Ebiking Going to the Sun Road, Part 2
We ebiked Going to the Sun Road from west to east and shared our experience. Read it here!
On our first full day staying in the Glacier, Montana area, we seized an opportunity to ebike Going to the Sun Road, something that we've been looking forward to since before we started traveling full-time. This road is one of the main reasons we bought ebikes! Glacier has many outfitters that rent out bicycles, both regular and electric, but there's something comforting about having our own. The specs fit our needs, we know how to use them, and, during times when the bike rides aren't planned or rentals aren't available, we have them at our disposal.
Our ride from west to east was the perfect kickoff to our Glacier adventures, and even though we had a lot of rainy days, we still found time to have memorable experiences both inside and outside the park, which we'll talk about in future posts. As for Going to the Sun Road, we wanted to return, and we watched the plow status to see if any of the closure points would move. We thought we could perhaps chip away our west-to-east distance. If they moved the vehicle closure to The Loop and pedestrian closure to Logan Pass, we'd be in business. We could park at The Loop and bike to Logan Pass, hopefully this time conserving our batteries just a little better. The plan, however, remained out-of-reach. The crews were doing an amazing job clearing the road, especially given the snowy winter season. But, we need to put into perspective what these guys actually need to do, because it goes so far beyond plowing. The snow is piled up 40+ feet in some places, and when it covers the road, there's no way of telling where the road ends and the giant drop into the valley begins. It's so incredibly dangerous! Then, once the snow is cleared, there is rubble and debris that also needs to be cleaned up, and the crews need to rebuild the sides of the road. In the previous post, I mentioned that some places had no demarcation between road and cliffside. The NPS tries to make this a little less daunting before the hoards of summer visitors come through, though there will always be precarious areas along the road.
With projections of the entire road being open to vehicles and pedestrians by mid-June, we were just shy of being able to enjoy the whole road in all its rebuilt glory, but that's OK. It would have logistically been difficult anyway, because we couldn't bike that far and also couldn't take giant Clyde the whole way either. Getting to experience just part of the road on bike, without vehicles, was a huge win, but still, we wanted more.
Attacking from the east
East Glacier is about a two hours' drive from West Glacier, along US route 2 on the south boundary of the park. We weren't sure if we'd make it over there, but we kept hearing good things. The east side is a little less built-up, so there are less tourist attractions, which means less crowds, especially earlier in the season, and there are better chances of seeing wildlife. It's also higher in elevation, so you get different vantage points of the mountains than at West Glacier. With enough recommendations from enough people that we just "had to go" to East Glacier, we started making plans. We had a couple nights without camping reservations booked, so we could have ventured east and camped there for a bit, but after a lot of discussion, we decided it wasn't worth towing all the way over there. We could just set aside a day to drive the two hours and do as much as we could. At first we weren't sure if that would be driving, biking, or hiking, but depending on the conditions and openings of Going to the Sun Road, we could try our hand at cycling from east to west.
On our last week in Glacier, we drove over to the St. Mary Visitor Center, the easternmost point of Going to the Sun Road. We checked the current conditions and saw that automobiles were being let through to Jackson Glacier Overlook, 13 miles in, and the hiker/biker closure was 4 miles past that at Lunch Creek, when road crews were working. But were they working that day? We didn't know and didn't want to wait in line to ask a ranger, so we decided to see for ourselves. Again, we were technically limited with our 22ft long truck, but we looked at the map and found nothing that would deter us on the first section of road. We decided to drive until we found parking and then bike until we couldn't go any further. If we miraculously were allowed to Logan Pass, we'd be pushing our battery life again, and so we made sure to only set our pedal assist to the minimum we needed. We were in for a good leg workout.
We got a later start than we had hoped, considering the long drive over to East Glacier, and with the summer season picking up, parking was filling up fast. In an ideal scenario, we'd park near the St. Mary Falls trailhead, because after biking we wanted to take a quick hike, but unsurprisingly, that lot was jam-packed. It's an easy trail that's accessible, so it's really popular. No worries for us though, because the further west we drove, the less we'd be biking and using up our batteries. We could have driven all the way to Jackson Glacier Overlook because there was parking there, but we weren't sure how congested the area would be due to the fact that vehicles had to turn around there. So instead, we grabbed a spot at an overlook about a 1/2-mile before Jackson Glacier. We got out our ebikes and continued westward.
Because the road starts at a higher elevation, we were above tree line almost immediately. We got beautiful views of St. Mary's Lake, Jackson Glacier, Going to the Sun Mountain, Heavy Runner Mountain, and Siyeh Creek. We were impressed by how many people opted to hike all or most of the open section of road. The road gets pretty steep and it's an uphill climb the whole way. I really thought Siyeh Bend would be the end point for most, because it's an almost-switchback that really shows the extent of steepness, but hikers kept hiking, including dogs and children! Still, as with most popular treks, we had plenty of space to ourselves the further out we rode. We stopped to view some distant waterfalls and had yet another visit from a friendly butterfly who would not rest until I finally put out my arm and let her land on it. She reminded me of my cat; no place is cozy enough unless it's directly on me. Only then she started trying to eat my salty sweat-nectar off my arm and it tickled too much, so I had to blow her away. She was fine though, fluttering around our bikes and landing on the backpack, hoping nectar was a part of our snack pack for the day.
We continued on, yodeling our way through a delightfully echoey tunnel, but it wasn't long before we came to our pedestrian closure, right at Lunch Creek as indicated. We didn't see any road crews, but the sign said the area was closed for avalanche hazard and grizzly capture. Just another task of the arduous reopening process. If there is any wildlife that might interfere with visitor access, they need to be...relocated. Right? Relocated?
Once again, we were only a few miles from Logan Pass, but we had to count our blessings. Of the 50 miles of Going to the Sun Road, we were able to drive/ebike about 42 of them. We turned around and coasted our way back to our truck, but instead of calling it a day, we continued onward, back to St. Mary Falls Trailhead. The parking lot was still full, but that's the beauty of our ebikes! We parked them over to the side and headed out for our hike. Then we biked back up to our truck, clocking about 10 cycling miles in total for the day.
Our East Glacier bike ride wasn't as long or dramatic as our West Glacier ride, but we were happy to experience this other side of the park. It offers a lot, and maybe next time we visit, we'll consider camping in that area so we can have more time to explore. There is certainly no shortage of adventures in Glacier National Park, and it's one of those special places, that no matter what you choose to do, you're going to have breathtaking beauty at every turn.