Glacier National Park info needed.

[CoHiCntry]

Heading to Glacier for the first time this summer. We're thinking about renting an RV somewhere outside the park then camping in the RV for several nights in the park. Looking for any and all ideas and tips. Must see places, things to do, hikes to do etc. Best or worst campgrounds. If you've been there, any information you have would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[missjordan]

I don't know anything about the campgrounds but glacier is beautiful! You can go horseback riding for either the day or a few hours, or whitewater rafting. And driving up the going to the sun road. There is a series of old antique tour busses that you can jump on for the day and they take you around the park and give you basic history/answer questions. If you plan on making the drive i also recommend driving the seeley/swan highway as opposed to going thru the reservation. Both are beautiful drives but seeley/swan is my personal favorite

 

[hoshour]

Traffic can be really bad in the park. Call and ask a ranger for suggestions. I seem to remember that the traffic is worse in one direction on the Sun Rd. many people drive.

Take bear spray. That area has a lot of grizzlies.

I went bear hunting not far from there and it's just beautiful country.

 

[Againstthewind]

She nailed it above. http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/index.htm

We stayed outside the park in a tent. There are several campgrounds in the neighboring towns. I think that they were a little bit cheaper and close enough that you could get into the park and do your thing. If you wanted to stay in the park, reserve early, they fill up fast in the summer. Well, you might actually reserve early outside the park, too. They are all pretty well maintained, I think, its just where you can get a spot close to your activities. The antique bus rides were a lot of fun with a lot of good info. and would be a good start to kind of get a tour and decide what interested you most. At the visitors centers there was info on ranger guided hikes. We did a couple of those for hiking because they were really interesting also. My kid really likes that kind of thing. They were also on trails where there were a lot of Big Horn Sheep, Mt. goats, etc. My wife is big on the waterfalls and wild flowers, so that is kind of how we chose the other hikes. We spent a lot of time at Logan Pass and St. Mary's areas. There was fishing also, but we kind of ran out of time for that. There was just a lot to do and we didn't get to a lot that was offered. In that regard, I think you are doing a good job researching early so you can pick out kindof an intinerary for your trip. It was a pretty awesome trip.

 

[tim]

I used to backpack there in the mid 90's. some great country.

 

[hoshour]

You can rent motorhomes or trailers in Kalispell, which is pretty close by to the SW.

I looked at one site where prices were $100-$150/day for trailers and $250+ for motorhomes. That seems like an awful lot to me, but not using them, I don't know pricing.

 

[Cobbhunts]

If at all possible you should rent from MWR on a military post (Morale Welfare Recreation). They have some really good prices on campers compared to commercial rentals. Sounds like a great trip. Maybe one day I'll get to make that one.

 

[Halo]

Glacier is beautiful, we have been many times, kids & I love it. We like camping at the KOA in West Glacier and the KOA on the East side of the park is nice to but the one on the West side is better. Remember the max vehicle length on the Going to the Sun Road is 22' I believe so not an option for most RV's. Also remember the pass may not be open until the snow is cleared and that can be well into summer.

 

[CoHiCntry]

If you plan on making the drive i also recommend driving the seeley/swan highway as opposed to going thru the reservation. Both are beautiful drives but seeley/swan is my personal favorite

Can you elaborate on this? Where is this at?

Remember the max vehicle length on the Going to the Sun Road is 22' I believe so not an option for most RV's.

That's good info! Thanks!

We actually decided to scrap the RV idea. Decided to just rent rooms in a few different locations in the park. The cost is about the same either way. We're looking at staying a night or two around Many Glacier, a night or two around St.Mary's and then a night or two around Lake McDonald area. Any reccomendations on places that would be really neat to stay as far as views, good hikes close by, and wildlife viewing? I haven't made reservations yet. I wanna jump around so we get to see a lot of the park. We did a loop trip around Yellowstone and that was the way to go in my opinion. Thanks...

 

[medtech10]

I lived about 60 miles the eastern side of Glacier for about 10 years. I've hiked nearly every trail on that side of the park. I obviously have some favorites, but nearly everyone is amazing scenery. I've also backpacked into and camped at countless lakes on the eastern side of the park as well. The eastern side of the park used to be a lot less popular, but its now busy everywhere in the park. Make sure if you're planning on renting rooms in the park you get reservations as SOON AS POSSIBLE.....it fills up incredibly fast, even the backcountry campsites will be full really early in spring.

A couple of things to consider are the going to the sun road usually doesn't open until mid to late june, but depends on snow levels (lots already this year). The bugs (mosquitos, black flies, etc) can be absolutely maddening by 4th of july until the first hard freeze. The fly fishing in the mountain lakes is AMAZING so if you're a fly fisherman a fly rod is a must (otokomi lake is my personal favorite). The campgrounds will be full by mid-afternoon everywhere Thursday-Saturday, although still very busy other days will be much more doable later in the day.

The Many Glacier lodge is a must see. The history of it is amazing, and its very interesting looking at all the pictures and stories on the wall. I would also say that a person must hike to at least one of or both of the Chalets......they are really amazing in my opinion.

As far as wildlife viewing, you can see animals everywhere in the park but the western side is much more condusive to seeing wildlife. Black bears are plentiful and have hardly made a trip without seeing one. If you want bighorn sheep then slides and mountains (even the shoulder of the road) at Many Glacier is the ticket. Mountain goats are everywhere but the top of going-to-sun-road has lots really close to parking areas and the goat lick on southern end of park has lots of goats easily viewable. I've seen lots of moose around the St. Mary area but again can be seen around any of the lakes and rivers. I've spent many nights up at gunsight lake (on the way to Sperry Chalet, and also GREAT fishing) and the mule deer are almost tame.

If you're going to do any backpacking or back country hiking I'd say the best bang for your buck (on eastern side) would be around many glacier. There is trails up to some REAL glaciers, great vistas, the Ptarmigan Tunnel is really neat, and again the lodge is really really neat. The grizzly bears are thick in that area and often have the trails closed so cross your fingers.

Hope some of this helps. It's one of my favorite places on earth, and everyone should see it at least once. It blew me away that many people that live close by have never even been there......sad

 

[CoHiCntry]

Thanks! Lots of good information. Sounds like we'll definitely be spending some time around Many Glacier. I knew reservations would fill up fast and from the looks of it there's already lots of places booking up. Still looks like we'll be able to stay everywhere we want though. I'm gonna place reservations hopefully tonight or tomorrow. We're looking at the first week in August.

The chalets are must do hikes for me. I just read "Night of the Grizzlies" so I'm intrigued to check them out. Also Trout Lake on the west side. I thought Goat Haunt might be a good place to hike as well. Sounds like there's a lot of good hiking right around Many Glacier too. I'll be with my folks so we won't be doing any over night backpacking, just day hikes.

Thinking about a boat tour, or a horseback ride. Definitely gonna try to do the antique bus rides. The guided hiking tours look neat too. Mostly just for the information that goes along with them. Thanks for all the information!

 

[missjordan]

Can you elaborate on this? Where is this at?



That's good info! Thanks!

We actually decided to scrap the RV idea. Decided to just rent rooms in a few different locations in the park. The cost is about the same either way. We're looking at staying a night or two around Many Glacier, a night or two around St.Mary's and then a night or two around Lake McDonald area. Any reccomendations on places that would be really neat to stay as far as views, good hikes close by, and wildlife viewing? I haven't made reservations yet. I wanna jump around so we get to see a lot of the park. We did a loop trip around Yellowstone and that was the way to go in my opinion. Thanks...

Since your driving thru Colorado your going to come thru my hometown of missoula,mt I'm assuming. From Missoula there are two ways from here to get to glacier/Kalispell. Either to drive thru the flathead Indian reservation and drive towards flathead lake or to drive hwy 200 thru Potomac and turn on hwy 83 and head towards seeley. Again both offer beautiful scenery but you might catch elk and deer on or around paws up. If you like birds and waterfowl, driving thru the reservation takes you right by 9 pipes which is full of birds. I read somewhere on the Internet that 9 pipes is full of more bird species than anywhere in the world. (Don't quote me on that one 100 percent though). Seeley/swan highway boarders the Bob Marshall wilderness while the reservation gives you a view as well of the mission mountains. Both drives are fairly about the same amount of drive time from Missoula to Kalispell so you could hit both of them on your drive up and return home if you wanted to. Bigfork, mt is also a small town worth checking out on your vacation too. It's pretty fun destination.

 

[CoHiCntry]

Since your driving thru Colorado your going to come thru my hometown of missoula,mt I'm assuming. From Missoula there are two ways from here to get to glacier/Kalispell. Either to drive thru the flathead Indian reservation and drive towards flathead lake or to drive hwy 200 thru Potomac and turn on hwy 83 and head towards seeley. Again both offer beautiful scenery but you might catch elk and deer on or around paws up. If you like birds and waterfowl, driving thru the reservation takes you right by 9 pipes which is full of birds. I read somewhere on the Internet that 9 pipes is full of more bird species than anywhere in the world. (Don't quote me on that one 100 percent though). Seeley/swan highway boarders the Bob Marshall wilderness while the reservation gives you a view as well of the mission mountains. Both drives are fairly about the same amount of drive time from Missoula to Kalispell so you could hit both of them on your drive up and return home if you wanted to. Bigfork, mt is also a small town worth checking out on your vacation too. It's pretty fun destination.

Gotcha, thanks! I booked rooms last night and glad I didn't wait any longer! I had a hard time finding rooms in the locations I wanted, with the dates I wanted for the price I was willing to pay. It made it a little tougher trying to find a place for my family and my parents. Might be real dives but at least it's a place to sleep and take a shower! We probably won't be spending much time in the room anyway.

 

[missjordan]

You should have a blast it's beautiful country. My family has cabins on swan lake which is a little over an hours drive to the park. So we try and make it up to glacier and spend some time hiking around in the summer.

 

[25contender]

Make sure you check out BigFork. While you are there eat dinner at the Bigfork inn. Get the crispy farm house duck. Glacier and BigFork are a few of my favorite places in the US.