Golden Gravel

Red Meadow Pass | Montana

Dirt roads. Lots of laughs. Towering glacial mountains. Alpenglow treelines. Golden leaf-paved gravel. Sunkissed orange and red foliage. Clear blue rivers. Starlit night skies. Frosty mornings. Good company. And of course, bikes. Steel bikes. Ready for anything, like a hundred miles of gravel backroads near Glacier National Park.

When a buddy reached out to me about bikepacking the Red Meadow Pass Loop outside of Whitefish, and pitched the dates that just so happened to fall on my birthday, it wasn’t even a hesitation — yes! I’m in.

The first morning of the trip, we grabbed coffee and burritos from a cafe in Whitefish, MT. Everyone we saw in town thought we were riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

“Everyone we saw in town thought we were riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.”

“Nope. We’re bikepacking up and over Red Meadow Pass and back around. Just a quick one-night trip.” we would reply. As soon as we left town, we connected with a gravel road, which gradually climbed, opening up more and more views of blue mountains peeking through golden aspens and lush green pines.

Continuing to climb, we checked off landmarks along the way… Upper Whitefish Lake, Whitefish Divide trail, road signs and intersections, until the top of the pass — Red Meadow Lake. Wow, was it spectacular as fall colors reflected on the water.

Then came the descent off of the pass — it was long and just technical enough to make it interesting and an absolute blast. With that fast descent comes awareness and responsibility. Aside from the chance of a vehicle or person around the corner, we had our eyes out for wildlife, especially bears, given we had passed a nice pile of scat in the road earlier on.

“…we had our eyes out for wildlife, especially bears, given we had passed a nice pile of scat in the road earlier on.”

Soon, we landed in Polebridge, with 5 minutes to spare to grab the infamous huckleberry bear claws before it closed — score! We loaded up on pastries and cold beverages. Then the owner of the shop offered us some meatball marinara subs that she was just going to give to her dogs — uh, yeah! We learned in talking to her that there was a resident grizzly hanging out in the area. Good to know… First dinner done, and now we’re tied over while we go look for a campsite.

We found a nice spot for both our tents and my hammock near the river, looking into Glacier National Park. We built a little fire, had second dinner and told stories long after the sun set and the stars came out.

The following morning, we did a little fishing and then headed on our way. Unfortunately, the Inside North Fork Road in Glacier National Park was still closed due to fire activity and management, so we had to take the Outside North Fork Road. The views may have actually been better, but it would have been awesome to ride in the Park without any traffic whatsoever.

Except for several miles on the highway, the entire route back into Whitefish was gravel and in absolutely great condition with the previous week’s rain. We landed back in town around 5, with plenty of daylight to spare to grab dinner and celebratory beers before riding back to our cars.

All in all, this was an incredible route. The elevation gain wasn’t terrible, which allowed for a leisure, chill pace of late mornings and stops throughout the day while still arriving to camp before it got dark at 7. Not bad for 50 miles per day, fully loaded, and a bunch of dudes screwing around on their bikes half the time!

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Head to bikepacking.com to find out more about the specifics of this 105-mile route through the incredible country surrounding Glacier National Park.