It’s time to start planning my fall vacation. This year’s trip will be to Montana; specifically Glacier National Park. As usual, I seek Doper input.
My plan is to spend 7-9 days in and around Glacier. I will fly into Glacier Park International Airport and rent a car. I will stay half the time on the east side of the park, the other half on the west. A day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta is also in the itinerary. My interests are wildlife photography and mild-to-moderate hiking.
So that’s about where I am at. I’d love to hear any tips, experiences, must-see/do items, lodging recommendations, whatever ya got.
I’ve been to both parks many times over the past 15 years, and the experience has really changed. You say you’'re going to GNP in the fall, which is must smarter than going in the summer. During the summer there is so much traffic, and so many tourists, you can hardly get around. After Labor Day it starts to thin out, and by mid September you can easily get to anywhere you want to go. I would consider staying at the Lake McDonald Lodge in GNP. It’s on Lake McDonald and there is boat ride you can take while you are there. The views around there are amazing.
When I was in Waterton Park I stayed at the Prince of Wales Hotel, which I can recommend. It’s not cheap, but it’s a beautiful hotel with modern accommodations. You can take the boat cruise and hike in the Goat Haunt area and return on a later voyage. It’s well worth it.
Note that the weather can be iffy in the fall months so expect some cold weather and rain. As far as wildlife photography goes, if you are lucky you will see Elk, Grizzly Bears, and Mountain Goats, and lots of other animals, but you may need to hike away from the crowd to get to them. Enjoy the park while there are still a few glaciers to see. It won’t be too long before they are all gone.
We enjoyed many hikes in the park, some well used some much more isolated. Upper Grinnell Lake from Many Glaciers is highly recommended, but there are lots of hikes off GttSR that deliver. Highline, Slyph, etc. We also hiked up by Polebridge, much more remote, less dramatic, but just as amazing.
We went in 1986 (yes, we’re old). We went in June (I think); I don’t recall it being terribly crowded - may well be worse now, of course. We did a lot of hiking on various trails, and I think we did a boat tour on one of the lakes. We also went to a museum in a nearby town.
And we did a day trip to Waterton Lakes - I wish we’d had a bit more time there. I remember my can of Tab (I SAID we’re old) labelled in French.
If you want to stay in the park, make reservations ASAP - some of them book up very, very early.
The drive on Going-To-The-Sun Road is a bit hair-raising, if you’re height-averse. We saw the open-topped buses tootling along it with nary a worry, and we got tailgated by Winnebagoes. Eek. My husband discovered his fear of heights on that trip - luckily I was driving, and just kept my eyes on the road instead of the vistas.
We did not see any major fauna. I recall seeing signs everywhere to report bear sightings - they take them very seriously there. We had bought “bear bells” (large “jingle bells” on a string) and wore them whenever hiking. The closest we got to a bear was “:::sniff::: what’s that? Oh, ewwww” as we rounded a corner and saw a large steaming pile suggestive that the Pope had just been there a few minutes earlier. (explanation for obsucre wisecrack: “Is the Pope Catholic / Does a bear shit in the woods” becomes “Does the Pope shit in the woods”).
When we got back to our car that afternoon, we went to the next ranger station to report that. She said “Huh. I’m out of bear scat forms. I’ll have to use this other one”. Yes, they had a specific form to report finding bear poop.
If you want to see Mountain Goats I think the best place is Logan Pass and the Hidden Lake Trail. The flock that lives there are very acclimated to humans. I’ve had them walk right past me so close I could touch them. (This was before I knew it was best to keep a safe distance from them–those horns can do some major damage.)
I’ve been to Waterton many times. It is a pleasant daytrip, as it is not far from where I live.
Wildlife is all over the place. Often, deer wander through the townsite; and in the off-season, when the town mostly shuts down (October to May), it is possible to see bighorn sheep in town.
The road to Cameron Lake is twisty and turny, and pay attention to the speed limit, because at any time, you might round a bend and encounter a “bear jam”—some car ahead has spotted a bear and just stops (shoulders are next to non-existent on that road), forcing all traffic behind to stop too. Good chance for photos of a bear, but stay in your car for your safety.
Cameron Lake itself is rather nice, and there is a trail that goes along the lake, if you’re looking for a bit of a hike. Lots of opportunity for photos of small animals and birds.
The Prince of Wales is worth a look, even if you don’t stay there. Impressive architecture, inside and out. Go in and have a look around.
Just some highlights, and there is much more than those, but those should get you started.
Yellowstone is much better than Glacier for wildlife sightings. What Glacier has is mountains. Which doesn’t do it justice, because it’s impossible to do justice to the mountains of Glacier National Park.
Yes - and don’t assume that just because you’ve reserved an entry time slot you’ll dance past the check point without delay - there still may be some traffic backup.
Best plan is to enter the park when no reservation is required (before 7am, if 2025 rules are the same as 2024). You can then enjoy the Going-to-the-Sun road ahead of the intense traffic.
Sunrift Gorge & Baring Falls are well worth a visit. And I have fond memories of Many Glacier valley - but those are from long ago.
Visiting in the Fall, you do well to be weather-savvy. Tall mountains “generate their own weather” and (as J_A_Q indicates) it would not be strange to drive across the park and then learn that a late-afternoon return isn’t possible. The same sort of care is appropriate for any longish hike.
Yes. I had a geology book from mid-1970s that said the name should be “Glaciated Park”, as the glaciers that carved it have been in retreat for quite some time.
I was there once, 20-ish years ago. Spending half your time on either side is the right thing to do. Going back and forth for day trips is not practical.
Definitely hike at Logan Pass for the goats and sheep. We were told that the best place to see møøse is Swiftcurrent, though we didn’t make it there.
I visited in 2016. I was there starting 4th of July which is (or was) actually shoulder season. I chose Two Medicine area as 1) it was closer (driving from MN), 2) I figured it would be less crowded on the East side, and 3) I figured it would be less rainy.
I did find a camp site (some were reserved for day use due to holiday – figured that out when a nearby site had 6 vehicles) One day I drove to St Mary and bicycled to Logan Pass. (bikes were allowed early mornings). . I hiked some at the pass, but some snow closed some trails. Did see mountain goat close up. One the way down I saw a grizzly (1/2 mile away). Another day I took a ranger led hike to Dawson pass (using boat to get to/from start point) – Negligible visibility at the pass and some rain, but some awesome views one the way there and back.
True enough. Both parks (actually nearly ALL national parks) are so jammed with tourons that one can sit in a traffic jam for a very long time. I’ve been to Yellowstone several times, the first of which was in 1959, and the latest in 2009. That last time was really frustrating because of the endless logjams of traffic.
Glacier wasn’t bad in 2009, and we took the tour shuttle up the Going To The Sun Road. Less stressful and you can actually see the scenery instead of worrying about driving off a cliff while you’re rubbernecking.
Went to Glacier. Campgrounds were packed, so we went up the dirt road that skirts the western edge (Inside North Fork Road) of the park to the more primitive sites. Found a terrific site in Logging Creek, next to… a creek. Abundant firewood all around, nice pit toilets at the campground. Had a nice time. Had my Dual-Sport bike with me on the back of the camper and road all up and down that road (you ain’t lived till you off-road in a Nat’l Park. Did it in Yellowstone, too. All perfectly Legit), and back and forth over Going to the sun about 6 times. Went to Polebridge, got a sticker. Visited all the lakes up to the border. Saw lots of goats. Nice park. Be prepared to by Huckleberried to Death.
I would second both of these areas. As to the hotels, they look wonderful, but I’m sure they are quite expensive. We stayed at an AirBnB some distance away.
Speaking of Lake McDonald and the Many Glaciers area, I don’t know if we just happened to pick the nicest area in the park, or if it’s everywhere in GNP is just that nice. I don’t know but I’d go back and hike that exact same area again, and spend more time doing it.
As to traffic, we went on the 4th of July weekend this past summer of 2024, and as I said we stayed at an AirBnB on the Blackfoot reservation to the east side of the park. Traffic was only a problem for us while we were entering the Many Glaciers entrance, and also traversing the Going To The Sun road. I didn’t find the traffic excessive, but maybe we just got lucky.
I live in the DC area and used to commute via the Metro regularly. Locals all very quickly get the concept of “stand right, walk left” on the escalators. We can tell when it’s tourist season by the wide-eyed people standing on the left. Locals respond to this by anything ranging from an annoyed glare, to a “pardon me”, to barking “Please stand on the right (dumbass)”.
Our best wildlike sighting was at Grand Teton. We saw a cow moose across a lake on one hike, and a day or so later, a bull moose walked through our campsite, maybe 30 feet from us. Not being COMPLETE morons, we just sat where we were, barely moving (except to raise the camera to try to get a photo). Loads of bison. Pretty sure we saw deer, and I know we saw birds (grouse / pheasant?). We may have seen bison in Yellowstone (same trip, in 1985) but the big herd we saw at Teton was more memorable.
When we went to Grand Canyon in 2010, we basically made our lodge reservations the very day they opened up, a year before the trip, or we would not have been able to get in. For Glacier, we also stayed in the park but made the reservations just a couple months before (1986).
When we first went to the Grand Canyon, in 2005, we had an hour-long wait in the traffic backup just to get INTO the park - we were staying outside the park, as attempts to get in-park lodging were a bad joke.
Zion National Park does something interesting: unless you are staying in the park itself, you CANNOT drive around most of it. You park at one specific area, then there are frequent shuttle buses that go all along the main road. Dunno how late those run (we left by nightfall); it’d stink if your hike was delayed and you missed the last bus, but it made a wonderful difference in the amount of traffic and pollution. Grand Canyon (South Rim, at least) runs a similar bus, I think, but it’s not mandatory, and parking anywhere can be a huge hassle - I’d love it if they implemented this.
