Western Montana

We took a trip in late May to Glacier National Park. I was pretty excited to see the glaciers since they’re melting and are on track to be completely gone by 2030, so I wanted to see them before they melted away. It was still pretty early in the season so there was a lot of snow in the mountains and over the trails to the glaciers. I figured since my boyfriend and I were not going to make the trek in the snow that we had to do something in order for me to achieve my wish to see the glaciers. So I broke out of my normal vacation mold of planning and budgeting everything and spontaneously told my boyfriend to pull into the Glacier Heli Tours. What a great idea it was! Although I am a super nervous flyer and had never been on a helicopter before, I put my fear aside as I knew this was going to be well worth it.

Once we were quoted the prices for just my boyfriend and I to go I paused for a second. My pause promoted the lady assisting us to inform us that if another group were to join us, such as a group of two, it cut our costs down from $220 a person to $110 for the ½ hour tour we were looking at. The lady informed us that there was a group of two who were interested in going on the same tour, however they were budget conscious like us and were waiting for another group to join them. The lady make a phone call to them and 10 minutes later they arrived. Once they arrived we each stepped on a scale, my least favorite part of the whole excursion, however necessary due to safety reasons of balancing out the weight of the helicopter.

With everything all squared away we walked out to the helicopter and I was asked if I wanted to sit up front - I was super excited as I got buckled in. The rest of our group got situated and the piolet started up the helicopter. We took off and started flying over the park. The piolet pointed out the names of the mountains and lakes and pointed some mountain goats (which were always on the side of the helicopter that I was not sitting on… so I missed a few goats).

After I had gotten over my initial excitement, I realized I started getting nervous, really nervous. The weather was not very good for most of our trip to Glacier, and this day was nice for the most part but there were a lot of clouds hanging around the mountains. We were told when we took off that the side windows could be opened for additional air, fresh air always helps me when flying, so I had my window open. It started to rain a little bit and the piolet closed his window, which caught not only my eye but made my nervous mind start thinking, especially when he looked over at my window. Then the piolet looked out the front window up at the blades and started moving the instruments on the panel next to me. My fear had gotten the best of me and I started to freak out! I just hoped that the piolet did not notice (which I was pretty sure he had as I had one eye on him and one eye looking for the mountain goats).

To make matters worse the ride got a little bumpy and I started thinking horrific thoughts. A few sharp banked turns off the mountains and I looked back over my shoulder at my boyfriend and gave him a worried smile. He of course gave me a huge smile. He was enjoying himself and I was totally jealous. As the helicopter climbed up the side of the mountain and the piolet pointed out the only glacier we got to see on this trip, Harrison Glacier, my fear was suppressed for a few seconds. The bad weather had rolled in fast and cut our trip short of viewing other glaciers. I was disappointed but safety was more important. We started heading back to the helicopter office, flying over Lake McDonald, giving us a complete view of the lake. We touched down and unloaded from the helicopter. Relief!

It was an amazing experience and I was really glad we took the opportunity. Although I did freak out a little it still was a lot of fun, and was completely safe the entire time. If you are interested in going on the helicopter tour I would suggest doing it, it is a little pricey but an excellent way to see the park, especially if you are short on time. We learned on our trip that the average visitor to Glacier National Park spends about 8 hours in the park. There are two tours, a ½ hour and an full hour. The full hour was not offered that day due to weather. They have a cancellation policy without charge for a 24 hour in advance notice and a full charge for no shows.

Glacier Heli Tours / Minuteman Aviation Inc is located at 12205 Hwy 2 East about a ½ mile away heading west from the West Glacier gate. For Reservations call 1-800-879-9310 or www.glacierhelitours.net