Glacier National Park: Tips and Itinerary (2021)
- Sydney McBride
- Sep 5, 2021
- 12 min read
Updated: Jan 25, 2022
Oh, Glacier National Park, with your majestic mountains, crazy weather, winding road, and frustrating parking ;)
This park is affectionately known as the Crown of the Continent and it’s easy to see why. I always love to ask Bryan random questions and a question I asked early on in our marriage is what bucket list destinations he wanted to visit most. Of course, as with most questions I ask Bryan, his response was “I don’t know, whatever you want is fine with me”. I love the guy, but getting any opinions out of him is usually like pulling teeth.
So one day, when he randomly mentioned that he wanted to go to Glacier National Park someday, I BURIED THAT INFO IN MY BRAIN so that I would never ever forget until I could make his one travel wish come true!
Fast forward to 2020, our big trip to Italy got cancelled and we attempted to satisfy our travel bug by filling our Saturday mornings with travel vlogs on Youtube. That is how I found the page of A + K, who visited Glacier and filmed their trip in August 2020, and thus my interest in Glacier was peaked ;) get it?
ANYWAYS, my sister visited the park a few weeks later and solidified our desire to make the trek up to Montana. We vowed that if we were unable to take our Italy trip in 2021, we would go to Glacier instead. So, in May 2021 when our Italy dreams were crushed yet again, I began planning an adventure to Glacier National Park.
I will say, planning a trip to Glacier takes A LOT of planning and research. And after all of the planning that I did, I can confidently say that we were even more prepared than we needed to be and we had a great itinerary! The only problem that we had was running out of time. Which just means that we get to go back someday :)
Because I did so much planning and research, I am excited to share my tips, insights, and itinerary with you to help you plan your trip to Glacier!
Top Planning Tips:
If you are going to visit Glacier for hiking and want to be able to visit the entire park without winter road closures, then your window to visit is really short! The summer hiking season typically runs from early July through the first part of September.
PLAN AHEAD. Accommodations inside the park book up way sooner than you might think. There are very few lodging options available in the actual park so if you want to stay in the park, you need to try and book your accommodation as close to a year in advance as possible. Accommodations outside of but close to the park are also pretty limited, so if you want to avoid having to drive 20-30 extra minutes to the park entrance, you should also book as early as possible.
Check the park’s website regularly to find out about special reservation conditions or closures, ESPECIALLY during the current travel conditions. When we travelled in August of 2021, not only did you have to have the traditional entry pass, but you also had to reserve a ticket to drive the road that goes through the park. They implemented this so that they could control the number of people visiting the park to help eliminate overcrowding. They only opened up a certain number of tickets 60 days in advance, so I had an alarm set on my phone to order our additional entry ticket as soon as it was available. I don’t know if they will continue this, but I do know that this additional ticket requirement caught a lot of visitors by surprise this summer. Don’t be unprepared! Look up all the requirements for entry well in advance!
Print your reservation info and maps out in advance. There is very limited cell service in the areas surrounding the park, and there is absolutely no cell service inside the national park. We made sure we were not dependent on the internet at all by having all of our reservation info printed off before we left our house.
BE FLEXIBLE. Trail closures, weather, and many other factors can lead to interrupted plans. Make sure you have plenty of options and ideas of things to do if your initial plans get changed. It is very common for even the most popular trails to close down due to bear activity. The weather put some roadblocks in our plans, but thankfully I had done plenty of research and we were still able to make the most of our time and changed our plans around to fit the weather.
WHERE WE STAYED:
We wanted a “camping” experience for our trip, but of course flying on a plane definitely complicates that a bit! I was excited to be able to find RVs for rent, and there were even options available for the owner to drop off and pick up the RV so that we didn’t have to worry about towing. This is the option we went with, and I would absolutely do it again! I found a cute little RV on airbnb and we paid the owner to set up and pick up for us.
We parked the RV at Moose Creek RV Park and Bed and Breakfast, and we loved it! It’s a pretty small “RV park” but it is really wooded and gave us that “camping in the woods” feel. We stayed in site 59 at the very back and had plenty of space and trees in between us and any neighbors. The community bathrooms were very clean, and the showers were super clean as well! We highly recommend this RV park! It definitely didn’t hurt that it was only 5 minutes from West Glacier park entrance, and was one of the closest RV parks to the park entrance. Moose Creek also has additional accommodation options (like glamping pods) that don’t require an RV! We would definitely look into those next time.
Okay, so now that I’ve talked about my main tips, I will share the exact itinerary for our August 2021 trip to Glacier National Park!
Day 1: Travel and arrival!
Fly into Glacier International Airport in Kalispell (we purposefully booked an early morning flight so that we could have some time that afternoon and evening to start sightseeing)
Pick up bear spray rental at Glacier Outfitters INSIDE the airport
Take a shuttle to Enterprise and pick up rental car
Head into Kalispell for groceries and lunch
Drive to accommodation for check-in and get settled
Head into the park for the first time and drive to the Polebridge Mercantile
Pick up huckleberry treats! We personally tried the famous bearclaw and decided to grab a huckleberry brownie at the last second, and boy are we glad we did! The brownie was our favorite huckleberry treat of the whole trip!
From Polebridge, take the (very bumpy) road out to Bowman Lake for picnic/snacks/treats at the lake! Make sure you allow enough time to get back while you still have daylight. The drive out to the lake took us a bit longer in our small rental car and we wish we had more time at the lake but we didn’t want to be navigating the very bumpy unpaved road in the dark.
Head back to home base to get some rest
Day 2: Get accustomed to hiking at a higher elevation and orient yourself by driving through the park!
We started our week of hiking with an easy to moderate hike to Baring Falls, St. Mary Falls, and Virginia Falls! Roundtrip I believe it was just over 6 miles, and the elevation gain was not too much, so it was a great introductory hike for us! And we could not get over the color of the water at St. Mary Falls!
We finished this hike around lunch time, so we had some lunch while looking at the lake and then headed up to Logan Pass to test our luck with parking (parking is super competitive at Logan Pass). This was on a Monday, so I believe the park was less busy than usual. We circled the parking lot for maybe 5 minutes before we caught some hikers returning to their car. This was between 1 and 2 p.m., which I think is a great time window to try and find some parking at Logan Pass once the morning hikers have completed their hike and are heading out. We then make the one-mile trek to the Hidden Lake Overlook, which I’ve read is really beautiful. Unfortunately, smoke from area wildfires was pretty bad which majorly inhibited our view of the lake. But I would still recommend this one based on the pictures that I’ve seen.
We were pretty exhausted after our 7+ miles of hiking to the falls and Hidden Lake, so we headed back to our campsite to make burgers and relax in our hammock.
Day 3: The day the rain came.
We knew it was going to rain and be a little chilly on this day, but we didn’t want to let that keep us from hiking and spending time in the park.
Because of the weather, we chose to hike the Trail of the Cedars and the trail to Avalanche Lake. I knew this trail was pretty heavily wooded and covered by trees, so it was a great option to shelter us from the rain. We had rain jackets and were prepared to get pretty wet, but the trees really saved us! It was a great rainy day option and even though we were cold, we still loved this hike. And the view at Avalanche Lake was definitely a highlight of the trip!
This trail was fairly short and moderate and the views at the lake were incredible. Definitely worth the time and effort!
We ate our picnic lunch in the car, and then headed to Lake McDonald Lodge for a cup of hot coffee and a pastry! We really enjoyed this time just sitting at the shore of the lake, enjoying the views, and drinking coffee.
After this, we decided to just drive through the park a little bit, and I’m so glad we did because we just so happened to see a bear eating an early dinner in the rain! And even better, he was safely across the river but still within viewing distance. It was definitely exciting to see a bear in the wild just doin his thang.
After our scenic drive, we headed to a little touristy spot just outside West Glacier called the Huckleberry Patch to enjoy some huckleberry pie with a big ol’ scoop of huckleberry ice cream. We highly recommend :)
We returned to our campsite for dinner and to rest up for our big day the next day!
Day 4: The Highline Trail
We had a verrryyyy early wake-up call, and left our campsite by 4:30 a.m. The very popular Highline Trail starts at Logan Pass, and in order to get parking in the small lot, you have to get there early. The drive to Logan Pass took us an hour, even though we were only five minutes from the park entrance.
We arrived at Logan Pass around 5:30, and sat in our car drinking coffee, eating breakfast, and taking a quick little nap while we waited for the sun to rise a bit. If you want to guarantee a parking spot, I would recommend arriving around 6:30 a.m.
At 6:50 we decided that we had enough daylight to begin our looooong trek!
We hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked, and 7 miles later, we reached the turnoff for the Grinnell Glacier Overlook. It’s only .6 miles to reach the top, but the incline is so intense that everyone says it feels so much longer than that!
Unfortunately, the weather (mostly the wind) was pretty bad while we were attempting this and another couple who were on their way down said that the visibility was not great. Because of this, we decided not to go the rest of the way since the wind was really getting to us. However, if the weather is nice, everyone says the view is fantastic and well-worth the effort when you reach the top!
We continued on to Granite Park Chalet and enjoyed the incredible views while we ate our lunch and tried not to freeze our butts off!
We decided that we did not want to take the Highline Trail back to Logan Pass, so from Granite Park Chalet, we took the Loop Trail down the mountain for 4 miles, where we hopped on a shuttle that took us back to our car.
All in all, we hiked about 12 miles and it took us about 7 hours to complete it from end to end.
*NOTE, because of COVID, they were requiring tickets to ride the shuttle, however, we heard from someone else that the shuttle drivers were allowing people to ride without a ticket as long as there were open seats. We knew there was a risk of not being let on the shuttle but we decided to go for it anyways and we are so glad we did! They let us on no problem without a ticket. But if you decide to take this route, make sure you know how the shuttle is operating at that time!
Once we reached our car, we were completely exhausted! But it was only late afternoon and we didn’t want to totally waste the rest of the day. We decided to continue driving east through the rest of the park and took the long way around the south perimeter of the park for a change of scenery. After seeing the east side and west side of the park, we agree with everyone else who recommends staying on the west side. There is not much of anything on the east side.
2 hours later we reached our campsite, took a hard-earned and long awaited HOT shower (after hiking in cold temperatures for 7 hours), had dinner, and passed out watching a movie at 7:30 p.m. :)
Day 5: East Glacier/Many Glacier
We had a leisurely morning and headed out for the Many Glacier area. This drive was also quite long, and was supposed to take 2 hours but ended up being closer to 3 with construction. We rolled the windows down and made the most of it by enjoying the scenery and the beautiful river we were driving along side.
We arrived at the Many Glacier Hotel and HOLY COW. Talk about a showstopper! I could not believe how beautiful this area was! And the drive to get there was so easy compared to the twists and turns of the Going-to-the-Sun road through the main area of the park.
We walked around the hotel, soaking in the views. By this time, it was already noon, so we decided to go ahead and eat our lunch on the back porch of the hotel before starting our hike.
Our feet and knees were still recovering from our big day on the Highline, so we chose a moderate trail and hiked a fairly flat 3ish miles to Grinnell Lake. It was so beautiful! We couldn’t believe the color of the water, once again, and even got to watch a few crazy people take a swim in the glacial water.
I think I could have stayed here forever, just taking in the 360 degree views. It was SO HARD to pull ourselves away, but we wanted to make sure we had time to treat ourselves to some ice cream in Whitefish!
We hiked back to the Many Glacier Hotel, took a few last looks, and headed back to our campsite for dinner.
After dinner, we drove about 30 minutes to Whitefish to end our trip with some delicious ice cream at Sweet Peaks! We had been looking forward to it all week. I had the huckleberry and flathead cherry chocolate flavors and Bryan had bear food and smores. We both really loved our flavors and we highly recommend!
This day was a GREAT way to end our trip, and it solidified our desire, or should I say NEED to go back and explore more of the park!
IN HINDSIGHT:
Our shuttle driver at Enterprise told us that they often loan bear spray out to people for free. He said they have a stock at the store from people leaving them behind and next time we visit, to call in advance and ask if we could borrow some before we pay the $30 to rent it.
The Highline Trail was a bit more…..adventurous….than expected. Just a heads up for anyone like us who may be a little afraid of heights or falling :) We think we would do it again if we had better weather, but the cold and wind definitely put a damper on our Highline experience.
We were a little sad that we waited until the last day to see Many Glacier because had we seen it earlier in the week, we are pretty sure we would have spent more time there! It was insanely beautiful. We discussed after the fact that had we known how our Highline Trail experience was going to be, we probably would have done the hike from Many Glacier Hotel to the Grinnell Glacier instead. It is definitely number one on our list for next time, followed by several other big hikes on that side of the park! (Iceberg Lake, Cracker Lake, and Ptarmigan Tunnel are the others that we didn’t get to but wish we did)
We do recommend getting to experience Polebridge and Bowman Lake, but it took quite a big chunk of time and we agreed that it was a great “extra” to tack on with our time we had on our first day. We don’t know if we would have spent the several hours it took out of the middle of our week though if it meant taking time away from hiking. But if you have an extra few hours, it’s definitely worth making the trek! Especially for that huckleberry brownie!
Wow that’s a lot of info! If you made it to the end of this, congratulations :) You deserve a trip to Glacier! If you’ve been considering a trip to Glacier National Park, and I think everyone should, I hope this helps!
I know for a fact that we are counting down the days until we can get back to the Crown of the Continent and eat 5,000 more of those huckleberry brownies :-) Until then, I just might be ordering some huckleberry brownie mix online and re-watching A + K’s vlogs over and over and over again.
Happy travels!
Comments