The Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park

66.85 Miles | 2:41 Riding Time

It’s Monday, July 8, 2024, and it’s Day 89 of my cross country motorcycle trip.

I’m on top of the world! I rode the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park today, and I did it in both directions!!

I started at 7:00 AM from the Rising Sun Motor Lodge, going East to West to the Lake McDonald Lodge. This is the same route I took a couple weeks ago in the rain. Today’s weather made it a totally different experience. It was stunning, breathtaking, amazing--there just aren’t words that fit. So, instead of words, I’ll share this video of the East to West experience.

Arriving at the Lake McDonald Lodge, I had some coffee and a snack and sat outside looking at the lake and wandered around for a while. I thought about going down to the Apgar visitors center, but decided against it. Glacier has a Timed Entry Reservation system if you’re going West to East. Since I was staying in the park, I didn’t need an actual reservation, but I would have needed to wait on the line--currently 2 hours according to the ranger I talked to.

Now came the hard part--the moment of truth. I’ve said before, I’m very uncomfortable on the cliff side of mountain roads, and the GTSR is no joke. You saw the drop-offs in the video above. In some places, it’s thousands of feet down, with no (or extremely low) guardrails, very sharp curves, oncoming traffic, and, to make things really interesting, waterfalls that just flow across the road.

I was nervous/anxious/scared/terrified to ride the other direction--along those cliffs. But, I also really wanted to do it. And I did!!! So, with a sense of accomplishment and an ear-to-ear smile that won’t stop, below is the video of my West to East experience.

What you won’t hear in the video, is me talking my way through it. “You got this. That was the hardest part. Look how f*ing beautiful this is. You got this. Ok...that’s really far down. Why did that red shuttle bus have to STOP right here? Breathe. You got this. You can do this. No, you actually are doing this.”

The Route