Since we were on the east side of the park we decided to drive up to the Many Glacier Entrance of the park as we had not been there yet. It is supposed to be beautiful, it is a smaller area to visit but has lots of waterfalls and glaciers and a few lakes plus a lodge. Unfortunately we never got to see much of it. We got into the park border and then you drove through about 10 miles of road construction in a dust cloud. Some of that was one lane only so we had to sit and kill time until our side was allowed to travel. You eventually get to the entrance check point only to be turned around. They were not allowing anyone into the area unless you had a reservation for the lodge, the boat or a reservation for some type of guided tour. While we had the 7 day entrance reservation that we had bought in addition to our lifetime park pass they still turned us away. The parking lots were getting full and the remaining spots were being kept for people that had a specific reservation for an activity in that area. Would have been nice to know that before the long dusty drive. We did see a sign in St. Mary when we turned towards Many Glacier that said the parking lot was full but they should have made that a little clearer that only people with reservation for an activity were allowed into that part of Glacier. We were told if we came back after 4:00 we could probably get in at that time. Needless to say we did not come back we would have had to kill about 2 hours and then face another long dusty drive. We did get to see the lake along side of the road that was a beautiful blue.
The lake water is beautiful as it is fed by the glaciers.