Glacier National Park: Going to the Sun Road + Avalanche Lake

It was my first time visiting Glacier National Park.  Wow!  I mean ... WOW!  There just really aren't words to describe the vast beauty of this place that descended upon us as we approached the park.  

We stayed at the KOA Campground at St. Mary's and the entrance road had a little, inviting looking river.  It was COLD!  But we dipped our feet in anyway!

The Going to the Sun Road is the main road through the park and we drove that our first full day in Glacier, stopping along the way to drink in the views.

It was July, but the spring flowers were in full bloom!

When we went through Logan Pass, Sierra was thrilled that there was plenty of snow for throwing snowballs at her Dad.  It's not often you run into snow in the middle of July.

We wanted to hike to Avalanche Lake, and our plans were almost abandoned because of the vast number of people in the parking area.  We drove around and around without being able to find anywhere near the trailhead to leave our vehicle.  Jason calls this hike a "family highway."  It is very popular.  Not particularly far or difficult, but the end point is well worth it.

Avalanche Lake was without question worth the small hassle of dealing with the crowds at the trailhead.

Sierra and Kaia did some hiking together on the hike out, but we eventually had to ban hand holding while hiking because Sierra, while a solid little hiker, is rather erratic.  She kept cutting her sister off and knocking her down on the rocky trail.

We exited on the west end of the park and we were staying on the east.  We stopped at a grocery store, and found out later that one of Kaia's little shoes had fallen out of the car and as it was well over an hour to get back, we weren't returning.  I called the grocery store, and a very nice woman sent it home. It was waiting in Virginia when we returned.  As we were heading back, we noticed some cars stopped on the side of the road, and then realized the people were stopped to look at mountain goats.  Jason and I wanted the girls to be able to see the animals, so we joined the group of parked cars on the side of the road.  I'm glad we did.  It's amazing to see the slopes these animals navigate.  And we even had some views of a baby mountain goat just under the over pass.