If you find yourself in Central Montana, buying or renting a kayak is a great investment. The region has amazing water, both lakes and rivers.
We enjoy visiting Glacier National Park in the summer. Although not nearly as busy as Yellowstone, Glacier can be busy. The east side of the park has some of the best scenery and seems to receive a fraction of the visitors. A crazy thought had come up around the campfire the previous evening. We had kayaked in Glacier a lot but had never really thought of our kayaks as transportation. The forecast called for very warm temperatures the next day and we were close to Saint Mary Lake and it seemed like the perfect time for some fun in the lake. We had noticed on the park map that there was almost no access to the south side of the lake.
The next morning we drove our kayaks and two little ones to the boat docks near Rising Sun and set out across the lake. The lake is incredibly beautiful and fairly thin making it easy to paddle across. We coasted along the south shore with no one in sight; we couldn’t hear the road or see another person. We drifted by several amazing beaches where we saw animal tracks and tried to guess what they were from.
After exploring by water we decided to come ashore in an amazing little bay with a fun rock just offshore that was perfect for jumping in. It was the perfect picnic spot. There were at least a million good skipping rocks. The kids explored along the shore looking for treasure while drying out from a swim. It was the perfect crowd-free day in Glacier.
