plan, but he is always a happy accomplice.
That is until he started seeing pictures of Glacier National Park, and decided it was something he needed to do. We were brainstorming ideas for how to celebrate his 30th birthday, and when he brought up taking the trip to Montana, I jumped at the opportunity.
Planning the trip came together fairly simply. We were pretty set on going in the month of May since that is when Travis’s birthday is. With that said, I do feel the need to mention that in order to experience/see much more of the park, you’d probably want to go later in the summer, since roads and trails open up based on snow-melt. I have no regrets about the timing of our trip, however, because we had the chance to experience the park and surrounding towns before the summer crowd arrived.
Also, because of our work schedules and busy lives in general, we were only able to spend 3 nights in Montana. We did our best to cram as much as we could into our few days and soaked up every minute. But you could easily make it a week-long trip and still not see everything!
For these reasons, we have deemed the trip as our “maiden voyage” as we will SURELY be heading back as soon as we get the chance. There are SO many different ways you could plan a trip to the park and I am sure all of them would be absolutely lovely.
Thursday
We left the San Diego airport early in the morning and flew to Spokane, Washington. I am an avid Southwest Airlines customer, and that was about as close to Glacier Park as they could get us. We rented a car and hit the road. The drive from Spokane to our hotel took about 4.5 hours, but it was some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. The route took us through northern Idaho and then of course, the rolling hills of Montana. There was some rain and fog, but it was so green and majestic. I can’t even count the number of times we both said “wow, look at that!” 
We arrived at our destination just before dinner time and checked into our hotel room. We stayed at a perfectly accommodating hotel called The Pine Lodge. It was nothing fancy but had some great amenities including 24 hour a day coffee/hot chocolate in the lobby, bike, kayak and paddle board rentals, an awesome game room, a pool and jacuzzi, and a continental breakfast each morning.
The hotel was about a 40 minutes from the entrance to the national park, located on a small river about a mile from the most adorable downtown I have ever seen- Whitefish, MT. I deemed Whitefish “what every lake/resort town wishes it could be!” It was clean, quaint, and had lots of awesome restaurants and shops.
We wasted no time in exploring the downtown and after a long day of travel, we decided on pizza for dinner from MacKenzie River Pizza Co. I don’t know if I was just overly hungry or on a high from the excitement of a new place, but it was SERIOUSLY the best gluten free pizza I have ever eaten. 
By the time we were finished eating and walking around the cute downtown some more, it was 10:00 (past my bedtime!) So we headed back to the hotel to rest up for our first full day in the park!
(Fun Fact: The town of Whitefish still sounds a “curfew siren” every night at 10:00 to observe the town’s history dating back to 1919! It sounds a bit like a tornado warning and surprised us a little at first, but after a quick google search to learn what it was all about, I thought it was such a fun little tradition!)
Friday
Although we had no intention of rising early and didn’t set any alarms, Travis’s excitement for the day had us out of bed by 7. We packed some snacks in our backpacks, dressed in layers, and headed back to downtown for some breakfast at a specialty Crepe eatery aptly named Amazing Crepes. They make gluten-free crepes with both savory and sweet fillings. Although the yogurt, strawberry, and whipped cream filling really piqued my interest, I decided I should probably go with a more filling/higher protein option. The Egg, Sausage, and Cheese Crepe was a good choice and SO yummy! 
After breakfast, we headed straight to Glacier National Park. We stopped at the visitor’s center to get advice on where to go/what we could do based on road closures. We were slightly disappointed to learn that The Going to the Sun Road (a must-do on any Glacier Park Travel Guide) was only open for 9 miles (out of 50). We could park our car and walk as far as we wanted to up the paved road. 
We ended up doing just that and man, it was awesome! I think we were able to take in and enjoy the scenery SO much more by walking than if we were driving. Although we “only” made it 5 miles up before we decided we better turn around (for a total of 10 miles in case you’re keeping track…) we saw beautiful, snow-capped glaciers, and the most intense running water I’d ever seen. The impromptu trek felt spontaneous and adventurous (hello bear warnings!) and we only saw a handful of other people. The air was incredibly clean and fresh and it felt so good to use our fitness marching up that hill! That hike ended up being a major highlight of our trip! Road closures = no problem! 
After we made it back to the rental car, we meandered around West Glacier a bit before making our way back to the hotel in Whitefish. We decided a dip in the Jacuzzi was in order before dinner, and then we headed back out to downtown to find some food. We landed at a fun sports bar (there was a hockey playoff game going on) and both of us devoured a burger and fries (bun-less for me, of course 😉 ) 
We rounded the night off with caramel ice cream from the most adorable little specialty ice cream shop, Sweet Peaks.
Saturday
We were able to sleep in a little later on Saturday, and took our time getting ready (I was way into watching the Royal Wedding shenanigans on tv….Travis, not so much!) We went out to breakfast at a cute little rustic cafe called Swift Creek Cafe. They make EVERYTHING in house, from their bread to doughnuts to fresh squeezed juices. I had sausage & egg scramble that was just out of this world! 
With full bellies, we headed off to the park for day #2. This time, we started with a short trail around Lake McDonald. It was another BEAUTIFUL sight to see after the perfect 2 mile hike out. Perfect way to start the day on a somewhat leisurely note…because things were about to get more exciting! 
Our next adventure took us to Glacier Raft Company for a whitewater rafting trip down the “middle fork” of the Flathead River. We didn’t quite know what to expect, and got a little nervous as the guides started going over all of the safety and “what-if” scenarios during our bus ride down to the launching point. But they kept things super light and fun, cracking ALL the dad jokes.
Although I was pretty certain someone would be getting launched from the raft (and just hoping it wasn’t me), we zipped up our wetsuits (hello GLACIER water!), loaded up the rafts, and started on our trip down the river! There were a total of 8 of us in each raft, including our trusty guide. We started out on a mellow part of the river so we could get used to using the oars and following the specific cues from our guide.
It ended up being a total blast, exhilarating at times, but the rapids were manageable and no one ended up in the river. The experience was definitely a highlight of our trip. It was something I had never done before, a little outside of my comfort zone, but SO much fun to learn a new skill and experience the park looking up from the river. We were fortunate to be the ONLY rafting trip going down the river that day, so we had it all to ourselves. We hear that come summertime, the whole river is PACKED with rafts and that the rapids are almost too mellow. So that was definitely a perk to going before peak season!
Our trip down the river went a little faster than expected, and we had a little time to kill before dinner. We headed back to our hotel in Whitefish, showered (despite the wetsuits, we were wet and COLD), and utilized the hotel’s game room!
They have a dedicated “hang out” space with a pool table and shuffleboard. It was the perfect way to warm up and do something fun together! Our tummies started grumbling after our tie-break game of shuffleboard, so we headed back to downtown for our last dinner in Whitefish.
We ended up at a cute little Craftsman style house-turned-restaurant called Pescado Blanco. You might not think to get Mexican Food in Montana, but it sounded good and was better than we expected 🙂 I ordered fish tacos because I couldn’t resist trying their house-made corn tortillas. The whole meal was delicious! 
We ended the night with a couple more games of pool back at the hotel. Crazy party people, we are!
Sunday
We woke up Sunday morning feeling a little bummed about ending our vacation so soon! (Although we did miss our puppies a lot!) We knew we had a long day of travel (and LOTS of sitting) ahead of us, so we used the bikes our hotel offered to take a ride into town for our last meal in Whitefish. We ended up at another cute breakfast spot called Loula’s Cafe. I ate another giant scramble and potatoes…good thing it was so filling because it ended up being my only “real” meal of the day. 
We drove the 4.5 hours back to Spokane and found there really wasn’t much to eat in the airport. Fortunately, I had lots of Krave Jerky, trail mix, dried fruit, etc. to hold me over. We finally made it back to San Diego around 10PM…and may or may not have stopped at In ‘n Out on our drive back home. What can I say…we were famished!
I have had many awesome experiences traveling (although not nearly as much as I hope for in the future!) but this was seriously one of my favorite trips ever!
Part of it was due to Travis’s enthusiasm in all of the activities, but also because everything was just so picturesque! From the drive through Idaho, to the town of Whitefish, to the seeing the park itself, we just couldn’t get over how beautiful it all was. The trip as a whole was a perfect combination of adventurous and relaxing, which is exactly our style. 
Like I said, we WILL be going back! There is still so much to see and experience, and I hope that we can do so with friends and family so that they can understand why we fell in love with Montana! 
Have you ever been to Glacier National Park, Whitefish Montana, or any of the surrounding areas? Did you also fall in love? Or is it a bucket list item for you? If not, maybe it should be 😉
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