MT – Day 10 – Baring, St. Mary and Virginia Falls Hike

8 pictures in this post.

Unlike Yellowstone Park, big rigs are NOT allowed to drive through Glacier on the Going-To-The- Sun Road. (The road is too narrow!) This changed our plans a little, which turned out to be a really good thing due to the weather that came in later in the day, hence hiking to Apikuni Falls last evening.

Maximum length for driving through the park is 21ft, maximum width is 8ft.

Our long bed dually was able to go through so after breakfast off we headed to the St. Mary Glacier National Park entrance. First stop was the visitor’s center to gather information and watch the video. Then we headed to Sun Point. Here we parked and started our 3.1 mile hike (one way). The weather was dry but cool. We were well equipped this time with raincoats, hiking boots and sticks, snacks, lunch and lemonade.

Although we had been to St. Mary and Virginia Falls before this was our first time to Baring Falls. Whilst we had bear spray with us, this is a well-hiked route so no bears in sight. This trail is narrow so single file is required most of the way and there were times we had to stop to let people pass. Easy at first, it was not long before Baring Falls was before us.

From there we headed onward to St. Mary Falls.

Way in the distance over on the other side of St. Mary lake, Caleb spotted waterfalls. Was that where we were eventually headed? Surely not! (Answer is below.)

St. Mary Falls has some flattish rocks so we joined others with our picnic lunch amidst the deafening roar.

Ready for some climbing? You’d better be! Whilst Virginia Falls is only 0.7 miles from St. Mary Falls it felt a LOT farther! (Yes, it is the falls pictured from a distance above.) The climb is steep at times and it was only when looking back at old photos that we realized that ten years ago when we were here we NEVER reached the top. 0.2 miles from the top there is an area that you can see the falls from but don’t be fooled! Keep walking up the hill and you will be rewarded with some AMAZING falls. Wow! Glad we had our raincoats though as the spray could easily soak you through if you stayed close enough for long.

Nobody’s going to deny it, we were tired. Did we want to walk the 3.1 miles back to the truck? Nope! SO the vote was to walk 1.6 miles to the first available shuttle stop. Look at this marmot (spied by another hiker) that we saw as we started our descent:

Later on we saw this doe. She was right by the side of the path, seemingly oblivious to all the attention she was receiving. Whatever she was eating must have been good!

Not long after this encounter it began to rain! It was not just spitting, it was pouring. Absolutely no shelter at the shuttle stop either. (Shuttles are FREE but intermittent.) We waited over 30 minutes for one to come by. Thankfully the driver was happy to cram everyone on. Back at the truck we decided to venture to Logan Pass but that truly was a waste of time not because of the location but because of the weather. No views today. We were damp and cold and the rain was coming down hard. No more Glacier National Park today. We went home, all got changed into warm, dry clothes and headed out to eat.

We chose to go to Johnson’s Cafe. There we enjoyed DELICIOUS soup, homemade bread and a good meal. Richard and I had the One Seventy Eight burger which had bacon, cheese (I ordered mine with no cheese), barbecue sauce and coleslaw. The burgers were not the best we have ever tasted but okay. The seasoned fries were very more-ish!

Kids were eager to go back and get in the hot tub. No thank you! It was cold outside. That night or more accurately the early hours of the next morning, the wind came through. OH MY! We have experienced high winds at Treasure Lake but they always seem to hit on the end of the camper. This time we were getting hit broad side. It was rough, the camper was moving. No one got much sleep.

SO SO thankful that the weather stayed nice for our hike up though. It was the perfect temperature at around 60-65F – not too hot and not to cold.

Liz