Glacier National Park: Adventuring with Kids

PLANNING YOUR GLACIER FAMILY VACATION

Planning any sort of trip comes down to a few basic questions: Where you’ll go and when you’ll go, how you’ll get there and where you’ll stay, and what you’ll do while you’re there. In the following pages, we will give you some ideas about what time of year is best in Glacier and itinerary options for how long you want to stay. We’ll also give guidance on the best way to get your family to the park, and we will address the question about where to stay in two sections on camping and other lodging options.

The really fun part is filling in your itinerary with exciting adventures! This book aims to give you all the information you need to create a journey that will engage and excite your children and build wonderful memories to last a lifetime.

Part of the Rocky Mountains and spanning the Continental Divide, Glacier National Park is over 1 million acres in size, which makes it both amazing and a bit daunting to visit. The main access is the remarkable Going-to-the-Sun Road. To help make the planning more manageable, we approach the park by region, highlighting hikes, sights, and activities in each. Depending on the length of your trip, the text can help you decide which region to focus on, or perhaps help you plan time to visit all of them:

LAKE MCDONALD. A heavily forested region that offers many activities easily accessible from Going-to-the-Sun Road

ST. MARY includes Logan Pass (the high point on Going-to-the-Sun Road)

MANY GLACIER offers several lodging options and many wonderful trails into the alpine region, with viewing opportunities for some of the more well-known glaciers in the park

Wildflowers are one of the many attractions of Glacier National Park.

TWO MEDICINE. A less visited portion of the park that offers the most solitude of all the regions while still delivering all of the stirring features that draw visitors to Glacier National Park

WHEN TO GO

The season for enjoying most of Glacier National Park is short. Glacier gets a tremendous amount of snow, and from October through May, snow often closes Going-to-the-Sun Road, leaving only June through September to visit. And even in summer you will be risking cold temperatures (especially at night) and possibly snow, which makes tent camping an especially challenging adventure.

Glacier’s high elevation and high latitude bring good things too. During the peak season, late June through August, spring wildflowers will almost always be blooming somewhere in the park, first in the lower parts of the park around Lake McDonald and St. Mary and by August on the top of Logan Pass. This is an extraordinary aspect of Glacier seldom experienced in other places.

Historic snowplow opening dates for Going-to-the-Sun Road, kept by the park service, help you plan a window of time when main valleys, roads, and campgrounds will most likely be accessible. Check out Glacier National Park’s website and look for any alerts in effect. You can also find campground and lodging information with opening and closing dates. Reviewed together, these will help you choose an optimal window of time for your family’s visit. As your trip gets closer, use an online weather forecasting tool to make last-minute adjustments to your plans. Some of our favorites include Weather Underground and NOAA (see Resources).

GETTING THERE

Keep in mind as you plan your trip that Glacier is located in a fairly remote corner of Montana. You will need to accurately calculate travel time to and from the park, whether you are driving a personal vehicle from home to the park or flying in to a local city and renting a vehicle there. A fun option to consider is taking the train. Before booking your travel, consider which side of the park you will visit, the east or the west, or, if both, where you will start and finish. Keep in mind that, while stunning to drive—and the only road that crosses the park—Going-to-the-Sun Road is slow, with loops and turns and elevation gained and lost. If you will be arriving and departing from the same side of the park, as most visitors do, you’ll need to schedule plenty of time to cross the park or drive around its southern border. (State Highway 2, which brings you to the west entrance, continues on around the south side of the park.) While it’s nice to have options for traveling to the other side of the park, we didn’t find any significant time advantage to either route.

By Air

For access to the west side of the park, the nearest airport is just outside Kalispell, Montana, 30 miles west of the Apgar Visitor Center and western park entrance. A slightly bigger airport is located in Missoula, Montana, but that is 150 miles from the west entrance. There are rental car services at both airports. From Kalispell a shuttle service can take you into the park, but normally a family will need to rent a car in order to comfortably and easily complete a reasonable itinerary.

Another option: If you will be arriving from the east, the Great Falls, Montana, airport is 130 to 165 miles away—depending on which of the eastern entrances you visit first (St. Mary, Two Medicine, or Many Glacier)—and of course you can rent a car at this airport as well.

By Car or RV

If you plan to arrive from the west, you will need to make your way to Kalispell. From there drive 33 miles on Highway 2 north to West Glacier and on into the park. Alternatively, from July 1 to September 5, you can usually catch a shuttle from Whitefish, Montana, but be aware that early snows can sometimes force earlier closures. Learn more at Glacier Park Express (see Resources).

If you plan to enter via any of the three eastern entrances, you will want to make your way to Browning, Montana, about 125 miles from Great Falls. Once in Browning, follow the signs that will lead you to your desired entrance.

A note on using an RV: We are mostly a tent camping family and often encourage others to give it a try. It is an adventure-some and affordable option. Frankly, though, Glacier National Park can be a difficult place to camp with a family. First, the weather can change suddenly and change often. If you are in the park for three or more days, you are likely to experience cold, rain, and even snow. If you get caught in a storm while on the trail, it’s difficult to dry off and warm up in a tent. Also, passing the night in a tent with children while a storm rages can be less than enjoyable—although it can make for good memories years later! Second, the very presence of bears near your campground, both black and grizzly bears, can put an end to your whole trip. If you have a tent camping reservation and the National Park Service feels that a certain bear is overly pesky in your reserved campground, they will cancel your reservation—often without enough time for you to make a different reservation. Glacier is one park where we recommend families rent an RV! See more about bears in the Safety in the Park chapter.

By Train

Finally, you might consider riding the historic Empire Builder train to Glacier National Park. It stops year round at West Glacier and seasonally at East Glacier. Glacier National Park Lodges provides a fee-based shuttle bus from the West Glacier Amtrak station to Apgar Village and Lake McDonald Lodge. The train is a wonderful way to travel with children! Find out more about riding the rails at Amtrak and more about the park’s Trails and Rails program at the Glacier National Park website (see Resources).

SUGGESTED ITINERARIES

Planning a trip to a national park is often challenging. For example, without having been there before, how can you get a true sense of how long it will take to visit various locations? Is it possible to drive from one side of the park to the other in a single day? Where should you stay and how should you organize your hikes and adventures? Below are sample itineraries for various trip lengths, from one to seven days. We hope they will give you an idea of how you might plan your time in Glacier. Because there are several entrance points to the park, rather than saying Day One, Day Two, and so on, we simply state how long you should spend in each region. That way you can move the days around in a way that suits you and your family. Use the following itineraries as customizable guides to fit your situation and the activities you are most looking forward to. You’ll find must-see-and-do attractions, as well as lodging options. Overnight options are detailed in the Camping and Lodging chapter. These itineraries exclude travel time getting to Glacier.

You really can’t see a park as big as Glacier in one day; even two days allows you to only scratch the surface. But if you just don’t have any other option, select from the three-day itineraries below to plan a one- or two-day itinerary. Make your choices based on where you will enter and exit the park. There are four entrances, each corresponding to a region. Because Glacier Park is roughly divided into two parts—east and west—along the spine of the Continental Divide, for a one-day itinerary you will have to choose a side to spend your time in. Going-to-the-Sun Road is a must for any visit to Glacier, so no matter which side you settle on, plan time to at least drive to the summit at Logan Pass. You’ll get a feel for the immensity of the park along this marvel of a road. Just remember: your kids likely won’t remember much if all you do is drive, no matter how impressive the scenery. Make time to get out and hike, and suddenly the day is punctuated with adventure and