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The 50 mile Going to the Sun Road first opened to traffic in Glacier National Park in 1933 and remains a key attraction in the park today. Prior to its opening, visitors came by train and stayed in the lodges built by the Great Northern Railway to capitalize on park tourism. To accommodate the new auto-touring crowd, the company built the East Glacier Auto Camp in 1941. It was later re-named Rising Sun.
During our stay in Glacier National Park, we explored Going to the Sun several times, stopping frequently to see the sights along the way. On our first trip down Going to the Sun Road, we began at the East entrance in St. Mary (scroll down to the end for the video clip.) We parked in the Rising Sun lot.
The exhibit in front of the motel describes Rising Sun as the place “where the mountains meet the prairie.” In addition to the motel, there are log cabins, a campground and a general store. Rose Creek flows through the complex to St. Mary Lake, with the mountain-prairie convergence allowing diverse wildlife to thrive here.
After exploring the area, we boarded the Red Bus for the Eastern Alpine tour. This tour travels Going to the Sun Road from St. Mary to Logan Pass. This fleet of White Motor Company buses have been touring Going to the Sun Road since the 1930s, with restoration and mechanical updates donated by Ford.
Our driver and guide, Laura, is a school bus driver during the school year and it’s apparent she enjoys her summer job as a Red Bus ‘Jammer.’ When she pulled up at Rising Sun to pick us up, she hopped out and rolled back the canvas top so that we could ‘Prairie Dog’ at stops where we couldn’t get out. And off we went for our morning’s adventure!
When we returned to Rising Sun around Noon, we stopped in for lunch at Two Dog Flats Grill. I didn’t have high hopes for a park eatery in a motor lodge, but our meal was surprisingly good. It is a simple, standard American menu with a few twists, and the food is well-prepared.
We had the huckleberry pulled pork, fruit salad, build-your-own burgers and the best fries we had the entire trip.
To see all of my Going to the Sun Posts, please click the following links:
- Rising Sun
- Wild Goose Island and Jackson Glacier Overlook (Coming Soon)
- Logan Pass (Coming Soon)
- Going To The Sun Road (Coming Soon)
- St. Mary Lake (Coming Soon)
- St. Mary Falls (Coming Soon)
Location: Going-to-the-Sun Road, East Glacier Park, MT 59434, USA
Designation: National Park, NRHP
Date designation declared: 5/11/1910, Lodge added to NRHP in 1996
Date of my visit: 6/24/2018