Exploring the Majesty of Glacier National Park The Crown of the Continent

On May 1st, 2025, Dave and I flew into the Kalispell airport for our much anticipated 9-day vacation to Montana and it's National Parks. We had reserved 2 bicycle rentals upon our arrival; however, that fell through causing us to scramble for another rental company. In the meantime, we picked up our rental car, minivan this time to tote around our bikes, and began driving towards our Airbnb.

We only got about 3 miles before we saw our first brewery, Sacred Waters Brewing Co., causing us to make an abrupt U-turn into their parking lot. Sacred Waters is known for their Bobs IPA which is only available in their tap room on a limited basis. Thats what Dave had. I on the other hand had a flight which included a very spicy and delicious Little Salmon Fire (chili pepper ale). The bartender was so helpful with recommendations to do around town and asked where we were staying. When we told her that we were staying at the Silos on Clarks Farm she immediately said "Oh, Eli the owner was just in". Yes, that's right we stayed at a silo that had been converted into a beautiful apartment. It was on a 5-acre farm along with 4 other silo/apartments.

After leaving the brewery we checked into our silo, freshened up a bit and then headed to Wheaton's Cycle in downtown Kalispell. There, we were able to rent two bikes for the weekend. And wouldn't you know it there was another brewery only a few blocks away. So of course, we went straight to Bias Brewing for another round of beer and some food. The weather was so beautiful we sat outside in their large patio and enjoyed some more day-drinking.

Our intentions were to utilize the silo's firepit but by 7pm Dave and I were so exhausted from traveling along with the two-hour time difference, we never saw nightfall. I guess that was a good thing because we had set the alarm to wake up at 4:30am to get a very early morning start in the park. After eating breakfast, we drove a half hour before entering Glacier National Park at 6:45am. Oh, did I mention the temperature was 37 degrees?!

This time of year, you can only drive into the park for about 6 miles before it's restricted for bicycles only. Hence why we rented the bikes. That first day we logged in 27.5 miles on Going-to-the-Sun Rd, the only road in the park. We were able to bike to The Loop before having to turn around. It was a treacherous trek gaining 2,242 feet on our "conventional" bikes. E-bikes were flying by us left and right but, Dave says that those people don't get to earn the bragging rights to say they "biked Glacier National Park".

With the park officially not open for a few more weeks we practically had the park to ourselves, especially in the early morning hours. As the day went on the temperature warmed

up. Dave and I stopped

at various lookout points to include Lake McDonald, Sacred Dancing Cascade and the lookout to Heavens Peak. We were able to take pictures without having to crop out any other tourists. We biked through the West Tunnel that had waterfalls along the side walls and viewing windows. As we exited the tunnel the beautiful scenery magically appeared. It was so peaceful. When we got to The Loop, we stopped to rest, enjoy the amazing landscape and eat our packed lunch. There, we met a local man who recommended that we make a stop at Glacier Distilling Co. on our way back to the Airbnb. He raved about how great their whisky was plus, the distillery was just 10 minutes outside the park.

So, of course we stopped at the distillery. Montana law only allows distilleries to serve a maximum of 2 oz of liquor per person. So, our flight of 4 consisted of .25 oz per thimble. That left us with one more ounce to enjoy. So, we each had a specialty cocktail. Mine was a bloody Mary with their jalapeno/garlic/peppercorn rye whisky (Mule Kick).

That evening Dave and I ate at Kalispell's local steak house, Mercantile Steak. Dave had the 17oz bone-in bison ribeye. The chef had accidentally overcooked it but since my food was ready they brought out the ribeye and told us that they were also cooking him another ribeye. Needless to say we brough back enough food for a whole other meal which we enjoyed on our last day in the silo. Plus, their mashed potatoes with brown butter & sage were to die for!

The next morning after eating breakfast in our silo we drove 2.5 hours to the Lake Mary entrance of Glacier National Park. Upon entering the park we saw a small herd of deer. As we drove some more we saw a bunch of ground squirrels darting in front of our car and later in front of our bikes. We also spotted a few marmots. When we got about 6 miles in we had to park our car and bike the rest. The views from this side of the park are just as great as from the west side.

Dave and I began another uphill journey, this time to the Jackson Glacier Overlook. Since we were already sore from the day before this was ride seemed a little harder. As we rode, we stopped at the various overlooks to take in the views or check out the wildlife. The color of the water was a magnificent turquoise blue depending on the lighting. Again, we were on the Going-to-the-Sun road but this time we hugged the St. Mary Lake. It was another perfect day in the park.

After returning back to Kalispell we headed straight to Wheaton's Cycle to return the bikes. Our butts were so sore from biking these past 2 days we couldn't take another day. That evening we drove to the small town of Big Fork and had dinner at the Flathead Lake Brewing Co. sitting on a small hill above Flathead Lake. Again, I had a flight of their beers to include a huckleberry ale. We followed dinner with ice cream at Farm to Table just down the street where I couldn't resist having their huckleberry ice cream.

By the next morning the temperature had dropped to around 40 degrees and it began to rain. We headed to Somers Bay Cafe for breakfast at the recommendation of one of the girls from the ice cream shop and we were so glad we did. Its a small local cafe with great breakfasts. We shared the restaurant with the table next to us of local beekeepers. We scraped our plates clean and were good until dinnertime.

After breakfast we went to local laundromat since the only thing our silo did not have was a washing machine. We then went small-town hopping to Whitefish, downtown Kalispell and then back to Big Fork. Each town was about 20-30 minutes away. While in downtown Big Fork on their main street named Electric Avenue, Dave had to use the bathroom. Since it was Sunday there weren't many options so we decided to go into Kelly's Casino and Bar. I sat at the bar along with two other locals and ordered two glasses on one of their Montana whiskeys while Dave proceeded to the restroom. The temperature had gone up to a crisp 55 degrees and still had my light jacket on. The man next to me looks over and says, "Girl, you have a jacket on!""

After our drinks it was my turn to use the restroom. So I proceeded downstairs through the "casino" to the ladies room. When I walked inside I couldn't believe what I saw. Two toilets separated by a little partition. I immediately walked out thinking that I had possibly walked into the men's room but nope, I was in the right place.

That night I heated up our leftovers and we had our fire in front of the silo. We relaxed and took in the beautiful scenery of the Clark Farm. The next day we were heading to Gardiner, MT, the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park.