Worried about upcoming trip to Glacier due to wild fires

[Likes_to_tow]

What is the current condition in Glacier National Park with smoke from wildfires?? We are considering canceling our plans! I could push it back a month but from what I've seen on the Internet there is no hope the fires will be out until winter?? Smoke can greatly impact any hope of an enjoyable trip to the Rockies. We have been disappointed before and become very concerned before leaving on a 2000 mile trip for nothing

[valhalla360]

Currenty sitting just south of Calgary and things are fine but back up by Dawson Creek, we passed a few huge plumes of smoke. If the wind shifts, that could easily send smoke to the south.

We'll be in Glacier in a couple days.

[laknox]

My brother drove down from near Calgary to AZ 2 weeks ago, and had no smoke at all. 2 week before that, he and I drove down most of the same route and had smoke down S of SLC. Cr@p shoot, just like any trip.

Lyle

[nickthehunter]

If you are looking for a guarantee - there are none. You could start out today with a perfect forecast for glacier and an hour before you get there a wild fire, volcano ash plume, or any other disaster could strike nullifying your view.
Per your own post you say the fires won’t be out until winter. You might as well cancel now.
Either that or you make your trip and take your chances. No one on here is going to be able to tell you when to go so you won’t be “dissapointed”.

[bukhrn]

agesilaus wrote:
If you mean the fires in Canada, aren't they mainly affecting the NE US? There are smaike maps online
Fire and Smoke map

Green is good, Yellow moderate, red bad

Actually, there are fires burning all across Canada from BC to Quebec. Where the smoke goes sort of depends on where the weather patterns set up.

[agesilaus]

We are in Helena right now and plan to head up to the west side of Glacier this Wednesday. No smoke to be seen here.

[Likes_to_tow]

enblethen wrote:
I would not delay! We don't know what the late summer or even early fall weather will bring.Webcams
I would watch the weather reports for storms to move through which commonly bring rain storms or even snow to area.
Are you on the road heading west?
West Glacier weather

Not on the road currently but our trip starts in 3 weeks. By looking at the web cam sites it looks like smoke is significantly impacting the view. We live in West Virginia where lush green hardwood forest abound. We only have forest fires in the Fall of the year. Traveling West into the Rockies seems to be a gamble on any given day. Wildfires are burning just about every day somewhere impacting the quality of the trip! Several years ago we headed toward Glacier and turned south to avoid fires. Didn't help much! The Grand Tetons were almost completely shrouded in smoke. We just headed back toward WV. I've been planning this trip for months and have reservations and National Park Entry Passes but it's a long way to pull a 5th wheel to be disappointed when I get there.

[agesilaus]

If you mean the fires in Canada, aren't they mainly affecting the NE US? There are smaike maps online
Fire and Smoke map

Green is good, Yellow moderate, red bad

[bukhrn]

You really can't count on anything at Glacier, we've been there 3 times and have never been all the way across Going to The Sun Road, 1st time we were there the last week of June, the road wasn't opened till the 4th of July IIRC, Second time we went from Two Medicine CG to Logan Pass, the the next day we were moving to the West side and going to do the rest of the road from there, but about 5 mile from the pass, we were turned back due to fires. 3rd time we were early again, (for a different reason) and of course road wasn't open yet.

[enblethen]

I would not delay! We don't know what the late summer or even early fall weather will bring.Webcams
I would watch the weather reports for storms to move through which commonly bring rain storms or even snow to area.
Are you on the road heading west?
West Glacier weather