Multi-Day Hiking Glacier National Park Elopement

Juliana is quirky, smart, and musical. Lucas is one of those people who doesn’t say much or loudly, but when he does, you listen. Because whatever he’s saying, it’s going to be insightful, clever, witty, or a combo of all three.

These two climbers wanted mountains in the background. Not to scale them, but to marvel at their surroundings while committing themselves to each other on their wedding day. Juliana and Lucas are from Texas and have access to plenty of places to climb, including their local climbing gym (where Juliana happens to work—these two love climbing), and while we didn’t do any bouldering over the course of their 1.5 days of coverage, we sure got a workout trekking and sometimes even scaling rocks across the trail in between moments of awe and reciting their vows.

Scroll down to read more about their Glacier National Park intimate wedding…

Day One

Sunrise. The perfect start to Juliana, Lucas, and I linking up in person finally, after long months of planning, getting stoked, and tweaking timelines to ensure max adventure and presence. We planned to spend their half day catching sunrise and hiking to several nearby waterfalls.

There’s not much like an early morning wake-up call with the temperate wind and sun turning everything it touches brilliant shades of red, pink, and orange. While I often spend the first 30 minutes of consciousness questioning every decision that led me to waking up before the sun, I’ve yet to regret witnessing the sun creeping over the horizon. It feels like you’re the only person/people in the world and wow, I wish I could bottle that.

They spent their first few minutes keeping each other warm, engaging, and helping each other navigate the rocky terrain. Working together, caring for each other. A pretty great start to a marriage, if you ask me.

As the sun got high enough to disappear behind incoming clouds from the east, we trekked and soaked in the roar of two nearby waterfalls, snagging the last couple of parking spots. One thing about Juliana and Lucas, if you watch for long enough: they can’t help but have their inner climbers come out. Juliana placed her foot at a weird angle on a tree to tie her shoelace. Lucas and Juliana grabbed arms and counterbalanced so that Juliana was dangling over the water.

Day Two

Getting Ready Outside Glacier National Park

So their loved ones could be close, L&J opted to stay at Summit Mountain Lodge in their various cabins. In your Glacier National Park elopement research, you may have noticed the pickings are slim on the east side when it comes to amenities and restaurants. Summit boasts one of the only dinner restaurants for miles.

The grounds were the perfect spot for their first look and a playful tease that really set the tone for their day…

Ceremony near Pray Lake in Glacier National Park

Lucas and Juliana were immediately drawn to Pray Lake when we went over their locations document in their planning portal. Both want to travel the world (and hopefully climb all sorts of routes) and are always seeking those mountain peaks—Pray Lake checks those boxes.

A thing to note about Pray Lake for weddings: it holds one of the higher guest capacities in the park, aside from amphitheaters. Therefore, you can probably imagine there’s some demand. In fact, even though L&J applied in January for their August wedding date, that day was already booked up. We ended up having their ceremony in the Two Medicine Amphitheater and settled for the best-backdropped family photos anyone could ask for.

Solo Elopement Adventures in Many Glacier

While Lucas and Juliana had a higher guest count, which can make it a bit difficult to be as present and focused, they prioritized getting away from their guests to have a more centered moment together.

We hopped two historic (and US Coast Guard inspected) boats, Chief Two Guns and The Morning Eagle, taking us across two stunning lakes surrounded by glacier-carved peaks, before we started up up up toward the Continental Divide. We had an overlook of a brilliant teal alpine lake to get to.

If the teal and the mauve/pink of the alpine rocks were shown without context, anyone who’s visited this part of Glacier will immediately be brought back to this trail.

A snack marked our ascent stop. While enjoying Goldfish Crackers (a favorite of Juliana and I!) and some sandwiches, a Columbian ground squirrel swung by and I swear I could hear him say, “Mind if I join you?”. He (or she) sidled up next to us and snacked on some alpine vegetation. Juliana channeled Snow White in that moment.

Lucas and Juliana stopped at several viewpoints along the way to take in the absolutely insane views of the Garden Wall, glaciers high above, and revel in the breathtaking place they found themselves. We talked of books and musicals, everything and nothing at all.

Their final stop before we made it back to Many Glacier Hotel was the lakeshore where they originally wanted their ceremony (but couldn’t due to guest count limits). Our final moments of sunlight happened the same way their whole adventure started 36 hours ago: with play. They crossed swords, skipped rocks, and chased each other. Juliana grew up going to a lakehouse in rural Texas during the summer and somehow, this felt symbolic and reminiscent of those memories. Coming full circle and starting something new all at the same time.

If you’re dreaming of a day like this, full of intention and connection, reach out, and let’s co-create a Glacier National Park adventure together that sets the bar for your future adventures…