Any words of advise if you're making a trip to GNP ? We're considering a trip there in the summer and would welcome any advise on "must see" items.

Late July or August is the best time to go. As far as what to see, what are you interested in seeing? Are you an avid hiker or more of a drive around and look type? Where do you plan on staying?

I will post this on the other thread that asked for it, but I finally found my trip report that I posted on a travel forum after our August 2008 trip. Warning - It is long and detailed.

Monday - Fly from DFW to FCA in Kalispel. We stopped at Super 1 foods on Hwy 2 along the way and this ended up being a very smart money saving move. We then arrived in West Glacier and stayed at the West Glacier Motel. We walked across the street and ate at the West Glacier Restaurant which we all enjoyed. I had my first encounter with the best microbrew I had during the week, the Trout slayer (I sampled 5-6 during the week and they were all good). We enjoyed hanging out around the bridge there and then really enjoyed a little drive down to the Old Bridge before heading to bed.

Tuesday - We had some great blueberry pancakes at the West Glacier Rest. and then my wife and I took the half day white water rafting trip with the Glacier Boat Company and her parents did the half hour helicopter tour. We both had an absolute blast. I had never been rafting and it was perfect for a first timer. Now, I cannot wait to do it again. Her parents never stopped talking about the helicopter tour the rest of the trip, either. We then drove into Apgar and checked into the Village Inn at Apgar. This was probably my favorite place we stayed, but this was our only encounter with somewhat weird/bad weather. The wind was blowing about 40-50 mph from the north and Lake McDonald had higher waves than I ever remember seeing on my visits to the Ocean. I actually got blown sideways a few times! Nonetheless, we visited all the little shops, etc. in Apgar, had a decent meal at Eddies, some great huckleberry ice cream at Eddies, bought a six pack of Trout Slayer and some other supplies and headed off to bed.

Wednesday - We got up super early and made it to the Apgar Transit Center by 6:30 and were on the first bus to Logan’s Pass. The free shuttle was more like a paid tour with all the bus driver told us on the way up. Beautiful ride and we were hiking the Highline Trail by 8:30. We just went out for two hours and turned around, but we hiked pretty fast so we saw a ton of beautiful things. We then ate our lunch on the shuttle on the way back to the Apgar Transit Center and then drove up to Upper McDonald Creek Falls. The two stops that are side by side were two of my favorite spots. I could have sat there for hours! We then checked into Lake McDonald Lodge (the cheaper rooms a bit away from the main lodge) and the four of us shared a pizza from Jammer Joes and had a huckleberry daiquiri from the lounge. After laying down for a bit, we then took the 7:00 boat tour on Lake McDonald. It was well worth the money as the commentary was great and we ended up seeing two beautiful bald eagles up close! We did get chased in a little early due to some pretty close lightening, but it was great overall. My wife and I then shared some chicken strips from the bar there at the lodge and it was pretty good stuff.

Thursday - We met the ranger for a ranger led hike to Avalanche Lake. My wife’s parents liked that pace and stuck with the ranger. My wife and I went ahead. What a gorgeous spot! We had lunch there and then sat and just stared in awe for over an hour. The only annoying things were the little ground squirrels (?) that were so aggressive trying to steal our food right out of our hands, but great, great view! We then drove the GTTS road with lots of stops, including the West Side Tunnel, the avalanche site, the Loop, etc., but our biggest surprise stop was at Oberlin Bend Overlook. The mountain goats here we walking right on the boardwalk with us and then an absolutely beautiful rainbow came out of nowhere for about 2 minutes and then disappeared. Wow, just wow!! We then continued stopping at Lunch Creek, the East Side Tunnel, Jackson Glacier Overlook, Sunrift Gorge, Sun Point, and Wild Goose Overlook. My favorite of these was Sunrift Gorge (both the top view and the view under the bridge). I could have again stayed at both spots for hours. Sun Point was also neat, but it was raining and VERY windy there so we did a quick stop. We then took the boat tour on St. Mary Lake and in addition to the four of us, there was only one other couple on the boat so it was like a personal tour. The up close look at Wild Goose Island and the little hike to Barring Falls was awesome. We then saw our first bear as it was crossing the GTTS road right in front of us! My wife’s parents then stayed at Rising Sun where we were staying for the night, but my wife and I drove up to Two Sisters and we were glad we did. The food was great and the people even nicer. We stopped at Park Café for pie! And then, stayed that night at Rising Sun after a short walk on the Forest Gump Bridge at the St. Mary Visitor Center.

Friday - We backtracked to Logan Pass and did the Hidden Lake Trail. On the way to Logan Pass, there were Bighorn sheep right next to the road near the east side Tunnel and we got some great pics! The mountain goats and deer were out in full force on the trail and the hike and lake were beautiful. We then took the shuttle to the St. Mary Falls stop (smart because there ended up being no parking spots there when we arrived) and left the car with the in laws. I really liked the St. Mary’s Falls, but loved the peacefulness of the Virginia Falls. Her parents caught up with us when we were coming back down at St. Mary Falls and so we stopped with them again at some of the GTTS road stops they had missed on Thursday such as Sunrift Gorge and Jackson Glacier Overlook. We then drove to Many Glacier. The Many Glacier Road is where we started to see a ton of bears. We saw six or seven on the way to our hotel! We stayed at the Swiftcurrent Inn and ate there. This might have been my favorite meal of the trip. We used the ranger scopes in the parking lot to see more bears and mountain goats. We then went to bed, ready for a huge day of hiking on Saturday.

Saturday - We took the 8:30 boats for the ranger led hike to Grinnell Glacier. When we docked the 2nd boat, lo and behold, there was a moose! We all watched the moose for about 30 minutes! Very cool. We then began our hike and not being a hiker (but being in decent shape), this was very close to the most physically strenuous thing I have ever done. My wife (who was a star athlete in high school) and I took turns encouraging either other to stick it out and we are glad we did. The Grinnell Lake was beautiful and once we reached the glacier, it was almost a religious experience. Then, we encountered a bear and her two cubs crossing the trail on the way down. Being with the ranger, we felt pretty safe and actually ended up enjoying watching this bear from so close for about 45 minutes as we hiked above it. When we arrived back at the Many Glacier hotel, my mother in law was taking the hotel tour so we took our packs to the car and on the way, my wife nearly was run down by a mountain sheep and her baby running full blast. It missed her by maybe 5 feet! Crazy. We then drank another microwbrew sitting by the lake and drove out to the Barron Cattle Supper Club for some great steaks, but no beer due to Indian Pow Wow. We made one more obligatory stop for pie at Park Café afterwards. We again stayed at Rising Sun.

Sunday - We drove up to the Canadian Border and what a day for wildlife! We saw so many bears, I stopped counting. At one point, a bear sprinted right in front of the rental I was driving and I calmly said “bear” and kept driving and the other three in the car busted out laughing as to how commonplace it was becoming. I also dodged about 20 cows on the road at various times. As soon as we crossed into Canada, we stopped to take a picture at the sign and I nearly passed out as I was standing right next to several huge elk. We slowly backed away and got several more great shots. The rest of the day was full of bear, elk, sheep, deer and other animal sightings nonstop. My wife even almost stepped on a snake near the Prince of Wales Hotel (I could not make this stuff up!). We made our way to the Prince of Wales Hotel and really enjoyed the view from the back bluff and the lobby and then headed up the Akimina Parkway. After more wildlife sightings, Cameron Lake was very pretty with snow still around it on the far side and several little boats and canoes pushing into the quiet lake. We then went into Waterton and had a lot of fun there, eating at Zums, a little chocolate at Welch’s Chocolate shop, some gift shops, a walk along the lake, and some Canadian soda from Pat’s Gas Station (worth sticking your head in, no doubt). We then drove up to Red Rock Parkway (another of my favorite peaceful spots) and the Bison Paddock, which was cool to see a heard of about 20 bison right next to your car.

We then took a long, tiring journey, back into the U.S., through Baab, stopping at the Park Café for pie for the 3rd time in two days! We then took Hwy 89 and onto Hwy 49. Driving Hwy 49 was just terrifying. I did not like it at all, although it was beautiful. I also had to dodge tons of horses on the road and we had a bunch more bear sightings! We made a quick stop to see the very impressive Glacier Park Lodge and then ate Serrannos. The food was great. The long stop at Serrannos led to my least favorite hour of the trip, driving on Hwy 2 back to West Glacier in the dark. This is to be avoided at all costs! I am glad I am still alive today to write this report is all I can say. We then stayed at the Village Inn at Apgar that night, arriving after 10PM.

Monday - We bought some last minute gift souvenirs and had breakfast at Eddies. We bought some expensive gas ($3 a gallon) right before the airport and had an uneventful flight back to DFW with the layover again in Salt Lake City.

This trip was August 2008 and the report was written for a travel forum I used to visit. I’d recommend the Moon book. I would also recommend booking flights, hotels in inside the park, boats, tours, etc. WAY In advance. Also, there is a national park “newsletter” you can find online with some interesting stuff.

Hoyt Ag - We're not avid hikers, but we would enjoy some light hiking. We'll probably go in late August and we're looking to rent a home. We also like to cycle, so we'll be trying to find a bike rental shop. I like fishing and would like the opportunity to wet a line as well. We're just starting to investigate the possibilities.

TempleAg97 - Thanks for the meager information.

Seriously, thanks for the help. I would welcome the chance to see some bears, elk, goats and sheep. We're still looking for a rental home in the area and I'm guessing that we would drive into GNP on a few occasions during the week.

Is it better to stay on the west or east side of the park ?

If you are looking to rent a home, I would look into renting one in Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Whitefish or Kalispell. Each of those puts you into the west side of the park in less than an hour. The Flathead Valley offers a wide variety of things to do outside of visiting GNP. Here is a link to rental properties in the Valley.

http://www.montanasbestvacationhomes.com/

If those dont work out, call them anyway and they can tell you where to look for a rental home that fits your needs. We use to rent our home in Bigfork out, but now we have family living in it fulltime. For cycle info, I always shipped my stuff to these guys with NO trouble whatsoever, they are super easy to work with.

http://www.glaciercyclery.com/

As for hiking, TempleAg covered the main hikes of the park. Wildlife is abundant throughout, but bear sightings are greater in the north and Many Glacier area. There are also some good evening spots for Moose watching near Two Medicine. Logan Pass is a guaruntee for mountain goats and an occasional sheep.

As far as what side of the park to stay, your choices are much greater on the west. If you choose the east for a few nights, I highly suggest booking soon, as rooms fill fast. My masters thesis was conducted up there and our group of researchers rents out one of the two the motels in St. Mary for all of July each year. IMO you dont need a trail guide book, unless you want something that adds some historical insight. There is a plethora of info on trails on the internet or just ask here.

You can fish in the park without a license, so maybe you can pack a small rod and reel with you. There are regulations on fishing in the park, so read them here.

TempleAg and Hoyt - Thank you both so much for the information. I'm guessing that a flight into Salt Lake City followed by a flight into a town such as Great Falls might be the best route from Houston. Did you guys fly into Montana ?

Hoyt - Have you ever fished inside GNP or any of the surrounding areas ?

You can fly into Kalispell maybe a half hour from the park. or, Missoula or Great Falls are both a couple hours drive.

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Jay is correct. Look into flying into Kalispell (FCA). From Houston, the cheapest I have gotten tickets roundtrip was $297, in 2009, and that was from IAH to St. Paul then to FCA. I would watch kayak.com like a hawk if you can for a good deal, because they offer good prices often.

[This message has been edited by Vero143 (edited 1/7/2011 9:30a).]

Here is a link of a very informative forum.

http://glacier.nationalparkschat.com/phpBB3/index.php

We went to Glacier this last July and had a wonderful trip. We flew into Khalispell via Salt Lake City and stayed in a house beside West Glacier. I would have preferred to have stayed on the East side because we had to drive the Going to the Sun Road everyday to get to the trailheads of the hikes we were interested in. The drive takes about 2 hours each way. We hiked all of the short trails that are directly off of the GTSR and also the Highline Trail, Avalanche Lake, and Iceberg Lake Trail. We also rafted one day. Glacier was one of our favorites vacations.

My trip from 2008.

Went in early July with a friend and her family. There were a total of 10 of us, her parents, she and I, and her four little brothers and sisters under the age of 12.



We stayed in Polebridge. Nice place, 30 miles down the dirt road, with nothing but some cabins, a general store and a saloon. It is also one mile from an entrance to the park by Bowman Lake.

We spent 4 days, getting there Friday and leaving Monday.

Friday, drove across the park via the Going-to-the-Sun highway. Stopped at Logan pass and played in the snow. The trail to hidden lake was still snow covered then.



Saturday, rode our bikes 6 miles back to Bowman Lake and went swimming.



Sunday, drove to Avalanche and hiked to Avalanche lake for a picnic. Only a 2 mile hike, but the kids got side tracked climbing every boulder and playing in every tree and it took 2 hours one way.





Monday, packed up and went back to Bozeman via Hungry Horse dam. It is a famous hydroelectric dam. The kids enjoyed running around instead of sitting in the car.

Whatever else you do, if Iceberg Lake Trail is open on some of the days you visit (sometimes closed due to bear activity), DO IT.