Mount Rushmore to Glacier

kridg wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions. We would like to make a day trip to Waterton NP and thought we'd stay at St. Mary's to be closer. Is that a good plan?

We are pretty familiar with that area as we spend 2-3 weeks each year camping close to West Glacier. We prefer the West Glacier side of the park quite a bit more than the East Glacier side. And we prefer Glacier over Waterton. We find Waterton beautiful but it can be very windy and cold as the prevailing winds blow up the glacial lake towards town.

Saint Mary is a good place if you want to do a day trip to Waterton though. Don't forget that you will have two border crossings to deal with (in/out of Canada) so make sure you allot enough time. The Chief Mountain crossing usually isn't too busy except during the long weekends, but is isn't as large as some of the other crossings so there can occasionally be lineups.

I would not take hwy 89 north to St Mary because it is narrow and VERY curvy. We avoid it with the trailer and take 464 north of Browning to Babb. I would take that route and then backtrack to St Mary. It will add less than 10 miles to your trip but remove lots of stress.

Make sure to do the Going-to-the-sun road. You access the east side from St Mary, but the views are much better past the summit on the west side.

Enjoy your trip!