We’ve stumbled upon yet another minor snag in our quest to plan our epic summer camping roadtrip.
While dogs are allowed in Glacier (we’ll be traveling with 2 pooches), they are not allowed on any of the trails.
So that sucks, though I am sympathetic to the reasoning.
We’re planning on tent-camping out of the car for two nights and hiking around with the dogs for one full day. I’d rather not have to drive out of the park to kennel the dogs, then back in to go hiking, then back out to get the dogs, but that’s looking like what we’ll be doing.
South of Glacier there are a cluster of Montana State Parks around Flathead Lake which may provide a more dog-friendly alternative.
But…
We both really want to go to Glacier. The dogs are so far ambivalent.
Leave the dogs at home with a relative or nice kennel? Might not be what you want to do, but it will make your trip less inconvenient. All my friends and family with dogs usually leave to dog with someone or a kennel and the dogs have been just fine afterwards. Actually, I don’t know anyone who’s brought their dogs on a trip with them. It would seem like a hassle to me, but I am also not a pet owner.
I think we’ve decided to kennel them in Missoula MT the morning we drive up to the park and pick them up on our way back through Missoula enroute to Bismarck ND. This way where we camp isn’t dependent on proximity to a kennel.
The total trip is going to be 2 and a half months long, which makes leaving them behind prohibitively expensive. Friends and neighbors will be cat-sitting for us, but just out of curiosity I called my vet (where we usually kennel both the dogs and the cats during shorter trips) and the cats alone would’ve cost $2700 to board. That number still makes me choke. Not to mention that we’re very much looking forward to having the dogs with us. While we’re mostly car-camping, we do plan on taking my dog, Bela, on our 3 night backpacking trip of the Lost Coast when we’re in Humboldt visiting my family. My mom will be dog-sitting our little girl Emma, who isn’t cut out for backpacking.
Glacier is just the only park on our itinerary that hasn’t indulged us in having them with us on the day-hike trails.