Since Going-To-The-Sun Road is the main thoroughfare through the park and many have deemed it worthy of driving in its entirety, that’s what we decided to do with our full second day in the park. Since we were far enough on the east side, we figured we would drive all the way to the west entrance, take a detour to a cool area in the northwest side, then head back east – stopping at plenty of pull offs to take photos and also making time for a top rated shorter hike to stretch our legs. Surprisingly, GTTSR wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be while trying to gawk and gaze at the beautiful landscape. I am the designated mountain driver for our trips so I was plenty busy downshifting, and focusing ahead so Megan got plenty of pictures for us out the car window. We made a stop at Trail of the Cedars and decided to continue the hike on to Avalanche Lake. While All Trails call this trail “easy” I would say it’s definitely moderate. I felt like I was climbing more rocky terrain on the Avalanche Lake Trail than I have ever climbed elsewhere. Once we got to the lake it was beautiful, but the sun’s rays were burning our skin. One surprising thing I found is that no matter how often I applied SPF 70 – my skin was like an egg on a skillet. I guess that’s what happens when you physically travel closer to the sun. Soon enough, we were back on GTTSR and headed west. We decided to leave the west entrance of the park and go to the northwest area called Polebridge first and then spend more time in the west area of GTTSR when we headed back to our cabin. Polebridge was a quirky place where people stay when they visit the park. We stopped at the cute Polebridge Mercantile and shared a scrumptious huckleberry bear claw. We had called the store before we even embarked on our trip and they let us know that if we arrive by 4pm they should still have the bear claws available. One surprising thing I learned was that there is no electricity in Polebridge, and they make everything in their bakery via solar power. How cool is that? We were going to go check out a lake nearby but due to the road construction just northeast of Polebridge - the road was closed. We drove back to the western entrance of GTTSR and stopped at Lake McDonald. From there we tried our best to get that Insta-worthy picture of the colorful rocks in Lake McDonald. We brought our water shoes and enjoyed some freezing cold water up to our thighs for a little break from the heat. We ate dinner at the Lake McDonald Lodge – since their dining room was closed we ordered food to go and ate it outside. I had a burger and fries and a huckleberry beer while Megan had a side salad, side of pasta salad, and a local beer. We then drove back on GTTSR and enjoyed the views as we twisted and turned our way to the cabin.