Has anybody ever been to Glacier National Park in Montana?

Question

When is the best time to visit (not too cold, least crowds)? Where should I stay and eat? What activities do you recommend? Anything I should not miss?

Answer 1

To properly answer your question, you would need to give out more information about what you want to do. Are you a car based tourist (like me) who wishes to drive through the park and see what is reasonable to see or are you somebody who wishes to hike into the Widerness ?

We visited Glacier 2 years ago staying in St Mary one evening, driving the Going to the Sun Road the following day and staying in Kallispell the next night. The Going to the Sun Road is magical and will take the best part of a day to drive if you take the advantage of stopping at the various turnouts to get out of the car and take a look.

If you want to do this, there is only a relatively small window in the summer months when the road is clear of snow. Check the NP web site for more details.

At the logans pass visitor center take the Hidden Lake nature trail. It is very hard work because of the altitude if you as unfit as I am, but the view at the end makes it worth while.

Somebody else will have to tell you about the wilderness which I only saw through the car window !

Answer 2

Glacier National Park is a great place to visit, well worth the effort to get there.

Best time to go? July and August might be a little crowded, with school out. Therefore, June is better. The catch with June is that Going-to-the-Sun Road (a must) may or may not be open at that point. This year it will fully open up on July 1. So perhaps September or October might work a little better in that sense.

Weather? Bring a jacket at any time of the year. You'll be going up in the hills, and it can snow at almost any month.

If you can, try to stay at the lodges in the park. They are beautiful and historic, and close to the action. There are other places to stay in the towns nearby, but staying at the lodges enhances the trip. Food is pretty basic.

Besides the road through the part in general, the walk to Avalanche Lake (about an hour one-way) is great. It's one of the best places I've ever been. Not far behind is Sun Point, on St. Mary's Lake. Hard to feel significant standing there, looking up at the continental divide. The boat ride on Lake McDonald gives you a great idea of the surroundings.

And don't be afraid to go up to Canada and to Waterton Lakes N.P. Same park, different country. Some unbelievable countryside there too.

Answer 3

I was there a few years ago and I recommend hiking the trail to Hidden Lake Overlook which starts from the Logan Pass visitor center. The Logan Pass visitor center is at the top of the Going-to-the-Sun road. The trail is a moderate 1.5 miles and my husband and I saw lots of mountain goats along the way, some at close range. The scenery is great and at the end, you reach the overlook which, (obviously), overlooks Hidden Lake. If you decide to do that, then the earlier in the day you can get there, the better because that area is so popular that it's hard to find a parking spot.

As far as where to stay and eat, my hubby and I stayed in Whitefish the last time we were there, and stayed in Columbia Falls the other time. Columbia Falls is closer to the national park but it's smaller than Whitefish so there aren't as many places to stay or eat. So I guess you would need to decide whether you wanted to be closer to the park, or be in a town that has more restaurants and places to stay.

Answer 4

Yes, it was beautiful. The only problem we had was the forest fires at the time we were there. So there was a lot of smoke in the air. The vehicle we were driving was too long to take across the pass so we rented a smaller vehicle. It was well worth the extra cost. We also took a boat trip on the lake and did some hiking at the pass.
The rangers told us that there are only 2 seasons a the park - July, August and winter. So I guess July and August are the best times to visit.
We only saw one grizzly bear off in the distance.