Glacier National Park with Kids - Many Glacier Hotel and Grinnell Glacier Hike

After one amazing hike on the Highline Trail, we drove the rest of the beautiful Going-to-the-Sun Road and headed to the Many Glacier Hotel. We happened to find a little coffee stand on our way to Many Glacier and it was needed after quite a hike! Also, the fact that we were able to even find coffee en route was amazing since it was quite a quiet drive!

We took the road to Many Glacier and it sure was a bumpy ride. Come to find out, the road was being repaired a few years back when it was discovered that some concrete had been found 150 feet below surface. The road is on a moraine, so engineers are currently figuring out how to make the road better upon discovering this added surprise!

Upon entering Many Glacier, we were greeted by a Mama black bear and two of her cubs!

We arrived early and our room wasn’t ready for a couple more hours, so we just sat and then explored the hotel, which was nice after our big hike earlier in the day.

Many Glacier Hotel has two restaurants, a gift shop and a store in the bottom level for quick service pizza, lattes and other needed snacks and food for hikes. We took advantage of all the hotel had to offer throughout our stay, mostly because there’s not much else to choose from, but also, the food was fantastic and the coffee was hot and strong!

Jane at the lobby. I don’t know how this girl was still standing…

We found a perfect place to sit and work on communal puzzles… It was extremely relaxing.

We settled into our room and our view was what dreams are made of! I could live in this spot.

Jon headed out to another little hotel down the road, Swiftcurrent Motor Inn…the ONLY other hotel, that is! He was able to do some laundry and grabbed beer from their little shop. I only drank about half of my drink, since we had been hiking, but it was still fun to have a little adult beverage with Jon.

The view from our room…

The next morning we woke up and took our time getting around. It was a GLORIOUS day, however it was a planned rest day, so no major hikes.

But we were about to head on a hike the next day through two lakes and up into the middle of those mountains…

We drank some coffee, let the kids sit around and took it all in.

Because Many Glacier is extremely difficult to book AND the fact that Jon had booked larger rooms for every night meant that we changed rooms every afternoon. It honestly wasn’t so bad though. We were able to leave all of our luggage in the room and it was moved for us while we were out exploring AND the fun part – every day was a different view and a complete different layout of a room!

So we headed out to Fishercap Lake to see if we could spot a moose or two. Just the walk to the parking lot from Many Glacier was lovely!

Jane told me to pose like this! Ha!

We headed about a mile or so down the road and parked at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and headed to Fishercap Lake as we were told the area always has moose hanging around the area. We didn’t see any, so we hiked for a small amount of time and decided to turn around and just chill at our hotel until later in the evening when we’d go back to see if we could see any moose at the lake…

We also decided to truly enjoy our rest day since we’d be hiking up to Grinnell Glacier the next day, so we worked on puzzles, Jon read a book, I talked to a new friend, Jane colored and did crafts with a new pen pal, drank lattes and ate dinner at our hotel.

These two worked on the puzzle until they finished it!

After dinner, we headed back to Fishercap Lake and sure enough, it was alive with animals…

We saw three moose. The first was eating and then later a mom and baby came out of the woods. I’ll never forget watching the moose in the water hear the mama and baby come from the woods into the lake. Definitely cool!

We headed back to our room…a different room in the top corner of the hotel and it was sooooo windy. I felt the building was moving and I even attempted to sit outside to take in the view, but it was NUTS! We all opted to stay inside and take in the stunning view from our windows…

The next morning, we were able to wake up slowly, enjoy some coffee, Jon went downstairs to grab breakfast food for the kids and we started to get around for our next adventure!

We had tickets for a boat to take us from Swiftcurrent Lake, then a small hike to Lake Josephine and then another boat ride to the trailhead to Grinnell Lake and Grinnell Glacier. By taking these boats, it cut out a total of 4 additional miles. Hikers can definitely start the trailhead near the Many Glacier Hotel. We saw a lot of people hiking as we passed by on boat! Either way, you can’t go wrong!

Pictures in 3…2…1…

The second boat ride through Lake Josephine…

We were a little nervous with the weather. Some park rangers had told Jon that maybe we shouldn’t hike due to incoming rain and possible storms. But we figured we were starting early enough to beat the afternoon showers and if it started to get bad, we’d just turn around. So off we went… Into Grizzly Country…

The hike from the boats up to the other trail was intense. There was A LOT of vertical incline! We made sure to take lots of breaks.

The trail continued to incline, but not as rapidly. This part of the hike was lovely and we took in the views of Grinnell Lake below! It was stunning and moody and absolutely dreamy!

We all stopped to take lots of pictures!

Family picture…and of course Jane had a sucker in her mouth. Oy. LOL! I had an abundance of bribery suckers on hand for anyone who needed one!

We continued our hike on ledges and through waterfalls…

This part made Eliza the most nervous out of any hike. It was definitely intimidating to look at, but there was plenty of room to hike.

I was so excited about this part!

Waterfalls in the distance while walking on an ancient ocean floor…

Wildflowers…

This right here…this ascent to the glacier was hard. It just kept going. Eliza and I stayed together and I ensured her that it was definitely difficult and that we were so close! It was equally as hard on my ole needs going back down! Haha!

WE MADE IT!!!!! Grinnell Glacier!

I looked over at Jon and the kids and they immediately put their hands in the water, you know, to touch a GLACIER!! Woohoo!

A trip to a glacier wouldn’t be complete without Jon flexing!

Jane made the picture even better. 😉

A Marie selfie of myself with a glacier! Haha!

Gushers on a Glacier! LOL!

We all had a few snacks, took some pictures of some fellow hikers from Boston and then they took some of us and then we headed back down (Boston hikers included). It had started to sprinkle and we weren’t about to take any chances of getting stuck in a storm! I actually don’t have many pictures or video of the glacier because we headed back as soon as we could.

We added our rocks to the rock pile…

I added one for me and one for my Dad.

We saw a ram on our way down. I have a great video of him!

Jane picked some flowers…

…and Eliza spotted this plant that reminded her of Whoville!

More pictures of the kids with Grinnell Lake in the background…

…and we continued on down the trail. I finally got to be in front!

We happened upon a group of people waiting to continue down the trail when it was mentioned there was a wasps nest. The person next to us was allergic and someone down the trail had been stung three times and one person on the face. Henry and I went for it and ran through…on the side of a mountain… where it isn’t safe…I ended up getting stung and it wasn’t pleasant. PSA – don’t run, calmly walk. You live and you learn, BUT Henry and I were laughing about it for days and days so it made getting stung worth the story we’ll always share!

Jon and the girls calmly walked down about 10-15 minutes later. We couldn’t see them and we couldn’t go back. Jon kept the girls nice and protected and nobody ended up getting stung. We ended up running into the person who was allergic and they got through just fine, as well. I mentioned to a handful of people that we had an EpiPen and we warned others going in that direction of the nest! Also, the Boston hikers were so funny because they put on coats and hoods and pants…and all ran like Henry and I did, AGAIN, NOT THE SAFEST OPTION, buuuuut they were funny to watch and made for a great story…and luckily one with a happy outcome.

We continued down the trail and wouldn’t you know it, another fellow hike who we had hiked with for a better portion of the trail asked if we saw the mama grizzly and her cubs. We didn’t but she said it was behind us and then showed us video of the three bears!!!!!!!!!! OMG! I wish I would’ve recorded her phone of the the video because it was wild – three grizzlies!!!!! She said she just stood there when they crossed in front of her and that they must’ve passed just after we walked by! Definitely creepy, definitely cool!

We walked back to the boat to take us back to our hotel, but upon arriving we thought we were in line, but apparently there’s someone who has to be told your last name and to have enough room on the boat. We didn’t know that, so we had to wait for another boat to arrive 45 minutes later. We could’ve just hiked back the extra two miles but our legs were done (we hiked 8 miles – half of it being uphill), it was getting cold and windy and there was DEFINITELY a storm-a-brewin!

I truly hope the kids dream about these hikes. I told them to breathe it all in so many times.

See that cloud? That’s where we were…and that cloud was filled with rain. We were grateful to have a little shelter to sit under while we waited for the boat to arrive.

I don’t think Jane minded waiting either…

Just as we got on the first boat it started to rain and then the hike between lakes was a wet one! People were still heading toward Grinnell Lake and Grinnell Glacier as we were headed back…when in Rome!

We arrived back to our room and settled in. It was the best room, yet. With two balconies and large beds, two bathrooms and two rooms! It was perfect! I took the best shower of my life with a clawfoot tub! I hope to never forget it! I was so relaxed!

The rain rolling in was awesome, too! I love rainy days, but I’ve added loving rainy days while in the mountains to one of my favorite things. 🙂