Van Camping: Highline Trail & Kayaking Bowman Lake

After visiting Bozeman last year, we had the itch to go back to Montana but explore somewhere new.

We went on a 5 day trip to Glacier National Park staying in a sprinter van camping all around the park. We rented our van from Moterra and they made everything so easy. They had wonderful people that helped us with all of our crazy questions. We picked up the van, stopped by Super 1 to stock up on food, stopped by Backslope Brewing for a quick gluten free burger and beer, and off to Glacier we went.

Our first campsite was Fish Creek! Highly recommend the Recreation.gov app for book camp sites and getting road reservations. We didn't need a road reservation because we had campsite reservations.

First day in Glacier we explored the Going to the Sun Road- stopping at ALL the sites along the way. Because we had camp reservations again at Fish Creek, we didn't need a road reservation. We didn't leave early enough to get parking at Avalanche Lake Trailhead, so we just decided to drive and stop at the beautiful sites along the way.

Day two, The Highline Trail - cue the music "dun, dun, dun...." As someone who had never hiked more than six miles, I couldn't believe we were about to do over 14 miles AT ELEVATION. We're from Florida.... where it's flat.... what were we thinking?! The anticipation and anxiety was so real! We got to the Logan Pass parking lot just after 6am and the lot was full. We parked about a quarter mile past Logan Pass, drank our last sips of coffee and hit the trail.

The views were immediately breathtaking. We walked along a cliff face along the Going to the Sun Road, seeing mountain peaks, lakes, waterfalls, and so much more. We stopped several times along the way to let the super intense hiking crews pass us. I like to take my time and see ALL the beautiful things.

Right before we reached the Granite Park Chalet, we reached an additional/optional trail to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook. This section was SUPER steep... think a 20 incline on the treadmill for a mile. I was stopping almost every few minutes to catch my breath. The wind picked up the closer we got to the top which made me incredibly nervous. It felt like the wind would blow us right off the side of the mountain. Upon getting to the top, Caleb actually almost lost his hat and I almost lost my phone taking this photo:

I wish that I would've had trekking poles for the rest of the way down. This extra section took us a couple of hours because of how slow I had to hike up.

Next up was the Granite Park Chalet where I took a bathroom break and we ate our lunch.

After leaving Granite Park Chalet, we had four miles down hill on "The Loop." At this point in the day, the sun was beating down on us, we ran out of water, and our knees were killing us. We ended up jogging the last couple of miles. Once we made it to The Loop shuttle stop, we waited for the shuttle to take Caleb back to our van, and then for Caleb to come get me. As soon as I saw the van, tears filled my eyes because I was so exhausted and dehydrated. I jumped in the van, chugged two gatorades, and we were off to our campsite for the night at Many Glacier.

Day three was a recovery and restock day. We woke up at the Many Glacier campground and it was insanely beautiful. I wish we could've explored more of this area and stayed longer, but we went into St. Marys to stock up on more food, gas, and supplies. Then we parked at our campsite for the night at St. Marys campground and had a lazy day.

Day four, we drove back through the park to Polebridge. We stopped at the mercantile, then went into the park again through the North Fork entrance. We drove a bumpy dirt road to get to Bowman Lake, another one of my favorite places. The campground was more rustic, but the views and the seclusion were just what we were hoping for. After getting the kayaks inspected, we put the kayaks in the water and explored in the sunshine. We had a bittersweet evening, knowing that tomorrow we would be returning the van and going back to real life.