Traveling from West To East Glacier, it's NOT just Going-to-the-Sun Road

If you plan to visit Glacier National Park in the Winter or early Spring (from the third Monday in October to no earlier than June 1st), you cannot use the Going-to-the-Sun Road to travel from West to East Glacier. During this time, if you want to visit both West and East Glacier, you will need to take the long route via Highways 2, 49, and 89.

There are many, MANY ways to get to Glacier National Park, including by car, by train, and by plane. For the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that most people arrive in Kalispell and then have access to a car by renting one or by driving their own. Depending on how tired you are, you probably want to stop a while on this side of the park - West Glacier to rest for a few days and explore. From downtown Whitefish or Kalispell, it takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach St. Mary’s Lake in Glacier National Park.

Driving Directions from West Glacier/Kalispell/Whitefish to East Glacier/ St. Mary's:

1. Follow the signs to get from Kalispell to West Glacier National Park.

2. Once you get on Highway 2, stay on Highway 2 past the West Glacier National Park entrance.

3. Continue on Highway 2 until you reach the town of East Glacier, then take Highway 49.

4. Continue on Highway 49 until it ends at Highway 89, and take a right to take Highway 89 North.

5. You will eventually see signs for the town of St. Mary and the St. Mary Glacier National Park Visitors Station.

Continuing on Highway 89 north through St. Mary’s is the best way to reach Many Glacier, a famous area of the park that can only be accessed by this route. Out of St. Mary’s, continue until you see a sign for Many Glacier Road on the right. Follow this road to the Many Glacier entrance to the park.

Google map view of the drive between Glacier Park International Airport and St. Mary's town (directly outside of the east entrance to Glacier National Park.

Glacier Gems on the Route Less Traveled

There are two other not-to-be-missed Glacier Gems that you can only see by taking this circuitous route via the highways: Two Medicine and Goat Lick. Two Medicine is its own area of the park, like Many Glacier, while Goat Lick is merely a stop with a short walk from the parking lot (listed as 0.07 mi by the Day Hikes of Glacier National Park Map Guide). I would recommend these two very different areas to everyone visiting Glacier National Park.

Goat Lick

The turn off for Goat Lick is a 30-minute drive from the West Glacier Park entranceand a 26-minute drive from East Glacier Park Village, Mt. When you take the turn off you are met with a generous parking lot, complete with bathrooms, compared to other areas of Glacier. The walk is on a partially paved, partially packed earth path. If you do the entire loop, there are stairs; however, both ends of the loop meet up at the parking lot. to look at all the lookouts for Mountain Goats and are in any way stair challenged, go back to the parking lot and take the other path.

The real sight at Goat Lick is the mountain goats. Goat lick is at a lower elevation than where mountain goats are typically found. Although it felt cool to us in the spring, at around 60 degrees on the evening we visited, it is still very warm for mountain goats, who are used to much higher elevations and cooler temperatures. The reason mountain goats come to this area is the natural mineral seeps, which provide nutrients they don’t otherwise get in their diet, such as sodium, calcium, and magnesium. This means that the gorge seen at Goat Lick acts as a kind of salt/mineral block, similar to what is given to farm animals. The goats lick the surrounding rocks to gain these minerals, hence the moniker “Goat lick”.

Mountain goats across the gorge at Goat Lick Overlook. Goats are resting underneath Sheep Creek Bridge.

I was very excited to see goats at Goat Lick. Spring is when they are most frequently seen at the mineral seep. We saw 6 mountain goats, including one mom and kid, which was really special. We were at Goat Lick in the first week of June at around 6 pm. Friends of ours saw goats as well the next day at around 10am. It may be worth bringing binoculars or a camera with a good zoom, as the mineral seep is large and there is no guarantee the goats will be near the lookouts. We were very lucky to see the goats right across the gorge underneath the Highway 2 bridge - Sheep Creek Bridge.

Mother mountain goat with new kid partially hidden behind her. While we were there the kid made sure to stay between Mom and the rock gorge wall whenever possible. So exciting to see!

Even if you don’t have time to stop, make sure to slow down and look at the mountain walls near the bridge next to Goat Lick. On our way out, we saw even more goats. Make sure you don’t stop on the road, however, as it is a traffic safety concern.

Two Medicine

The Two Medicine section of Glacier National Park is centered around Two Medicine Lake. Two Medicine Lake is one of the iconic photo spots in Glacier National Park, with images of a large mountain (Sinopah Mountain) reflected in a clear lake, with other, more distant, snow-capped mountains in the background. We did not get the quintessential reflection picture at Two Medicine because the wind was so strong that the lake was very choppy, complete with white-capped waves.

Windy day at Two Medicine, iconic Sinopah Mountain is featured prominantely in this image. Although it looks stormy in this image the sun was out throughout the day (you can see a patch of sun on the left side of Sinopah Mountain in the photo).

If the day had been nicer, we would have either taken a boat tour across the lake or rented kayaks or canoes to explore the lake. On the day we visited, the weather was so rough that no one was out on the lake. You can book a boat tour, kayaks, and canoes in person at the lake shore or virtually via Glacier Park Boat Company - an Authorized National Park Service Concessioner.

If you take the boat across Two Medicine Lake, it will take considerable time off a trip to Upper Two Medicine Lake, which can only be hiked to. Another nearby body of water you will likely see best on your way into the park and from Highway 49 scenic turnoffs for taking pictures, and that is Lower Two Medicine Lake. This is the first body of water that you will spot through the trees as you drive into the park.

One short walk at Two Medicine that I would recommend, no matter the weather, is the path to Running Eagle Falls (also known as Trick Falls). This is a 0.6-mile round-trip loop trail that features an interpretive nature loop on maintained packed-dirt/gravel trails. The interpretive nature focuses on abundant nearby foliage and includes both identification and historical uses of the native plants. We saw many families with kids of varying ages that seemed to be enjoying the trail. Due to the abundant rainfall during our trip, Running Eagle Falls was full to bursting, which made it difficult to make out one of the unique aspects of this waterfall, which is that water pours down from the top in the spring and also comes out of the lower rock at the same time, making it a two-part waterfall.

Running Eagle Falls/Trick Falls swollen after several days of rain.

We enjoyed visiting Two Medicine and taking the longer route to St. Mary’s Lake so much that I would include it on future trips back to Glacier National Park. I think the perfect next trip to Glacier for me - assuming it is later in the season and the Going-to-the-Sun Road is fully open- would be as follows.

Perfect Visit to West and East Glacier via BOTH Going-to-the-Sun Road & the Alternative Route

• Fly into Glacier International Airport, and book a vehicle.

• Stay in Whitefish (if you want more shopping and food options), Hungry Horse (if you want to be closer to the park), or even stay inside West Glacier for 2 nights.

• On the third day, pack up and drive via Going-to-the-Sun Road to St. Mary’s Lake.

• Stay in the town of St. Mary or camp for 2 nights, taking at least 1 day to drive up to Many Glacier to check out the wonders we missed on this trip.

• On the fifth day, drive via Highway 89 then Highway 49 to Two Medicine. Stay a night in the town of East Glacier Park or camp, depending on the weather. Spend most of the next day exploring Two Medicine.

• At the end of the 6th day, drive back towards West Glacier, stopping at Goat Lick along the way to look out for Mountain goats.

• Arrive back in Whitefish and spend a night there with plans to fly out the next day (flights tend to leave Glacier International Airport late - we know three different groups of people who flew out via this airport in the span of a week, and all of their flights left in the afternoon) - so make sure to give yourself time to shop in Whitefish for souvenirs before flying out.

This itinerary can easily be flipped, going the opposite direction, or adjusted if there is an area of the park that you want to spend more time at. If you are concerned about time, one reassurance I have is that when we visited Glacier National Park in the spring of 2026, we were easily able to drive to St. Mary’s and back to Kalispell in a day, including many stops and hikes. Our biggest regret is that we booked our hotel for that night in Kalispell rather than in St. Mary's, because we would have liked to spend more time on that side of the park.

Hope this article helps you make decisions on your trip to Glacier National Park so that you don't have any regrets. Regardless of what you choose to do, Glacier is a beautiful place, and you will enjoy spending time in its natural abundance. Thanks for reading!