The Going-to-the Sun Highway has such a cult-like following that some Internet detectives have spent recent weeks analyzing the live webcam of a high-altitude parking lot just to catch a glimpse.
They’re now able to put boots on the ground as this iconic highway fully opened to motorists Monday after an eight-month winter closure.
Your take on this feverish obsession probably comes down to something simple: You’ve either experienced firsthand the beauty and grandeur of this stretch of road in Montana’s Glacier National Park — or you haven’t.
For many people, there’s no middle ground.
There are practical reasons, too, why people go gaga about the Going-to-the-Sun. As the park’s sole east-west artery, it connects the two most-visited entrances and unlocks Glacier’s sprawling interior to recreationists for a scant four months of the year or so.
And as a National Historic Landmark, the highway is a destination unto itself. A slow, winding west-to-east journey takes visitors through lush valleys before steadily ascending along sheer cliffs with sweeping views of glaciers, alpine lakes, cascading waterfalls, and occasional glimpses of wildlife until it reaches Logan Pass atop the Continental Divide and descends once again.
Ranked the third most-scenic drive in the U.S. by Tripadvisor reviewers, people tend to throw around superlatives like “stunning,” “spectacular,” or “unforgettable” to describe it.
At the highway’s opening ceremony in July 1933, Montana’s then-governor Frank H. Cooney summed it up in a way that remains apt today: “We may confidently declare that there is no highway which will give the sightseer, the lover of the grandeur of the Creator’s handiwork, more thrills, more genuine satisfaction deep down in his being than will a trip over this road.”
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission)
A Road That Shouldn’t Exist
A trip over the Going-to-the-Sun today wouldn't be possible were it not for a group of 1920s-era visionaries who first mapped this engineering marvel.
But the modern-day road crew deserves just as much credit.
It was while listening to a presentation by the park’s road supervisor a few years ago that local filmmaker Jordan Lefler became inspired.
“I thought how cool it would be to document that plowing process,” Lefler recalled. “It’s very orchestrated.”
He enlisted the help of his brother and fellow filmmaker Logan Lefler, and the duo initially set out to document that annual ritual, only to learn their access would be limited due to safety concerns. Undeterred, they decided to take a broader purview of a road that shouldn’t exist.
And their timing couldn’t be more perfect: One day after the Going-to-the-Sun re-opened, the brothers pulled back the curtain on their documentary film that celebrates this road.
“Journey to the Sun” will premiere on Tuesday in Kalispell, launching a summer and fall screening tour that will hit various cities across Montana and potentially some places in Wyoming.
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission)
Beautiful Sweep of Road
Part of what makes the road so iconic is the route itself.
Before construction began in the 1920s, engineers proposed three potential routes. One of those designs was "really hideous," Lefler said, featuring a dizzying dozen or so switchbacks, more like a utilitarian logging road.
Instead, today’s scenic highway uses the mountain’s natural topography as a guide and features only one official, albeit massive, hairpin switchback.
Dubbed “The Loop,” this switchback marks the transition into the white-knuckled portion of the drive for some people, as a low brick wall or guardrail is all that protects cars on one side of the road, while the other side hugs a sheer cliff
Born and raised in Arlee, Montana, about 115 miles south of the park on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Lefler said his love of both the outdoors and photography meant that he naturally gravitated to visiting Glacier quite frequently.
Now having spent so many hours behind the lens documenting this place he loves, he sees some aspects of the road in a new light.
“When I hit ‘The Loop’ area and see the road laid out ahead of me, I see how it blends in with the landscape,” Lefler said. “We have some people to thank for the beautiful sweep of the road we got today.”
First Impressions
One of the beauties of this highway is that each journey up and down offers something new to experience even for regulars, while first-timers might feel a tinge of regret: How have I not visited here before?
That was a vexing question for Mickey Shannon on his first visit to Glacier, and that’s saying something: His professional photography business takes him to plenty of spectacular places.
“It’s phenomenal,” the Kansas-based photographer said of his first experience driving the Going-to-the-Sun. “It’s easily one of the top roads in the United States, if not the world.”
When he arrived in 2022 to capture the fall foliage, Shannon quickly scrapped his pre-mapped itinerary because he was compelled to pull over dozens of times instead of the handful of stops he’d planned.
The vistas were perfect for his portfolio, but Shannon said it was hard to beat an opportunity to capture some close-ups of a family of black bears. He added nearly a dozen prints from that trip to a collection that celebrates destinations ranging from the Grand Tetons to the Swiss Alps.
Though aspects of Glacier remind Shannon of other places he’s photographed in the Canadian Rockies, he’s eager to return in summertime to photograph the park’s alpine wildflowers.
“There’s just so much to see, it’s really unique,” Shannon said. “I could go on and on about how beautiful that drive is.”
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission) 
The Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, which opened for the summer Monday, is considered by many to be the most beautiful road in America. So be prepared to have plenty of company, human and otherwise, on the way to Logan Pass. (Lefler Bros., used with permission)
A Catch-22
But the park’s growing popularity has proved problematic for locals who want to pop in for a spontaneous visit. Over the past five seasons, Glacier instituted a strict vehicle reservation system for peak visiting hours along the highway to combat the congestion that comes with 3 million annual visitors, nearly double the average seen from the 1980s through the early 2000s.
That controversial reservation system was eliminated for the 2026 season, though a three-hour parking limit at Logan Pass will be implemented this year — yet another attempt to encourage visitors to ditch their cars in lieu of other modes of transportation including free shuttles or paid tours aboard the park’s historic red jammer buses.
Still, the throng of tourists who travel along Flathead Lake each summer creates a Catch-22 for small business owners in Polson, about 70 miles south of West Glacier.
Polson’s relative proximity to the park doesn’t necessarily make a summertime visit any easier for fixtures at the town’s Friday farmers market like Wendi Arnold, co-owner of Flathead Lake Cheese, and John Dalpiaz, owner of the apparel company Flathead Threads.
Arnold isn’t sure a Glacier getaway is in the cards this year. A dwindling number of local dairy farms means that she and her husband already spend a lot of time on the road, making frequent three-hour round-trip journeys to Kalispell to fetch milk for their artisanal cheeses.
If Arnold is able to squeeze in a visit, she might opt to leave the driving to someone else by taking one of the red bus tours.
“You get to just be a passenger and focus on the majesty of it all,” Arnold said. “There’s just something about being in those glacial valleys—the vistas are spectacular.”
A Most Epic Experience
Like Arnold, Dalpiaz isn’t sure he’ll make it to Glacier this summer.
But he’s had the good fortune of visiting the park so many times he can’t even remember his first time there — though he reckons it was before he could walk or talk — and has come to enjoy the park outside of peak season.
In fact, his “most epic” experience was a few years ago while biking the Going-to-the-Sun road with a friend before it opened to vehicle traffic, a popular springtime activity.
When the duo spotted a slew of grizzly bears headed toward them, four or five in total, they pulled off the side of the road and hid behind a tree, watching as the bears ambled past.
“That was a trippy experience,” Dalpiaz recalled.
While seeing grizzly bears undeniably makes for a memorable trip, Dalpiaz also enjoys appreciating the beauty of Glacier anew through the eyes of a first-timer—whenever that might happen next.
“Every little turn, every little bend of the road is jaw-dropping and you want to stop at every single opportunity,” Dalpiaz said. “It’s one of the most beautiful drives the planet has to offer.”
Anna Louise Jackson can be reached at: Jackson.Anna@gmail.com
