Glacier National Park

John and I took a summer trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. And today I’m sharing logistics and highlights from the trip.

The park opened 100% the day we arrived (June 15^th), and we were praying for no late spring snow storms to close the road.

And guess what?  The day after we left, the park closed again for a blizzard.

We were so lucky with weather, but you never know!

Travel

Because we never shy away from a good road trip, we considered driving the 1,200 miles, but ultimately decided to fly.

We knew that driving 2 days to the destination and then driving around the park would make for a long and exhausting trip.

Which was not our goal.

We flew into Kalispell, MT via Delta Airline.  Which, of course, had a plane change in Salt Lake.  Because Delta always has a layover in SLC. 

But the Kalispell airport!  Oh, my! 

It might as well be a spotlessly clean, upscale ski resort.  An outstanding and reasonably priced restaurant, beautiful bathrooms, fireplaces with cushy seats, and an outdoor patio area overlooking the Rockies are just some of what’s to love in that airport.

The best airport I’ve been to.  And I’ve been to a lot of them.

We rented a car through National.  I think car rentals may be more expensive than airfare in Montana in the summer.

Packing

Paying to check luggage is not a way we like to spend money.  Nor do I like waiting for luggage at the carousel. 

So we had planned to do laundry and minimize what we brought. 

I called the lodge ahead of time and found there was a laundromat just a few miles down the road.  That worked out great and I could have actually brought a couple fewer outfits.

The weather was quite cool in the mornings, but sunny and warming in the afternoons.  I wore workout clothes every day except our town day and on the plane.

Two layers of sweatshirts were perfect.

Preparing for this trip, I knew I needed a new travel backpack and I purchased this one from Amazon.

I saw this one or very similar ones everywhere in the airport.  It’s the most awesome contraption ever invented.  In fact, there are actually too many zippered compartments.  It got a little overwhelming.

In addition to pockets for everything, there are these compression dealies that allow the bag to compress to briefcase size. 

It fit perfectly on top of my carryon suitcase.  I didn’t use it as a backpack, but as a tote bag.  Since I tend to whack everyone around me when I wear a backpack through the airport.

Accommodations

Finding the right place to stay for a visit to the park can really be overwhelming for first-time visitors.  We reserved and paid for a cabin three months prior to our vacation. 

The Silverwolf Log Chalets are just a few miles south of the west park entrance and excellent for convenience.

The location was about 25 minutes from the Kalispell airport and about 30 minutes to the charming popular town of Whitefish, MT.

We rented a cabin with a kitchenette, but we didn’t know the kitchen would not have any dishes, flatware, glasses, etc.  So basically not really useful for eating all our meals there.

Luckily, we didn’t load up on groceries!

We found it worked best for us to do a park day one day and a town day the next day.

So if you’re thinking about a trip to the area, accommodations in town (Kalispell or Whitefish) will add an hour to your park commute.

Dining

We had hoped to eat a number of meals in our cabin but since that didn’t work out, we found dining to be somewhat of a challenge.

Many of the restaurants near our lodge were understaffed and we couldn’t be seated, even during non-peak times.

Asking locals for recommendations turned out to be reliable for the best experiences.

We took a couple trips to the grocery store just a few miles down the road when we wanted something simple in our room.

Outdoors Activities

Glacier offers all levels of hiking trails with the promise of spying critters in the wild.  But.  Yep, a but.

It’s crowded!  Even arriving in the park prior to 7 a.m. opening, we were unable to park at some of the popular hiking spots.

In fact, without a pass, you cannot access the main west entrance for the Going to the Sun road from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Passes are granted beginning at 7 p.m. the night before on Recreation.gov and cost $2.

Lake McDonald and the historic lodge cannot be accessed without traveling this road, and this should not be missed.

Boat tours on the peaceful lake looked so beautiful.

We were also unable to access the Many Glaciers area due to crowding.

Right over the border on the Canada side is the Waterton Lakes National Park.  Unfortunately, our US parks pass didn’t work there, but it was certainly worth the trip.

The Canada side was not crowded at all.  We got in a little hike and were rewarded with a close up sighting of a big blonde mama grizzly and two brunette cubs!  John was ready to turn around and go home right then, considering the trip a success.  He loved that.

The GuideAlong GPS touring app has served us well on a number of trips so we purchased the Glacier tour and, as always, we learned a lot about the park and got good tips.  The narrator pointed out highlights, where to stop for good waterfall viewing, and hiking recommendations.

On our last day we took a late afternoon rafting trip in West Glacier.  Rowing and white water are no longer appealing so we took a “scenic” ride which involved no rowing (good for shoulder surgery recovery) and a fantastic afternoon.  A bald eagle soared overhead at one point.

Wild Life

For me, absolutely the best part of the trip was up close animal sightings.  Driving up Going to the Sun Road early one morning there were three mountain sheep right on the road.  It’s a narrow and steep road, so it was dicey with traffic, but I just rolled down the window and snapped a shot.

Little marmots and chipmunks and deer were plentiful.  They were quite happy to sit still and pose for pictures.

Seeing the bears and eagle were highlights.  And we didn’t need to go on any strenuous outback hikes to view them.

I will say EVERYONE (include us) carried bear spray.  It can be quite nerve wracking to be in the wild with such awesome creatures.

A note about bear spray:  It’s over $50 a can and all hikers need to carry a can.  Luckily, most hotels have cans available to borrow at the front desk.

Town Visits

Alternating park visits with town visits worked really well.  We toured the historic town of Kalispell and visited the Conrad Mansion Museum.  The Conrads were the founding family of Kalispell and the home was full of original items from the late 1800s.

We took a self-guided tour and there were a lot of folks visiting the day we went.

The grounds are amazing and we ended up speaking with the friendly head gardener for quite some time.  The gardens are like a park and locals walk along the paths for exercise and relaxation.

The whole area smelled so good and the peonies were talking to me personally.

The second town visit was to Whitefish.  The town has been gentrified and is a ski destination.  Homes and condos sell in the millions.

All that money makes the downtown quite charming.  Even the train station is picturesque.

The town of West Glacier sits right at the west entrance of the park.  It consists of a few shops, miniature golf and river access.

It’s not much, but it is so charming.  Every building is graced with overflowing baskets of flowers.

In fact, everywhere we went in Montana had annuals planted everywhere.

Wrap Up

Do you love national parks as much as we do?  Which is your favorite?  The only disappointment is how very crowded they are for in-season visits.

Thank you for coming along with me and as always, God bless you and yours.