Glacier Nat'l Park in 5th wheel, June 2020

Probably too early for GTS road to be cleared. Depends on how snowy the winter was.

agesilaus wrote:
Probably too early for GTS road to be cleared. Depends on how snowy the winter was.

Won't the CG's be open?

Thx

Steve

Yes barring any other problems like fires. Getting from one side to the other is done via US 2 which hooks around the bottom of the park. I drove that this summer but did not camp at Glacier. 2 is a good highway. I don't feel qualified to advise on dry camping cg, last couple of times we stayed at FHU cg. Don't try Hungry Horse Reservior for boondocking around the bottom of the park. I can tell you that from hard learned experience from this summer...heh. Get the MVUM from the National Forests in the area, they are online and will show you boondocking availability. There are a lot of areas around the park. They call it distributed camping on the maps.

agesilaus wrote:
Yes barring any other problems like fires. Getting from one side to the other is done via US 2 which hooks around the bottom of the park. I drove that this summer but did not camp at Glacier. 2 is a good highway. I don't feel qualified to advise on dry camping cg, last couple of times we stayed at FHU cg. Don't try Hungry Horse Reservior for boondocking around the bottom of the park. I can tell you that from hard learned experience from this summer...heh. Get the MVUM from the National Forests in the area, they are online and will show you boondocking availability. There are a lot of areas around the park. They call it distributed camping on the maps.

I guess I wasn't clear in my original post, the only two CG's I am currently interested in are Fish Creek and St. Mary, and that is because I can make reservations with recreation.gov in advance.

Thanks for the Hwy info. I looked at the map and understand it now.

Steve

It depends on what side of the park you want to stay on. In my opinion, the west side where Fish Creek is located is more touristy. Although I have not stayed in Fish Creek myself I did drive through the campground and it has more privacy between the spots from what I remember. The timber is taller and thicker. St. Mary on the east side is more open of a campground with smaller timber and has more of an open feeling. However, to me, the better hiking and views are on the east side. Particularly the hiking trails and views in the Many Glacier area. Going to the Sun Road may be open by mid to late June but it is a gamble. If it is not, your only way around the park to visit either side is by US 2 going around the south end of the park. Again, that was all my opinion. There are plenty of good hiking trails and things to see on the west side, but it just seems to be more developed. I have always preferred the east side. Hope this helps.

LibertyMan wrote:
It depends on what side of the park you want to stay on. In my opinion, the west side where Fish Creek is located is more touristy. Although I have not stayed in Fish Creek myself I did drive through the campground and it has more privacy between the spots from what I remember. The timber is taller and thicker. St. Mary on the east side is more open of a campground with smaller timber and has more of an open feeling. However, to me, the better hiking and views are on the east side. Particularly the hiking trails and views in the Many Glacier area. Going to the Sun Road may be open by mid to late June but it is a gamble. If it is not, your only way around the park to visit either side is by US 2 going around the south end of the park. Again, that was all my opinion. There are plenty of good hiking trails and things to see on the west side, but it just seems to be more developed. I have always preferred the east side. Hope this helps.

Good insight. Thanks.

Think positive! GTTSR may be open.

Keep in mind that it's a lot further to get around to St. Mary's. Don't recall for sure but I'm guessing another 90 minutes or more. Decide on how far you want to travel and what you want to see in the park and let that drive your decision.

If you want to get to the west side from Banff just take the road to Radium Hot Springs then south to a border crossing there which puts you down on the west side of the park. You also get to see the Yolo and Kotenai parks on that side. That's what we did coming back.

ericosmith wrote:
Keep in mind that it's a lot further to get around to St. Mary's. Don't recall for sure but I'm guessing another 90 minutes or more. Decide on how far you want to travel and what you want to see in the park and let that drive your decision.

If I want to stay in both CG's I would have to take that route anyway since as I understand it I can't pull my trailer over GTTSR...nor would I want to ;-)

Steve