Glacier National Park Info

From Florida? Good for you! That should be a great trip.

Since you're planning to split the week into two location segments, you might want to consider spending the first part of the trip on the east side of Glacier. It's a quieter, slower pace over there. You won't have the same worries about crowds and full camps over there.

Then when you move to the west, check out one of the RV parks like the KOA. I think our best KOA experience ever was at that KOA.

On the eastern side (the quiet side), consider taking a day trip across the border into Canada. Bring your passports with you and check out the other side, just to say you did.

I can't remember the name of the place (I think it had "Sisters" in the name), but there was an outstanding place to eat north of camp on the road up to Canada. Great pie.

Good for you for planning this trip. It's definitely worth the drive.

If you plan on staying inside the park, reserve. If nearby works, up to you.
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Also, you can't cross the park via GTTSR with a TT in tow. Just a friendly FYI.

The crowds aren't anything like YNP and actually we never noticed a problem on the west side. We stayed over there a couple of times and on the east side several times. The problem can be when will the Going to the Sun road be opened. That was delayed the last couple of times we were up there. You probably can't be sure it will be open before early July. Varies year to year of course. Weather is also a big question, nice sunny days seem to be at a minimum.

Glacier is absolutely a hiking park, meaning you have to get out and hike to see the park. Not that much to see other than the GTTS road.

Not much boondocking on the east side since that is mostly Indian Reservation. More on the west side but down south. Do not try Hungry Horse reservoir or at least be prepared not to find a space. It is very popular with the locals and was filled mid week when we checked. Lots of dispersed camping along Hwy 2 south of the park along the river that the highway follows.

On the west side do take a day trip up to Bowman Lake in the north, stop at the small cafe for their famous cinnamon buns. As for Canada go up on the east side to their Peace Park which is the northern boundary of Glacier.

We went with a 26' TT. Made reservations at a USFS campground on Hungry Horse, but only stayed there one night as I was able to get up early and go to APGAR and get a site (first come first serve) as people were checking out. You have to get there early, like 6 am, as there will be a number of people who will be doing the same thing. There seems to be quite a bit of turnover of campsites everyday, so if you're willing to go early then you can usually get a spot I think.

We pulled into Apgar in late June last year around 5 pm and were told it had filled just a few minutes before. Stayed in a commercial campground nearby and was in the park around 8 the next morning and no problem finding a site. We were there three nights and saw people getting sites into early afternoon except on Sat

Glacier can be very crowded, especially in July and August -- prime time there. If you want to drive the Going to the Sun Road and stop at Logan Pass to do some hiking (the Hidden Lake trail is awesome!), you need to be there very early in the morning, like before 8:00, to get a parking space. Really, anything along that road fills up pretty quickly in the mornings. Some say that waiting until late afternoon is a good time too, but then you are limited on how much time you have there before sunset. When we went, there was not one parking space available in the Logan Pass Visitor Center parking lot by 8:30 a.m.

The West Glacier KOA is a great place to stay! However, I see that they are already booking for 2021! It's possible they are already booked full for this year.

We had one very peaceful day in Glacier, away from the crowds at the Fish Creek picnic area. Very few people there, very quiet. Did a little fishing and a long hike along the shore of Lake MacDonald. Beautiful.

Whitewater rafting was one of our favorite activities in Glacier. Did that through Glacier Guides/Montana Rafting. Very fun!

On the east side of the park we really enjoyed the Many Glacier campground within the park. They don’t take reservations so we reserved at St, Mary’s campground and then drove over to snag a empty site at Many Glacier. They refunded our St Mary’s reservation. There are more good hikes on the east side. You can then drive south of the park to camp at the west side.

It is a beautiful park but when we were there in August a few years ago, they closed Going to the Sun road because of snow!

We were in Glacier in Sept of 2019. We got to Logan Pass at 7:30 am and were lucky to get the last Handicap Parking spot (wife has handicap card). Everything else was full. At noon when we left, people were arguing with the poor Park Ranger that was telling them that if they parked illegally they would be towed. People were trying to park off road, in the middle of driving roads, all over the place.

Many of the CG's within the park are first come, first served. Many Glacier on the east side is a beautiful CG that does take reservations. Currently they have about 1/2 of the sites reservable but by sometime in March the other 1/2 will also be come available. This is a very popular CG that books immediately when the booking window opens.

One useful took that is usually available on the NPS website is the Campground Status page. But it has only worked very intermittently for me in the last couple of days. If you can get it to load, you can see when the campgrounds filled on a daily basis going back several years. Hopefully they will get it back on line as it is a very useful asset to plan when you need to arrive at a given campground. And as mentioned above, you'll have to drive on US 2 around the south end of the park to get from one side to the other a one cannot tow over Logan Pass.

St. Mary's on the east side goes to first come first served in Mid August, so that might coincide with when you'll be there. Rising Sun is another option on the east side Logan Pass road. Apgar on the west is a big CG with good proximity to the Visitors Center where you can catch the shuttle bus. It is worth staying on both sides of the park as they are quite different. West side (the wetter side) has more forests further up the mountain while the east side is more rugged.

If you are going during the summer months, yes it will be busy. Not Yellowstone busy, but there is far less parking so one has to plan accordingly. If you are hikers, use of the shuttle system will get you to most of the trailheads. Using the shuttle one can plan loop hikes. But popular routes can mean quite a queue when you get to the bus stop at the end of your hike. We had to wait 45 minutes when we took the Highline Trail down to the Loop bus stop. As noted, if you want to park at Logan Pass, plan to get there at 7:00 a.m.

Great information, everyone. Please continue!

We are definitely going, planning to arrive there 8/14, for about a week. Will no doubt benefit from this information.

Any tips on places to not miss? Hikes, views, etc. Our limit on hikes is about two miles, unfortunately. Lived in Colorado for 30 years, so am familiar with mountain hiking, just getting old...

We will be traveling to Glacier from Yellowstone, and have a week to spend on the way. Anyone have favorite places to see/stay in western MT?

Thanks again!