It’s been almost a year since I last biked Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier. I love that the highway is closed to car traffic at the start of the summer season, so there are tons of hikers and bikers using it. The weather was gorgeous, so Pepper and I loaded up our bikes and kayaks, and headed north.
We’re driving quite the little adventure wagon! When we arrived in Glacier in the late morning, the weather was perfectly still. That made for some amazing reflections in Lake McDonald:
It was still pretty chilly– maybe 50 degrees– so we opted to bike first and kayak later. We were surprised to find the road open all the way to Avalanche Creek, which basically saved about five miles on our ride. We hopped on our bikes and started the climb. Not surprisingly, the scenery was amazing.
The thing about biking Going-to-the-Sun Road is that once it starts climbing, it doesn’t stop. At all. It’s a relatively easy 6% grade up to Logan Pass, but when you don’t get a break from the uphill slog, it can get pretty tiring. We just geared down and kept going.
Eventually we found ourselves at The Loop, which is a good portion of the way up to Logan Pass. The road was closed beyond that point due to avalanche danger– there’s still quite a bit of snow in the upper reaches. We had to turn around, which led to the best part of the trip: coasting downhill at breakneck speed. What a blast.
After we arrived back at the car, we drove down to the lake and got ready to put in our kayaks, but the wind had picked up considerably and the water was choppy. It’s not a lot of fun to fight wind and waves in a yak, so we regretfully climbed back into the car and went out for a good pizza dinner instead. We’ll get on the water next time…