My last day in Glacier National Park was a crazy day. I had spent the night in West Glacier, just outside the west entrance of the park, and woke up at 5am. After leaving the motel 15 minutes later, I arrived at the Apgar Visitor Center at 5:30am…and yes, it was still dark out.

So, why was I at the visitor center so early? Well, I wanted to see the other part of the Going to the Sun Road, since it had been partially closed due to a fire on the west end of the park. The only way I could see the rest of the road was by shuttle bus (which was on a limited run.) Free passes for the bus were being distributed at 8am and I needed to get in line for a pass. Only 200 passes were going to be given out for the day…and I was third in line. 🙂 By the way, the two people ahead of me arrived at the visitor center at 4:30am!

Below is a photo I took at Lake McDonald, which is right next to the visitor center. The photo was taken the night before and you can see the smoke in the distance where the fire had been burning.

The shuttle bus ran from the west end of the park up to Logan’s Pass, which is where I was the day before. I went up to the pass and spent a little time there again and then came back down to the Apgar Visitor Center. Unfortunately the shuttle bus wasn’t able to make any stops between the two areas, but the bus I was on did make a quick unscheduled stop…so everyone could see this:

Yes, a grizzly bear! It was so great to see a bear before leaving the park!

After arriving back at the Apgar Vistor Center, I had to leave immediately to make my next destination: Yellowstone. It took me about 8 hours to get to the town of Gardiner, which is right at the north entrance of Yellowstone. Next week I’ll start sharing some photos and info about the Yellowstone leg of my trip.

Have a great week everyone!