Spring is the best time for bicycling Glacier National Park in northern Montana.
That's when adventurous bicyclists celebrate the few weeks that the high-country roads are passable, but gates block access to all motor vehicle traffic except snow plows.
It's especially true on the popular Going-to-the-Sun Road that runs through the park and up and over Logan Pass. This route gets so busy that restrictions for bicycles are posted during the summer months.
In “Glacial pace — You see so much more when you take in Glacier by bike,” Missoulian outdoors writer Michael Jamison reports that the bike-only season is short:
“The Sun Road ride only happens while robins are incubating their eggs, and Canada geese are hatching, and calliope hummingbirds are mating, and bull elk wear velvet crowns, and ruffed grouse are drumming. And then it’s gone.”
In May, photographer and blogger Bert Gildart noted that he could camp at a low-elevation campground, drive up to a parking lot, then bicycle up to areas like Two Medicine Lodge, which was still closed because of the snow.
The Glacier National Park websites updates a map of current snow-plowing operations on Going-to-the-Sun Road. I checked this morning and the portion over Logan Pass is still closed.
The Going-to-the-Sun Road FAQ, however, notes that the popular trans-continental-divide road has the following restrictions on bicycling:
From June 15 through Labor Day, the following sections of the Going-to-the-Sun Road are closed to bicycle use between 11a.m. and 4 p.m.:
- From Apgar turnoff (at the south end of Lake McDonald) to Sprague Creek Campground
- Eastbound from Logan Creek to Logan Pass.
Entry fees from May 1 through Oct. 31 for bicyclists are $12 for a 7-day pass (about half the rate of motorists).
Photo above from Glacier National Park website.
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