Glacier National Park 

Overview: 

The “Crown of the Con­ti­nent” or in tra­di­tion­al Koote­nai lan­guage “the place of many ice” Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is a true nature won­der­land and oasis of stun­ning scenery. With this tow­er­ing and immense park – that strad­dles a con­ti­nen­tal divide between the pacif­ic and arc­tic – famed for its many impos­ing Glac­i­ers, some of which stretch more than half a mile in length, which cre­ate not only deep vista scenery but give life to more than 700 lakes, deep canyon’s, free-flow­ing water­falls, lush fields, the snow-capped rocky moun­tains and unique and thriv­ing wildlife with­in this one mil­lion acre par­adise that is an undoubt­ed won­der of the world.  

Carved over the course of 200 mil­lion years across mul­ti­ple ice ages, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park’s diverse scenery undoubt­ed­ly earns it the title of the land of rock, ice, water, and wood – and thanks to thou­sands of hik­ing trails avail­able and the great “Going-to-the-Sun” Road, which takes trav­ellers through 50 miles of the best of the park, it is also an explor­er’s par­adise, with the deep­er peo­ple ven­ture into the park the more stun­ning the scenery becomes.  

Cou­ple the stun­ning scenery with not just the diverse wildlife, but also the majes­tic Glac­i­er Nation­al Park scenery pro­vid­ing a stun­ning back­drop for one of the world’s great­est – and clear­est ‑nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na – the daz­zling Auro­ra Bore­alis, which brings the full beau­ty of the won­der of the nation­al park to light in a awe-inspir­ing dis­play of emer­ald, pur­ple, green and turquoise.  

Perched not just on a con­ti­nen­tal divide, but on the bor­ders of Mon­tana and south­ern Cana­da – Glac­i­er Park is blessed to expe­ri­ence all four sea­sons in a day at times – with the win­ter weath­er cre­at­ing a won­der­land of snow-capped peaks, shin­ing white land­scapes and cre­at­ing ide­al con­di­tions for play­ful win­ter wildlife, where­as the chang­ing sea­sons of spring and autumn cre­ate a kalei­do­scope of bright leaves and ever-chang­ing green hills – which slow­ly morph into the sum­mer months where you’ll find warm tem­per­a­tures and ide­al con­di­tions for hik­ing.  

History:

A park explorable dur­ing any sea­son or moment – so long as you come pre­pared for the con­di­tions, the sum­mers with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park have found them­selves evolv­ing to be longer and more extreme in heat – which while extend­ing the hik­ing sea­son, has seen the many Glac­i­ers with­in the park threat­ened due to extreme heat and cli­mate change. This in turn has cre­at­ed a wor­ry­ing sce­nario where­by due to con­sis­tent melt­ing some sci­en­tists have esti­mat­ed that all the Glac­i­ers with­in this incred­i­ble won­der will have dis­ap­peared as soon as 2030.   

A trou­bling and alarm­ing pre­dic­tion, this con­stant threat of cli­mate change is a seri­ous and wor­ry­ing chap­ter in the sto­ry of this great won­der – whose sto­ried his­to­ry has seen it carve its way through ice ages and destruc­tion – and been fist inhab­it­ed by humans more than 10,000 years ago by a native Amer­i­can group known as the Koote­nai. 

This first inhab­i­ta­tion would set the stage for the beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park to come to the fore­front of explo­ration, with the Kootenai’s dis­cov­ery of the mag­nif­i­cent vis­tas across the park bought into the 19th cen­tu­ry by the famed explor­ers Lews & Clark dur­ing their famed expe­di­tion between 1804 – 1806.  

Although they nev­er actu­al­ly set foot with­in the park’s bound­aries as we know it today, their view­ing of the vis­tas – com­bined with fur­ther reports of fights between corps of dis­cov­ery and Pie­gan Indi­ans through­out the rest of the 19th cen­tu­ry saw Glac­i­er Nation­al Park enter main­stream folk­lore of the time as a place of immense beau­ty.  

The immense won­der of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park would become inter­na­tion­al in the 20th cen­tu­ry, when in 1932 its beau­ty earned it the title of the world’s first inter­na­tion­al peace park. With this title seek­ing ‘to cel­e­brate and enhance the peace and friend­ship between the Unit­ed States and Cana­da – a peace which con­tin­ues to sus­tain and pros­per into the 21st cen­tu­ry – where the won­der of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park stands not only as a bea­con of peace, but con­tributes to agri­cul­ture irri­ga­tion, recre­ation­al lakes and sus­tains a thriv­ing wildlife sys­tem that breeds life into the park.   

Explore:

For those seek­ing to go one step fur­ther than Lewis & Clark – and who have come pre­pared for all sea­sons – the more than mil­lion acres of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park are a true explor­ers par­adise, with the many glac­i­ers, lakes, water­falls, hik­ing trails, roads and wildlife wait­ing to be dis­cov­ered tru­ly leav­ing explor­ers spoilt for choice.  

In fact, giv­en the size of the park, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is spilt into two dis­tinct zone – east and west, with these two zones then split into sev­en sec­tions, each with its own unique entrance- with the Lake McDon­ald Val­ley being the fore­front of activ­i­ty with­in the west, and the eas­i­est access point to the famed Lack McDon­ald. Where as those approach­ing from the east able to take advan­tage of the easy access of the stun­ning view­points when arriv­ing through the St Mary Val­ley or the well named many Glac­i­er access point – where those seek­ing the best of the Nation­al Parks trails can eas­i­ly access the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Trail. 

Going to the sun road: As well as being blessed with the entry points of the remote Goat’s Haunt, North Fork and Two Med­i­cine entry points – which are per­fect for those off the beat­en track – the entrance of Logan Pass offers a per­fect entry point for those arriv­ing into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park by car, and tak­ing on one of the true high­lights of the won­der, the Going to the Sun road.  

Apt­ly named for the mirage effect that those dri­ving upon it expe­ri­ence – a true chase to the Sun – this incred­i­ble road is not only a feat of engi­neer­ing, but is one of the best way to explore the many vista’s and panora­mas across the park, with the Going to the Sun Road stretch­ing 50 miles from the peak of the parks West Glac­i­er to the panoram­ic par­adise of St. Mary – for a thrilling and tru­ly won­der­ful expe­ri­ence.  

A dri­ve that requires a tick­et to access, and a road that only opens mid-sum­mer (June or July) when the Snow is clear, explor­ers who don’t fan­cy dri­ving with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park can opt to join a guid­ed tour of the road – which is tru­ly worth it ! – or for those with nerves of steel, you can take on the nar­row and rocky roads of this incred­i­ble dri­ve – that reach­es its sum­mit at the Logan Pass entrance.  

It is through to Going to the Sun Road, that the true won­ders of the park can be reached, and chief among these are the fast shrink­ing and many tru­ly beau­ti­ful Glac­i­ers with­in the park – which now stand at 25 in num­ber, down from a peak of 80. Of these Glacier’s the eas­i­est to access and view is the tow­er­ing Jack­son Glac­i­er, which is con­ve­nient­ly found along the Going-to the Sun Road near the Jack­son pass, with the Jack­son Glac­i­er – the sev­enth largest with­in the park – being arguably the most pho­to­genic set against a back­drop of wood­ed for­est and – on a good day – clear blue sky.  

Logan Pass: For those who fan­cy tak­ing in a even more beau­ti­ful and stun­ning Glac­i­er view, then at the Logan pass you can take on the chal­leng­ing high­line view trek – a tough 4 mile ascent which can be done as a round-trip which leads to a view­point and over­look that gives awe-inspir­ing and sim­ply stun­ning views of the vul­ture and two ocean glac­i­ers.  

A tough ascent, and for those seek­ing a more relaxed  — but equal­ly stun­ning vista and glac­i­er expe­ri­ence, that under­lines why this incred­i­ble park is a true won­der of the world – the high­light of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is undoubt­ed­ly the Many Glac­i­er area. Accessed again through the going to the sun road, it’s with­in this area that you’ll come across first­ly the Sala­man­der Glac­i­er – so named because of its unique shape that makes it look like a Sala­man­der – the Grin­nell Glac­i­er that sits just above the Sala­man­der Glac­i­er and which is accessed through a tough 5 mile trek – and which rewards those who take on the trail with a tru­ly incred­i­ble view at the grin­nell glac­i­er over­look – par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­set.  

Many Glac­i­er area: It’s also with­in the many glac­i­er area that you’ll find fur­ther scenic high­lights of this incred­i­ble park, includ­ing the Ice­berg lake – where ice­bergs remain till well into the sum­mer, and which is explorable on a 10 mile hike which takes explor­ers best the tow­er­ing Ptarmi­gan Falls. The Apiku­ni Falls – which lies just on the edge of the area and whose 2 mile hike offers incred­i­ble views of the Grin­nell Glac­i­er before fin­ish­ing with a stun­ning view of the Apiku­ni Falls – a tru­ly pho­to­genic and stun­ning water­fall that comes com­plete with a charm­ing pool at its base.  

Yet for many the high­light at the Many Glac­i­er Area is its seren­i­ty and peace­ful­ness – with the area often com­pared to the won­der of the Swiss Alps- and no more is this tran­quil­li­ty evi­dent then with a stay at the Many Glac­i­ers Hotel, that sits on the edge of cool waters of the Swiftcur­rent lake. An incred­i­ble place to stay to soak in the atmos­phere and beau­ty of the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – be sure to book well in advance to ensure your stay, as the leg­end and beau­ty of this gor­geous hotel see’s it booked up well in advance.  

Lake Mcdon­ald Area: Along­side the stun­ning Many Glac­i­er Area, you can also find more stun­ning vis­tas and Glac­i­ers with­in the Lake McDon­ald Area – which is anoth­er must vis­it area with­in the park. The most stun­ning of these is undoubt­ed­ly the tow­er­ing Glac­i­er of Sper­ry which stands more than 8,000 feet into the tow­er­ing Mon­tana sky. Best viewed – rather than climbed – there are two main routes to catch a glimpse of the Sper­ry Glac­i­er – the first on an intense and immense­ly chal­leng­ing 17 mile round hike from the Lake McDon­ald Lodge which see’s 5,000 feet in ele­va­tion gain – and the sec­ond a more relaxed 3 mile hike from the Logan Pass that also fea­tures fan­tas­tic views of the hid­den lake – anoth­er true Glac­i­er Nation­al Park high­light.  

Whichev­er way you choose to view the stun­ning Sper­ry Glac­i­er, the area around Lake McDon­ald is also awe-inspir­ing and sim­ply gor­geous. With the lake itself being a true high­light – with it’s clear waters reflect­ing the sur­round­ing for­est and Glac­i­er scenery, and the lake itself ful­ly explorable – offer­ing a rare chance to swim in Glacial waters for a true buck­et list expe­ri­ence.  

Accom­pa­nied again by anoth­er serene and peace­ful lodge that lies on the lakes shore, the Lake McDon­ald area is also home to one of the hid­den jew­els of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – a hid­den beach that offers not just kayak­ing and pad­dle­board­ing – but makes for a great place to sit upon the shore­line and soak in the immense beau­ty of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

White­fish: Hav­ing cov­ered the two main areas and soaked in and mar­velled at the many tow­er­ing glac­i­ers, for those with more time and who fan­cy head­ing deep­er into the Nation­al Park and the beau­ty of Mon­tana, then the town of white­fish and it’s glo­ri­ous – if cold – beach make for an incred­i­ble place to spend a few days explor­ing nation­al park life – as well as bas­ing your­self for explo­ration into the park.  

 Blessed with stun­ning scenery, great places to eat and more incred­i­ble scenic beau­ty, white­fish also makes for a great place to con­nect to two fur­ther jew­els of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. The first being Lake Bow­man, a stun­ning lake that is acces­si­ble through a dirt road that will lead you to this angel­ic, reflec­tive and tru­ly serene and incred­i­ble lake that offers mir­ror­ing views of the glac­i­ers and hills sur­round­ing it – and the sec­ond being by tak­ing high­way 95 from white­fish and the going to the sun road to make your way along the coun­try divide that stretch­es through Glac­i­er Nation­al Park and into the north­ern parts of the park that lie with­in Cana­da.  

A 2 hour or so dri­ve, the Cana­di­an side of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is equal­ly stun­ning, with the high­light undoubt­ed­ly being the Water­ton Lakes and Red Rock Canyon trail. The Water­ton lakes – which lie just on the edge of the parks bound­aries, again encap­su­late the full beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – with these reflec­tive lakes perched on the edges of Glac­i­ers, moun­tains and rolling green hills, for a sim­ply stun­ning vista that is a true pho­tog­ra­phers dream.  

Stretch­ing across two coun­tries – and undoubt­ed­ly liv­ing up to its billing as the land of ice, while Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is acces­si­ble and vis­itable year round, your explo­ration method will vary base on the sea­son in which you vis­it, with boat tours, kayak­ing, swim­ming, horse rid­ing and pad­dle­board­ing all prefer­able in warm spring and sum­mer months – and snow­shoe­ing and win­ter vehi­cles and cloth­ing need­ed for the cold­er win­ter months.  

Yet whichev­er sea­son you vis­it, so long as you come with appro­pri­ate cloth­ing and gear, you’ll find a over 700 miles of hik­ing trails that offer incred­i­ble vis­tas of the park and its famed glac­i­ers. With soft gen­tle trails such as the cedar of the pines and lake walks around Lake McDon­ald, to the mod­er­ate hikes with incred­i­ble views on Avalanche lake and the Hid­den Lake, up to the more chal­leng­ing Grin­nell Glac­i­er, Ice­berg Lake and Scenic Point – whose tough ascents are com­ple­ment­ed and reward­ed with tru­ly incred­i­ble views and pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Pho­tog­ra­phy: Along­side the scenery, pho­to­graph and view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties are plen­ti­ful for any wildlife fans, with Glac­i­er Nation­al Park being home to more than 70 dif­fer­ent species of mam­mal alone, which have been res­i­dents of the park since its for­ma­tion. Undoubt­ed­ly the apex with­in the park are its griz­zly and black bears – which should be treat­ed with respect and only viewed from a dis­tance, and these bears are known to seek out moun­tain goats, Pika and bighorn sheep with­in the park – which are much more com­mon and sight­ed.  

Along­side the bears and their prey, you’ll also find moose, wolver­ines, elk, deer and even the elu­sive Lynx with­in the park – with the lynx in par­tic­u­lar­ly known to be the focus of not only sci­en­tif­ic research, but mul­ti-day pho­tog­ra­phy trekking tours, as pho­tog­ra­phers seek the elu­sive and prized shot of a Lynx in the wild, with explor­ers hav­ing to get incred­i­bly lucky to gaze on this incred­i­ble mam­mal.  

While spend­ing your days explor­ing this incred­i­ble nation­al park and mar­vel­ling at its many glac­i­ers, lakes, water­falls and res­i­dents will undoubt­ed­ly be the high­light of any explor­ers trav­els across the plan­et, the stun­ning scenery – and the park itself – tru­ly comes to life in the evening, and there’s no bet­ter way to top off an explo­ration of this won­der by tak­ing some time in the evening to observe and wit­ness the nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­non of the auro­ra bore­alis which lights up the park in an incred­i­ble dis­play of turquoise, emer­ald and deep pur­ple and green – for what is a tru­ly spe­cial moment.  

Best viewed in the Autumn and ear­ly spring months, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is one of the world’s pre­mier places to view this spec­tac­u­lar per­for­mance, and while it is incred­i­ble to watch across the whole of the park, watch­ing – and pho­tograph­ing the bright lies shine and reflect across the lakes of Bow­man, Water­ton or Mac­don­ald – where you can cap­ture the Glac­i­ers of the park lit up by the daz­zling dis­play is tru­ly spe­cial and a top spot to grab incred­i­ble pho­tos.  

For those who don’t fan­cy brav­ing the cold, and spend­ing poten­tial­ly hours wait­ing for the per­for­mance, then Glac­i­er Nation­al Park offers one of the most com­fort­ing and unique places to wit­ness an auro­ra bore­alis dis­play – the North­ern Lights Saloon and Café, which lies in the remote town of Pole­bridge – where explor­ers can relax with cof­fee, beer and even home­made pie while enjoy­ing a live band and wait­ing for the spec­tac­u­lar show to begin.  

A tru­ly immense won­der – that we’d encour­age explor­ers to explore from both the east and west side, for­ward plan­ning for any trip to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is essen­tial to make the most of your time at the won­der, with the auro­ra bore­alis dis­play best viewed in the cool­er months, but the park more open and acces­si­ble in the sum­mer months. You’ll also need to ensure you make reser­va­tions and book­ings well in advance – with the beau­ty and rep­u­ta­tion of the won­der of the park see­ing more than 100 mil­lion peo­ple vis­it annu­al­ly, which in turn has result­ed in a tick­et­ed entry sys­tem being intro­duced and reser­va­tions required just to access the park – mak­ing explor­ers need to ensure they have the paper­work to enter and gaze at the full beau­ty of the Glac­i­ers and vis­tas with­in this nat­ur­al par­adise.  

Threat­ened by time and cli­mate change, the beau­ty of the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is cur­rent­ly a trag­ic and time-sen­si­tive won­der, with the Glac­i­ers with­in the park hav­ing reduced in num­ber by 70% over the course of the last cen­tu­ry – and those which still stand hav­ing reduced in size by more than 80% over the course of the last decade. Whilst this reduc­tion, com­bined with esti­mates that the Glac­i­ers with­in the park will be all but dis­ap­peared by the turn of the next decade, places renewed impor­tance and urgency on the work being done to sal­vage them, it also high­lights just how sen­si­tive and spe­cial this won­der of the world is.  

With explor­ers encour­aged to not only vis­it this stun­ning nation­al park to gaze and mar­vel at its won­der while there’s still time, but vis­it to tru­ly under­stand the impos­ing threat and need for preser­va­tion for the “crown of the con­ti­nent” and to ensure this stun­ning park, which is blessed with glac­i­ers, lakes, water­falls and tru­ly awe-inspir­ing scenery, remains an immense won­der of the world that can con­tin­ue to be enjoyed by future gen­er­a­tions.  

Where:  

A nat­ur­al par­adise Glac­i­er Nation­al Park lies between the great Amer­i­can State of Mon­tana and – thanks to the stun­ning Water­ton Lakes park ‑cross­es the Cana­di­an bor­der into Alber­ta.  

Stand­ing as an offi­cial peace park between the two coun­tries – with shared park ser­vices and resource and con­nect­ed by a sin­gle high­way – Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is also blessed to sit with­in the Rocky Moun­tains, which give life to both the many impos­ing peaks and Glac­i­ers with­in the park – as well as the serene lakes, mighty forests and charm­ing mead­ows that the many ani­mals with­in the park call home.  

Sit­ting also on a Con­ti­nen­tal divide between the Pacif­ic and the Arc­tic – whose two airs meet and mix to cre­ate unpre­dictable and often freez­ing weath­er con­di­tions, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is undoubt­ed­ly North America’s crown of the con­ti­nent – and despite the wilder­ness and wild nature that lies with­in it, access­ing this phe­nom­e­nal won­der of the world is sim­ple, straight­for­ward and with­in the reach of all bud­gets.  

Getting There: 

The crown of the con­ti­nent, Glacier’s Park remote wilder­ness and beau­ty is, thanks to a series well main­tained road net­works, com­bined with the archi­tec­tur­al feat of the Going to the Sun Road that runs 50 miles through the park, get­ting to and get­ting around this stun­ning won­der of the world is incred­i­bly easy.  

Allow­ing explor­ers to eas­i­ly arrive and then tra­verse full beau­ty of the park – and reach those off the beat­en scenic spots, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park offers a range of options to arrive at the park (Car, Plane, Train, Bus, Shut­tle) – as well as a range of options to get around and explore (Hike, Shut­tle, Tours, Boat, Car) the first stop in get­ting to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park will be cen­tred on arriv­ing into Rocky Moun­tain area that the park calls home, with the big star­ry state of Mon­tana on the US side of the park being the most acces­si­ble and pop­u­lar gate­way.  

Arriving (Plane:) 

In fact, explor­ers will have up to six air­ports from which they can opt to fly into Mon­tana and the sur­round­ing region to pick from, with the two most pop­u­lar undoubt­ed­ly being the direct access air­port hand­i­ly named Glac­i­er Park Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (FCA) which is a short 30 minute dri­ve to the parks entrance – but to which flights are more expen­sive, or the main Mon­tana Inter­na­tion­al air­port of Mis­soula Mon­tana Air­port (MSO) which is almost 3 hours away but has a rep­u­ta­tion for cheap­er fights – and pro­vides explor­ers with more options to stock up on sup­plies and explore Mon­tana before head­ing to the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

While both air­port are great options – and the Glac­i­er Nation­al park air­port is under­go­ing exten­sive ren­o­va­tion – for those trav­el­ling out­side of the main trav­el sea­son (Spring – Autumn) do be sure to check whether Glac­i­er Nation­al Park Air­port is open, as intense weath­er and snow con­di­tions can cause run­way clo­sures.  

Along­side the two most pop­u­lar and com­mon options to reach Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – which are both served by fre­quent flights from across Amer­i­ca – those com­bin­ing an explo­ration of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park with Yel­low­stone, will also find the Boze­man Yel­low­stone air­port a half-day dri­ve away from the gates main entrance. For those head­ing into Cana­da and explor­ing the North­ern part of the park (includ­ing the stun­ning Water­ton lakes) before head­ing south into the Many Glac­i­er and Lake McDon­ald areas of the park, the main Cal­gary air­port of Cal­gary Inter­na­tion­al Air­port lies just 3 short hours away from the parks Cana­di­an entrance. 

Getting There: 

Hav­ing got your­self with­in touch­ing dis­tance of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park and arrived at your cho­sen air­port, the next part of get­ting to the park will cen­tre on con­nect­ing from the air­port to the entrance of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Self-Driving: 

For those that are opt­ing to self-dri­ve around Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – which is our rec­om­men­da­tion for explo­ration of this incred­i­ble park, get­ting from the air­port to the park will be a sim­ple man­ner of hir­ing a car (be sure to book in advance) fill­ing up with sup­plies and petrol and mak­ing your way to the near­est entrance of the park – which for those fly­ing into either Glac­i­er Nation­al Park air­port or the Mis­soula Mon­tana Air­port will be the West Glac­i­er entrance – which is the most pop­u­lar, and in our view the best entrance upon which to head to.  

Other Options (Uber, Shuttle & Train): 

While self-dri­ving is our rec­om­mend­ed pick for access to the park, for some trav­ellers this might not be fea­si­ble, due to both bud­get and prac­ti­cal­i­ties – there’s also a range of pub­lic options to reach the park, although these are sea­son depen­dent.  

The first, and most expen­sive of these options would be to uber your way from the air­port to the gate­way town of White­fish – which lies on the edge of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, and from here you can then try and your way into the nation­al park or catch one of the many shut­tle ser­vices that can trans­port you from White­fish into Glac­i­er Nation­al park to begin your explo­ration.  

While Uber is a more direct option, it can be incred­i­bly expen­sive – and so for the more finan­cial­ly con­scious trav­eller then hav­ing arrived at the air­port tak­ing one of the many shut­tle bus­es to either white­fish or direct to the park (sea­son depen­dent) would be the best option. With these shut­tles which can cost between $5 — $10 requir­ing an advance book­ing, oper­at­ing dur­ing peak sea­son fre­quent­ly – and for those head­ing to White­fish before head­ing to the park, it’s advised to book both tick­ets at the same time and well in advance.  

Amtrak 

Although self-dri­ving and by shut­tle are the most pop­u­lar – and most effi­cient ways of reach­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, there is also a fur­ther option which may appeal to the roman­tics – and cer­tain­ly the train lovers, and which offers a more in-depth view of the stun­ning scenery that leads into the heart of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park; by Amtrak Train.  

A slow­er – you’ll need to bud­get four days at least – and more expen­sive option, there’s a range of options to get to Mon­tana and into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park by train – how­ev­er for those seek­ing a tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence, we’d advise tak­ing on a mul­ti-day train jour­ney on the Amtrak – with a series of rail pack­ages avail­able that pro­vide a tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence.  

Chief among these are the explo­ration pack­age that leaves from either Las Vegas or the won­der of the Grand Canyon, then pass­es through the equal­ly stun­ning Yosemite, before arriv­ing into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – with this 7‑day train explo­ration, which can be extend­ed as the trav­eller requires, see­ing explor­ers take in three beau­ti­ful nation­al parks, and being treat­ed to incred­i­ble views out of their train win­dow before arriv­ing into Glac­i­er.  

For those who want to expe­ri­ence a won­der of a train jour­ney through Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, but don’t have the bud­get – or time – for a mul­ti-park explo­ration, you can also find a ded­i­cat­ed Glac­i­er Nation­al Park express that departs from both White­fish and with­in the park itself. With this train ride, which takes explor­ers along the high­lights of the Going-to-the-Sun Road – and deep into the Lake McDon­ald Val­ley, allow­ing explor­ers to view the true high­lights of the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – includ­ing the tow­er­ing Glac­i­ers, snow-capped moun­tains parks, serene lakes and rolling forests – from the win­dow of their train car­riage – for a tru­ly unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence.  

Getting Around: 

Hav­ing got your­self into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and ensured you’ve come with a full itin­er­ary plan and loaded your­self up with plen­ty of sup­plies (includ­ing food, water and bear spray) you can then give con­sid­er­a­tion for get­ting around the park to ensure that you can explore the very best of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Self-Drive:  

Undoubt­ed­ly the eas­i­est way of explor­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is through self-dri­ving, and whichev­er air­port you fly into you’ll be able to find a series of choic­es for rental cars – which you can then use to nav­i­gate you way into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park using your clos­est entrance.  

Dri­ving into Glac­i­er Nation­al park, it’s essen­tial that you dri­ve slow­ly, account­ing for the wind­ing nature of the roads into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – as well as account for the wildlife that are known to make use of the many roads as wildlife cross­ings, with their being a series of warn­ing and pro­tec­tions in place to guard against ani­mal acci­dents.  

Still with a full tank of gas – and an extra jer­ry can (giv­en the lack of petrol sta­tions with­in the park) self-dri­ving across Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is one of the worlds great­est expe­ri­ences. With an adven­ture and explo­ration along the incred­i­ble roads with­in the park, includ­ing the great Going-to-the-Sun road, the Logan Pass and the Look­ing Glass Road being undoubt­ed high­lights on any explo­ration of this park.  

Shuttle Bus: 

For those who are not self-dri­ving around Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, and have made their way into the park by shut­tle bus or Uber, then it’s still entire­ly pos­si­ble to explore both the Going-to-the-sun Road and the many vista’s, panora­mas and hikes with­in the park – by using the shut­tle ser­vices that run with­in the park.  

A pri­mar­i­ly sum­mer ven­ture – which means that those not self-dri­ving will have to time their vis­it to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park to coin­cide with the peak sum­mer months – the free shut­tle ser­vices run along the Logan Pas and  Going to the Sun-Road every two hours (start­ing from 6:15am and end­ing at 8:30pm) and rep­re­sent a great way to explore the high­lights of the park for those with­out a car.  

In addi­tion to this, there is also a paid east park shut­tle that will take explor­ers into the fur­ther sec­tions of the park, with access to the Many Glac­i­er Area  — and which rep­re­sents a great option for those seek­ing to take on some of the stun­ning hikes with­in the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and even chase the North­ern Lights – just be sure to make it back for the last shut­tle.  

A pop­u­lar option – and one that is run on a first come first serve bases (requir­ing an ear­ly start and to be at the front of the queue) for those that find them­selves want­i­ng to explore the best of Glac­i­er Park, but with­out a car, util­is­ing the shut­tle ser­vice is a fan­tas­tic option.   

Hikes: 

Final­ly, hav­ing got your­self to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and fig­ured out how you will nav­i­gate around the park and the key spots and activ­i­ties you wish to under­take – when it comes to explo­ration we’d strong­ly encour­age you to take on at least one – if not more – of the stun­ning hikes found with­in the park.  

Rang­ing from easy one hour hikes (cedar woods, St. Mary Falls) to stren­u­ous and tough hikes (Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look & scenic Point) the hikes with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park are tru­ly world class – with it being from atop the van­tage points at the sum­mit of these hikes where the best views and pho­tog­ra­phy spots are found – that tru­ly bring the tow­er­ing glac­i­ers, snow capped moun­tains and stun­ning scenery with­in the park to life.  

One of the best places to spot wildlife as well, the many hikes avail­able with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park are explored fur­ther in our hik­ing sec­tion, but when it comes to get­ting around and an explo­ration of the stun­ning Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, tak­ing on a hike and being able to mar­vel at the stun­ning scenery laid out before you – is undoubt­ed­ly the best way to explore this true won­der of the world.  

Best time to Visit: 

A nat­ur­al par­adise – Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is blessed with some of the world’s most spec­tac­u­lar water­falls, lakes, hik­ing trails, forests and snow-capped moun­tains – and is one of the remain­ing land­scapes in the world where explor­ers can hike along, mar­vel at and pho­to­graph the time-threat­ened Glac­i­ers.  

A tru­ly spe­cial place, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is open year round – yet the expe­ri­ences – and land­scapes — explor­ers will expe­ri­ence vary dif­fer­ent­ly based on the sea­son and time of year that a vis­it is under­tak­en. With access to ser­vices, accom­mo­da­tion, attrac­tions – and even air­ports — all very much sea­son­al depen­dent.  

For this rea­son, the enjoy­ment, and expe­ri­ences of any trip to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park will be defined not just by the weath­er – but by the time of year that explor­ers choos­es to explore this won­der of the world. Mak­ing both pri­or plan­ning and under­stand­ing of the con­di­tions with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park dur­ing your time of vis­it – to both stay safe and get the most out of your expe­ri­ence.  

How­ev­er, while pri­or plan­ning is required, the vary­ing sea­sons can also offer advan­tages to trav­ellers – with it allow­ing trips to be tai­lored to the exact expe­ri­ence some­one wish­es – includ­ing explor­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park with min­i­mal crowds, hav­ing fun in the snow, tak­ing on hikes, explor­ing the Going-to-the-Sun Road and giv­ing the best chance of wit­ness­ing the Auro­ra Bore­alis.  

So, when it comes to the best time to vis­it the won­der of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, there is no one sin­gle best time to vis­it, instead we rec­om­mend tai­lor­ing and plan­ning your trip around the sea­son and expe­ri­ences you wish to explore with­in this incred­i­ble park: 

Winter: — For those seeking solitude, stunning scenery, skiing and Glacial Experiences:  

The best time explore Glac­i­er Nation­al Park for those seek­ing soli­tude and who are adverse to crowds – the park trans­forms into a mag­i­cal win­ter won­der­land in the win­ter months (Novem­ber – Feb­ru­ary) where the many forests and mead­ows are cov­ered in a blan­ket of snow – and the water­falls, lakes and moun­tain tops are frozen beneath the same blan­ket – cre­at­ing a tru­ly beau­ti­ful land­scape to explore.  

Along with the snow cov­ered vista’s – vis­it­ing dur­ing win­ter is also per­fect for those who fan­cy snow-shoe­ing and ski­ing, with the park trans­form­ing into an adven­tur­ers haven. Chief among these spots are the Logan Pass, Camas Roads – and the icon­ic Going-to-the-Sun Road – which makes for a fan­tas­tic place to snow-shoe and ski along.  

The prime time to wit­ness the Auro­ra Bore­alis in full flow as well – with the expe­ri­ence of wit­ness­ing this phe­nom­e­non across the park made even spe­cial by the absence of packed crowds. Vis­it­ing dur­ing the win­ter months is also a great time to wit­ness the famed Glac­i­er park Glac­i­ers in full flow – with the cool and freez­ing weath­er con­tribut­ing to the re-build­ing and shin­ing of the Glac­i­ers with­in the park – with the mighty Grin­nell Glac­i­er being par­tic­u­lar­ly pho­to­genic and impos­ing dur­ing win­ter.  

A sea­son favoured by locals for explo­ration, vis­it­ing dur­ing win­ter also brings with it chal­lenges, with the cold weath­er requir­ing plen­ty of prepa­ra­tion (lay­ers, food, heat packs) to ensure explor­ers stay warm. Sim­i­lar­ly vis­it­ing dur­ing win­ter is not rec­om­mend­ed for those who are not-self-dri­ving into the park – with the shuttle’s, bus­es and taxi’s – and accom­mo­da­tion with­in the park all not oper­at­ing dur­ing the win­ter months.  

Cou­ple this as well with the Going-to-the-Sun Road being closed to cars and traf­fic – which in turn makes areas of the park out of reach, as well as a num­ber of hikes either being inac­ces­si­ble – or giv­en the cold weath­er and snow & ice, dan­ger­ous, and for those not keen on win­ter sports and cold weath­er win­ter would not be the ide­al time to vis­it and get the best out of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Spring: — For those seeking adventure, warm meadows & scenery, & Cycling.  

While vis­it­ing dur­ing win­ter may be too cold, and inac­ces­si­ble for most trav­ellers – and see’s a num­ber of the main high­lights of the park out of reach – for those seek­ing to enjoy and explore the last remain­ing ice and snow of the park absent crowds – as the flow­ers and mead­ows begin to bloom – then vis­it­ing dur­ing the Spring Months (March – ear­ly May) is a fan­tas­tic time to explore Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

A sea­son that will again require self-dri­ving to explore – with the shut­tles and bus­es still not oper­at­ing – Spring brings with it chilly but man­age­able weath­er – and while the Going-to-the-Sun road will still not be open, explor­ers can nav­i­gate larg­er sec­tions of the park through alter­na­tive roads and access, and for those who well pre­pared take on some of the chal­leng­ing hikes with­in the parks to mar­vel at the still snow capped vis­tas and glac­i­ers before you.  

Spring is also the best time for those who fan­cy going extreme with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – with it being with­in spring that per­fect con­di­tions (water flow from melt­ing Glac­i­ers) are cre­at­ed to allow for extreme white water raft­ing, kayak­ing and canoe­ing. Along side the water ele­ments, spring is also per­fect for cyclists to explore the park – with the roads (includ­ing the going-to-the-Sun Road) being acces­si­ble by bike – and thanks to the reduced crowds and lack of traf­fic, cyclists are able to ped­dle their way across the park into the high­light areas of Lake McDon­ald and Many Glac­i­er – explor­ing the true best of the beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

A great time to vis­it for those seek­ing stun­ning land­scapes, incred­i­ble cycling and activ­i­ties as well as get­ting to enjoy the park in peace – do bear in mind for any­one vis­it­ing dur­ing the Spring months that cold-weath­er plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion is required and that this only a rec­om­mend­ed option for those self-dri­ving into the park.  

Summer: — For those seeking the best of the park’s beauty & experiences.  

The peak sea­son to vis­it – and our rec­om­mend­ed time to vis­it, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park comes alive in the sum­mer months – with the beau­ty of the parks many nat­ur­al land­scapes on full dis­play – and the Going-to-the-Sun Road, hikes, activ­i­ties, shut­tles and wildlife all ful­ly active with­in the park.  

Blessed as well with warm weath­er – which can stretch into the high 20 degrees, sum­mer see’s all sides of the park – on either con­ti­nen­tal divide ful­ly explorable, and while the Glacier’s and snow-capped moun­tains may have seen a loss of ice (which feeds into the lakes below) they are still ful­ly view­able and explorable. Cou­ple this with the wild­flow­ers being in full bloom and the lakes being not only serene but still cling­ing onto the rem­nants of ice­bergs – and you can expe­ri­ence the very best of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in the sum­mer months.  

An ide­al time for those who wish to explore the park but not dri­ve – as the shut­tle bus­es will be in oper­a­tion – vis­it­ing in sum­mer does come with some draw­backs – the main one of which is undoubt­ed­ly the mass crowds that flock to the park to expe­ri­ence its beau­ty. This in turn cre­ates a first come first serve basis on the shut­tles, see’s tick­ets required to dri­ve the going-to-the-sun Road, and see’s both accom­mo­da­tion book up in advance and prices rise dra­mat­i­cal­ly – which togeth­er can impact the enjoy­ment with­in of a vis­it to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

So while vis­it­ing in the sum­mer undoubt­ed­ly see’s the best of the parks beau­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty on dis­play – for those vis­it­ing dur­ing the sum­mer months (June – Sep­tem­ber) we’d strong­ly encour­age you to plan well in advance and make your book­ings and reser­va­tions between 6 ‑12 months in advance.  

Autumn: — For those seeking the leaf peeping, solitude & the best of dramatic scenery.  

A leaf-peep­ers dream, vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in the two peak Autumn months (Sep­tem­ber – Octo­ber) is an almost sur­re­al expe­ri­ence – as the many forests, trails and sur­round­ing mead­ows trans­form in colour from bright green into a kalei­do­scop­ic range of yel­low, orange, brown, gold and red – for a mag­nif­i­cent and sur­re­al vista.  

A change that spreads from east to west across the nation­al park – and trans­forms the trails with­in the park into a tru­ly cin­e­mat­ic and colour­ful jour­ney, vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in Autumn also brings with it soli­tude – as the peak sea­son of sum­mer has passed and the trails and roads emp­ty, mean­ing that for those who like hik­ing alone this is the ide­al time to head to the park.  

Yet, while the lakes, moun­tains, forests and Glac­i­ers may be in full flow and dra­mat­ic dur­ing Autumn, vis­it­ing dur­ing the Autumn months is only suit­able for those self-dri­ving – with the shut­tle bus­es that serve the park hav­ing been sus­pend­ed at the end of sum­mer. Along­side this find­ing accom­mo­da­tion and ser­vices with­in the park is also a chal­lenge, with many of the hotels and lodges hav­ing shut their doors, and the café’s and restau­rants also closed till the mid­dle of spring.  

While this in part explains the absence of peo­ple with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park dur­ing autumn, it also means that pri­or prepa­ra­tion and com­ing with plen­ty of sup­plies is essen­tial – espe­cial­ly for those stay­ing for mul­ti­ple days and tak­ing on the hik­ing routes.  

Still with the right prepa­ra­tion and sup­plies, and tak­ing the trans­port option of self-dri­ving – vis­it­ing in autumn can pro­vide incred­i­ble vista’s, awe-inspir­ing scenery and see explor­ers get to enjoy the best of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world in not only soli­tude but sur­round­ed by ever chang­ing and illu­mi­nat­ing leaf peep­ing under­way that tru­ly rep­re­sent the best of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

 .. 

An incred­i­ble won­der – that can be explored and enjoyed at any time of the year – there is tru­ly no bad time to expe­ri­ence Glac­i­er Nation­al Park and we’d rec­om­mend that explor­ers tai­lor their adven­ture and the time they vis­it to coin­cide with the sea­son that offers the best to them – based on inter­est, bud­get and method of trav­el.  

How­ev­er if we were to make a rec­om­men­da­tion based on the above and our own expe­ri­ence with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al park, we would strong­ly rec­om­mend that trav­ellers head to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in the sum­mer sea­son – when the weath­er is warm, the park is ful­ly open and you can expe­ri­ence the absolute best of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

How long to stay:

With no one vis­it to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park being the same – and giv­en the vast size of Glac­i­er Nation­al park (over 1 mil­lion acres), as well as for those vis­it­ing out­side of the peak sum­mer months not all areas of the park being open – it’s sim­ply impos­si­ble to cov­er all of the high­lights of the park in one vis­it.  

For this rea­son we encour­age explor­ers to take advan­tage of what time their cal­en­dar allows and pack as much as pos­si­ble into their explo­ration as pos­si­ble – with the rec­om­mend­ed time to stay being at least four full days with­in the park – and if pos­si­ble sev­en full days to allow trav­ellers to cov­er the main high­lights and expe­ri­ences with­in this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

Bud­get­ing at least four days will give explor­ers trav­el­ling dur­ing the sum­mer months to change the explore the high­lights of the going-to-the-sun-Road and take on at last one of the incred­i­ble hikes with­in the park, as well as afford time to explore the twin areas of Lake McDon­ald and the Many Glac­i­er Area. With those stay­ing for longer able to tra­verse fur­ther hikes, seek soli­tude in either the bow­man lakes of two med­i­cine val­ley – and if they are lucky head north into the Cana­di­an sec­tion of the park to seek out not only the serene waters of the Water­ton lakes – but also the elu­sive Auro­ra Bore­alis. 

In order to make your most of your time with­in the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, we’d high­ly rec­om­mend plan­ning in advance and self-dri­ving (see our top tips for more) – and in order to help with the plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion, the below would be our rec­om­mend itin­er­aries for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 days with­in the Nation­al Park: 

One day Itin­er­ary: Spend an action-packed day start­ing at Lake McDon­ald and tak­ing on the Ice­berg lake trail, before head­ing along the going to the sun road for the var­i­ous view­points and end­ing with a sun­set viewe­ing at Big Bend.  

 Two Day Itinerary:  

Day 1: Spend the first day at Lake McDon­ald and tak­ing on the Ice­berg lake trail, before head­ing along the going to the sun road for the var­i­ous view­points and end­ing with a sun­set view­ing at either Big Bend or Wild Goose Over­look. 

Day 2: Take on one of the parks epic trails – with our rec­om­men­da­tion being the Grin­nell Glac­i­er over­look or the hike to scenic point.  

Three Day Itinerary:  

 Day 1: Begin in the West Glac­i­er area, explor­ing the Logan pass before drop­ping down to Lake McDon­ald where you can take on the Ice­berg Lake trail before wit­ness­ing a dra­mat­ic sun­set at wild goose over­look.  

Day 2: Take on the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Hike or scenic point hike, before explor­ing the many view­points and scenery along the Going to the Sun road and end­ing with a sun­set viewe­ing at Big Bend.  

Day 3: Head back towards the parks west stop­ping at the Many Glac­i­er area to take in the views and lakes. If time allows take on a quick boat tour, swim or kayak, and com­plete 3 mile Hid­den Lake Over­look.  

Four Day Itin­er­ary:  

Day 1: Begin in the West Glac­i­er area, explor­ing the Logan pass before drop­ping down to Lake McDon­ald where you can take on the Ice­berg Lake trail before wit­ness­ing a dra­mat­ic sun­set at wild goose over­look. 

Day 2: Take on the mighty Grin­nell Glac­i­er hike before head­ing along the Going-to-the-Sun Road to take in the view­points and sun­set at Big Bend.  

Day 3: A day of incred­i­ble hikes – start­ing with the Scenic over point fol­lowed by the Cedar Trails and St.Mary & Vir­ginia falls hike – with sun­set wit­nessed from the sum­mit of the hike before mak­ing your way down.  

Day 4: Head back towards the parks west stop­ping at the Many Glac­i­er area to take in the views and lakes. If time allows take on a quick boat tour, swim or kayak, and com­plete 3 mile Hid­den Lake Over­look. 

Seven Day Itinerary:  

Day 1: Begin in the West Glac­i­er area, explor­ing the Logan pass before drop­ping down to Lake McDon­ald where you can take on the Ice­berg Lake trail before wit­ness­ing a dra­mat­ic sun­set at wild goose over­look. 

Day 2: Take on the mighty Grin­nell Glac­i­er hike at a relaxed pace and enjoy time in the evening to won­der through a soft­er trail or dri­ve along the look­ing glass road in search of the Auro­ra Bore­alis (sea­son and weath­er per­mit­ting) or wildlife.  

Day 3: Spend a full day explor­ing the many won­ders and pull-outs along the Going-to-the Sun road – includ­ing enjoy­ing a sun­set finale at Big Bend.  

Day 4: Head to the Many Glac­i­er area to take in the views and lakes – includ­ing tak­ing a boat tour, swim or kayak, and then com­plete the 3 mile Hid­den Lake Over­look for an epic con­clu­sion to the day.  

Day 5: Spend the day tak­ing on anoth­er full day hike with­in the park – such as the scenic point over­look – before com­plet­ing your day with a hike to St. Mary & Vir­ginia falls.  

Day 6: spend the day head­ing north through the park, stop­ping at the many incred­i­ble pull-outs before cross­ing the con­ti­nen­tal divide and to the spot of Water­ton lakes. Spend the After­noon hik­ing around Water­ton Lakes and evening look­ing for the Auro­ra Bore­alis in the com­pa­ny of Bison.  

Day 7: A final day spent hik­ing around the Bison pad­dock loop tak­ing in the serene and stun­ning lakes of Water­ton – before depart­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

.. 

A tru­ly stun­ning won­der – with itin­er­aries to suit all vis­it dura­tions. Our rec­om­men­da­tion is to bud­get at least four days to see the high­lights of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – but if pos­si­ble put aside at least sev­en days or longer to explore the park– with pri­or plan­ning essen­tial to get the most out of our time.  

Still if your vis­it is one day to sev­en days or longer – you’ll be priv­i­leged to explore the incred­i­ble land­scapes and vis­tas with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, and there’s no doubt that any vis­it will leave you inspired and in awe of the sheer nat­ur­al beau­ty of this crown of the con­ti­nent and incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Top Tip 

The true crown of the con­ti­nent, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park offers some of the world’s most per­fect nat­ur­al scenery, with the tow­er­ing Glac­i­ers, snow-capped moun­tain peaks, serene lakes and rolling for­est all eas­i­ly explored on foot, kayak, boat and by road.  

Yet as stun­ning as this nat­ur­al par­adise is, a trip to Glac­i­er Park is not with­out its risks – espe­cial­ly giv­en the nat­ur­al and wild envi­ron­ment into which you will enter for explo­ration, with trav­ellers need­ing to be con­scious and respect­ful of not just the risks with­in such an envi­ron­ment, but the ani­mal res­i­dents that call this park home (espe­cial­ly the Griz­zly Bears) – and who have been known to attack humans.  

Com­bine this with ever chang­ing weath­er, the chal­leng­ing hikes that will be under­tak­en with­in the park, the need for advance plan­ning and book­ing to take on the best sights and roads with­in the park – and the lack of phone sig­nal with­in the park, and there’s a real chance that any dream trip to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park can not only quick­ly fall to pieces, but can lead to seri­ous and poten­tial­ly dead­ly inci­dents.  

So, to help ensure that your trip to the true won­der of the world of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is as safe and enjoy­able as pos­si­ble, and that any explor­er gets to make the most of the stun­ning vis­tas, panoram­ic views and incred­i­ble unique nature and wildlife expe­ri­ence with­in this nat­ur­al par­adise, we’ve round­ed out our top tips for vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park: 

Stay Safe: (Come Prepared):

First up – and undoubt­ed­ly most impor­tant when vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, is to come pre­pared for the envi­ron­ment into which you will be enter­ing. A nat­ur­al par­adise, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is, for the large part, with­out reg­u­lar Gas Sta­tions, ATMs, shops and cell phone sig­nal – which can pose sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for those who do not come well stocked and pre­pared for any pos­si­bil­i­ty.  

First-up, explor­ers need to be pre­pared for the lack of cell phone sig­nal, which means that car­ry­ing a phys­i­cal map is essen­tial with­in the park – as is mak­ing sure you’ve down­loaded offline maps from Google before enter­ing with­in the park. Along­side this we’d also encour­age any­one head­ing into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park to reg­u­lar­ly check the parks web­site for pos­si­ble clo­sures, weath­er con­di­tions and updates – as well as come pre­pared with all their essen­tial doc­u­ments – includ­ing book­ings, doc­u­ments and insur­ance.  

Along­side account­ing for the lack of cell ser­vice, those trav­el­ling by self-dri­ve and car will need to plan not only for reser­va­tions (see below) but also for the lack of avail­able petrol across the park. Which means com­ing into Glac­i­er with a full tank – and at least one full Jer­ry Can, is essen­tial to get the most out of your vis­it.  

Sim­i­lar­ly regard­less of how one is trav­el­ling, it’s essen­tial that any trav­eller comes pre­pared for the like­ly lack of food and water with­in the park – with dehy­dra­tion list­ed as the num­ber one cause of facil­i­ties with­in the park. For this rea­son we strong­ly advise stock­ing up on plen­ty of sup­plies in the entry towns of Colum­bia Falls of White­fish and being aware of the clos­est town / saloon (espe­cial­ly the North­ern Lights Case) for those ven­tur­ing fur­ther into the park. With our rec­om­men­da­tion being to come pre­pared with sup­plies or plans as to how you will have three meals a day and three litres of water a day – and being sure to bring fil­tered water tablets.  

Final­ly when it comes to safe­ty with­in the park, we’d strong­ly advise that indi­vid­u­als nev­er hike alone, giv­en the treach­er­ous ter­rain and ani­mal risks (see below) that will be encoun­tered upon any ven­ture into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. With it also being our rec­om­men­da­tion that close con­tacts are noti­fied of the trav­el itin­er­ary of a trav­eller, before any­one under­takes an explo­ration with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Stay Safe (Wildlife):

Along­side mak­ing sure you’ve done all the nec­es­sary prepa­ra­tion for the hikes and activ­i­ties you are under­tak­ing – and that you’re well stocked up on gas, food and water espe­cial­ly, any­one vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park will need to account and be pre­pared for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of dan­ger­ous wildlife encoun­ters.  

Chief on the least of wildlife to pre­pare for is undoubt­ed­ly the Griz­zly and Brown Bears who roam the forests of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, with encoun­ters and sight­ings almost fre­quent and guar­an­teed for those tak­ing on any of the high­er alti­tude treks with­in the park.  

While sight­ing and pho­tograph­ing these incred­i­ble ani­mals is a true priv­i­lege, it’s absolute­ly essen­tial that any viewe­ing is done from a safe and respect­ed dis­tance, with all ani­mals with­in the park – but espe­cial­ly Bears not approached at any points – with Mama Grizzly’s in par­tic­u­lar known to be aggres­sive when they smell or sight a human.  

For this rea­son, we’d also strong­ly advise that all explor­ers car­ry with them Bear Spray – which can only be bought when in Mon­tana or at the Park (it’s not allowed in checked lug­gage) as well as strong and stur­dy knife for emer­gen­cies – and in the event you do encounter an ani­mal of any kind with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, be sure to remain calm and slow­ly back away and only utilise defence mech­a­nisms when nec­es­sary.  

Preparation – Bookings & Reservations: 

As well as com­ing pre­pared for the con­di­tions and wildlife encoun­ters, giv­en the immense pop­u­lar­i­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and in an effort to pre­serve and pro­tect this incred­i­ble won­der of the world – a series of reser­va­tion and tick­et­ing poli­cies have been placed in effect for the most pop­u­lar and high­lights of the park – mean­ing that book­ing and plan­ning for trip in advance is essen­tial.  

A police which applies for any­one vis­it­ing the park in the peak late Spring – Sum­mer – ear­ly Autumn months, between May – Sep­tem­ber, any­one wish­ing to access any of the fol­low­ing high­lights between  the hours of 6am – 3pm must have a reser­va­tion:  

- Going-to-the-Sun Road (May – Sep­tem­ber). 

- North Fork Area 

- Many Glac­i­er area (July onwards) 

- Two Med­i­cine area (July onwards) 

While these poli­cies can seri­ous­ly impact any­one seek­ing to vis­it between the peak sum­mer months of July – Sep­tem­ber, it also means that trav­ellers need to have their plan and itin­er­ary ready at least 12 months before their jour­ney – and should seek to book their pass­es for the above areas at least 3 months in advance.  

Sim­i­lar­ly, for those seek­ing to stay with­in the park, advance book­ing is again essen­tial – with hos­tel and hotel accom­mo­da­tion – par­tic­u­lar­ly at the Many Glac­i­er and Lake McDon­ald Lodges known to be booked up a year in advance, with camp­sites known to be booked up 9 months in advance – mean­ing that for those seek­ing to stay with­in the park, we’d encour­age you to book your accom­mo­da­tion at least a year in advance.  

Com­bine this with boat tours and hik­ing pass­es for the major trails also requir­ing reser­va­tions – 2–3 months in advance, and – par­tic­u­lar­ly for those trav­el­ling in the sum­mer months – for­ward plan­ning – which we’d encour­age to be under­tak­en a year in advance – is absolute­ly essen­tial to ensure that any explor­er head­ing to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park gets the best out of this stun­ning nat­ur­al par­adise.  

Equipment to Bring:

Recog­nis­ing that Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is a nat­ur­al and wild won­der – and one where – in order to both get the most out of your explo­ration here, and to stay safe –account­ing for Safe­ty in the envi­ron­ment, safe­ty with wildlife and book­ing and prepar­ing your trips in advance is essen­tial – all trav­ellers head­ing to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, will need to come pre­pared with a range of equip­ment and cloth­ing to both stay warm, account for the heat and suc­cess­ful­ly account for the chal­leng­ing and beau­ti­ful trails that await you with­in the park.  

There­fore as a min­i­mum, we’d rec­om­mend that all explor­ers head­ing to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park come with the fol­low­ing: 

- Appro­pri­ate Cloth­ing for all Sea­sons: Giv­en weath­er can change in an instance at Glac­i­er Nation­al park, it’s essen­tial that a trav­eller comes with; a rain jack­et, a sol­id coat, t‑shirts, a warm jumper, shorts, trousers and gloves. As well we’d rec­om­mend bring­ing plen­ty of lay­ers, a sol­id hat and espe­cial­ly sun­glass­es and sun­screen to guard against the hard sun.  

- Hik­ing Essen­tials – For those tak­ing on the hikes with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, which would be one of our top tips to tru­ly explore the beau­ty of this park, bring­ing the appro­pri­ate gear for hik­ing is essen­tial for both safe­ty and to get the best out of these incred­i­ble trails. As a min­i­mum we would there­fore strong­ly sug­gest brin­ing sol­id worn in hik­ing shoes, trekking poles, plen­ty of good hik­ing shoes, extra sun­screen, a hat, head­lamp, gloves – and plen­ty of snacks and water.  

- Safe­ty Equip­ment – Along­side bring­ing the hik­ing essen­tials, giv­en the risks posed with­in the park from the nat­ur­al ter­rain and from wildlife, bring­ing safe­ty equip­ment and sup­plies is absolute­ly essen­tial. As a min­i­mum every explor­er should be bring­ing a well-stocked first aid kit, bear spray, a large knife, nav­i­ga­tion tools and maps (see above), a Swiss army knife, fire starter sup­plies and – for those tak­ing on long day hike emer­gency shel­ter sup­plies. Along­side this we’d also strong­ly rec­om­mend – giv­en the lack of phone sig­nal with­in the park – that any­one head­ing into Glac­i­er Nation­al park informs an emer­gency con­tact of their itin­er­ary.  

- Sup­plies: Next to safe­ty equip­ment, any­one head­ing into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park will need to account for the lack of food, water and petrol avail­able in and around the park area. Essen­tial for those stay­ing for mul­ti­ple days with­in the park is to not only be aware of this, but come pre­pared with plen­ty of food – enough to cov­er three sol­id meals for each day, at last 2 litres of water per per­son per day, a full tank of petrol and a full jer­ry can for those dri­ving and plen­ty of snacks – not­ing that it is entire­ly pos­si­ble that there will be no food and water avail­able for the dura­tion of your stay with­in the park.  

- Pho­to Equip­ment & Binoc­u­lars: Final­ly, hav­ing account­ed for all the safe­ty ele­ments asso­ci­at­ed with your explo­ration of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, we’d also advise mak­ing some time to account for two essen­tial pieces of equip­ment that can help you not only max­imise your enjoy­ment with­in the park – but help you cap­ture stun­ning moments and the full beau­ty of this park that will undoubt­ed­ly last a life­time. First up, giv­en the pletho­ra of amaz­ing wildlife that roam the forests of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, we’d high­ly rec­om­mend invest­ing in a high-qual­i­ty set of binoc­u­lars that will let you not only glimpse and spot wildlife but which you can use to get a birds eye view of the peaks of the stun­ning glac­i­ers and snow capped moun­tains across the park.  

Along­side brin­ing a good set of binoc­u­lars with you, we’d real­ly advise brin­ing a high-qual­i­ty, high-res­o­lu­tion cam­era as well. Giv­en the series of stun­ning land­scapes and vis­tas avail­able to you across Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, com­bined with the chance to snap rare wildlife and the elu­sive phe­nom­e­non of the Auro­ra Bore­alis – which lights up the park in a daz­zling dis­play of green and vio­let – com­ing to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park with a high qual­i­ty cam­era, capa­ble of full zoom and snap­ping night- time pho­tog­ra­phy is an absolute must.  

Make the Most of your Time:

Final­ly, hav­ing got all your gear togeth­er, account­ed for safe­ty and made all your book­ing and trav­el plans, you can then turn your atten­tion to your expe­ri­ence to Glac­i­er Nation­al park itself – and how to get the absolute best out of our time with­in this stun­ning won­der.  

To help with this, we’d first off rec­om­mend start­ing your day with­in the park ear­ly – as not only will it give you the chance to cap­ture some of the most amaz­ing sunrise’s on the plan­et, but it will also give you a head-start on park­ing places (which fill up from around 9am) and in par­tic­u­lar­ly trails – which can become crowd­ed by 8Am.  

Along­side let­ting you pack more into your day, the advan­tage that you get on trails is tru­ly worth it – with it being a fur­ther one of our rec­om­men­da­tions that every trav­eller head­ing to Glac­i­er Park takes on a trekking trail. With over 700 miles of treks to choose from – which vary in length from one mile to a full days trek, the best view­points – and the best of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – are undoubt­ed­ly found at the sum­mit of the incred­i­ble trails, with our top picks being the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look, the Hid­den Lake Over­look and Scenic Point.  

Fur­ther as well as self-dri­ving through the park if pos­si­ble – as it lets you tru­ly explore some of the spe­cial and remote parts of the park, and mak­ing sure you account for at least four full-days in the park – our final top tip for those vis­it­ing Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is to make the most of your time in this spe­cial park, by sign­ing up for activ­i­ties, explor­ing as many regions of the park as you can, hunt­ing the North­ern lights, seek­ing out the wildlife that call this incred­i­ble park home, and sub­mit­ting to the top of the many glo­ri­ous peaks and trails that await you – with it being from these peaks where you can look out over the tru­ly stun­ning vista and panora­ma of Glac­i­er Nation­al park and soak in the stun­ning nat­ur­al beau­ty of this true crown of the con­ti­nent.  

 Cost:  

A nat­ur­al par­adise, the won­der of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is seen not just in the stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful lakes, forests, snow-capped peaks, tow­er­ing Glac­i­ers but also in its acces­si­bil­i­ty and afford­abil­i­ty – with this charm­ing won­der of the world being not only easy accessed but hav­ing a range of explo­ration itin­er­aries, activ­i­ties, accom­mo­da­tion and trans­port options to suit all bud­gets.  

While this undoubt­ed­ly makes Glac­i­er Nation­al Park a par­tic­u­lar­ly attrac­tive won­der – par­tic­u­lar­ly for those based in North Amer­i­ca where the cost of get­ting to the won­der is sig­nif­i­cant­ly cheap­er – as is the case with plan­ning your trip to Glac­i­er Nation­al park, and mak­ing sure you come with appro­pri­ate sup­plies and equip­ment, when it comes to bud­get­ing for a trip to this stun­ning park, a range of advance plan­ning and cal­cu­la­tion is required.   

For starters there are at least six main fac­tors that will influ­ence how much you need to bud­get for a trip to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park; 

 — The time of year you trav­el:

Across the park prices will fluc­tu­ate based on the dif­fer­ing sea­sons and based on the acces­si­bil­i­ty and open­ness of some of the park’s main areas and hikes. While this can of course influ­ence your enjoy­ment lev­els and the lev­el of beau­ty you get to expe­ri­ence with­in the park – it will also affect how much you pay, with tick­ets, accom­mo­da­tion and attrac­tions all sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er in price between March  — Sep­tem­ber and peak­ing in the sum­mer months.  

 — Accommodation you opt for

With a range of accom­mo­da­tion options avail­able to suit all bud­gets – there is some­thing for every­one, so long as you book in advance. With camp­ing a great option for those on a tighter bud­get, and for those with a hefty bud­get the lake lodges around Many Glac­i­er and Lake McDon­ald mak­ing for a lux­u­ry stay. The price of accom­mo­da­tion will also be strong­ly influ­enced by the area with­in the park you opt for, with the main areas with­in the park hav­ing more options  — which dri­ves prices down, and for those who opt for the soli­tude of the East or North­ern sides more lim­it­ed in choice, and thus can expect to pay a lit­tle extra.  

 — Mode of Travel:

While we’d encour­age every­one to take on hikes, which after per­mits are free of charge, if you opt to self-dri­ve with­in the park you’ll need to account for the cost of a rental car and petrol sup­plies – which can quick­ly add-up, where as those on a tighter bud­get may need to con­sid­er and plan their trip around the shut­tle bus.  

 — Length of trip & Activities:

What may well be the decid­ing fac­tor in your bud­get­ing, not­ing the poten­tial high costs for accom­mo­da­tion and trav­el – par­tic­u­lar­ly for those trav­el­ling in peak sea­son, the length of your trip will strong­ly influ­ence how long you can stay with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. While our rec­om­men­da­tion is a min­i­mum of four full days / five nights, do bear in mind that this may not be fea­si­ble for those on a bud­get. 

 Fur­ther while it is rec­om­mend­ed to make these days as busy as pos­si­ble, it’s worth not­ing that across the range of activ­i­ties avail­able with­in Glac­i­er Park, we’d rec­om­mend pri­ori­tis­ing the free hikes, view­ing points, and Auro­ra Bore­alis chas­ing over the boat rides and paid activ­i­ties for those on a bud­get. With the free activ­i­ties being just as spe­cial – and giv­ing trav­ellers a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence in this stun­ning nat­ur­al par­adise.  

So hav­ing decid­ed on your itin­er­ary and bud­get, the first step will be to bud­get for get­ting to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and there are again two great options to suits both those on a bud­get and those with a lit­tle more cash avail­able. The first will be to fly into the Mis­soula Coun­ty Inter­na­tion­al Air­port – which is the main air­port from Mon­tana and from where you can hire a car or catch a bus to the park. With the sec­ond option – and more suit­able for those not on a bud­get being to head to the Glac­i­er Park Inter­na­tion­al Air­port – which is just on the out­skirts of the Nation­al Park.  

For those on a bud­get and trav­el­ling from with­in North Amer­i­ca you can expect to pay around $500 Usd round trip to reach Mis­soula Coun­ty Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, with those based out­side the USA encour­age to bud­get between $800 — $2500 for round trips when fly­ing into Mon­tana. For the more lux­u­ri­ous and clos­er option of Glac­i­er Park Inter­na­tion­al Air­port – which is an option we’d only real­ly advise for those based with­in the US, you can expect a round trip to come in at around $800 — $1000 from with­in North Amer­i­ca – and almost three times that when based out­side.  

Not­ing that prices will be sig­nif­i­cant­ly cheap­er if you trav­el out­side of the peak sea­son and book well in advance, hav­ing got your­self to Mon­tana, you’ll then need to dei­cide on the method of trans­port that you’ll be tak­ing to explore Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, with their being two main options: self-dri­ving or through pub­lic trans­port.  

For those not on an incred­i­bly strict bud­get, we’d strong­ly advise self-dri­ving into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, with this option giv­ing you the most free­dom and abil­i­ty to define where you explore with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. How­ev­er self-dri­ving with­in the park is sad­ly not cheap – par­tic­u­lar­ly in peak sea­son, with the aver­age rental car cost (includ­ing insur­ance etc) like­ly to be around $150 Usd a day, and you’ll also need to account for a full tank of gas and a full jer­ry can – which can cost an extra $150 Usd, bring­ing the total for self-dri­ving hire into the park for a 5 night stay up to $900 Usd – and that’s not account­ing for snow tires, Gps and sur­charges – with the entry fee into Glac­i­er Park being an extra $35 in the sum­mer months and $20 Usd in Win­ter.  

So while self-dri­ving is cer­tain­ly rec­om­mend­ed, for those on a bud­get for whom this may be out of reach, there is also the option to trav­el by coach to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park and then hop on the shut­tle bus to get around. For the coach to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park the eas­i­est option is to take the Amtrak or Grey­hound to one of the entry towns to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park (Colum­bia Falls, Kalispell and White­fish) which should cost around $25 Usd and from these towns take the bus into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park which should see you dropped off at the vis­i­tor cen­tre for as lit­tle as $5 Usd.  

Hav­ing made it into the park by bus, there is then the option to take a series of free shut­tle bus­es along the Logan Pas and  Going to the Sun-Road, with the bus­es run­ning every two hours from 8:15am to 6:30 pm. For those who want to go a lit­tle fur­ther there is also a paid ($5) shut­tle ser­vice that heads over into the East of the park as well, which makes for a great option for those seek­ing to take on more unique trails and cap­ture and explore some of the beau­ti­ful and remote parts of the park.  

While the shut­tle bus sys­tem is undoubt­ed­ly bud­get friend­ly, do know that it oper­ates only in sum­mer months, is weath­er depen­dent and is on a first come first serve basis, which can real­ly impact trav­el plans and depar­tures if the bus is too full or is sud­den­ly can­celled.  

 Accomodation:

Hav­ing got your­self into the park and sort­ed your itin­er­ary, you’ll then need to bud­get for and book your accom­mo­da­tion, and again there a range of options to suit all trav­ellers, rang­ing from $10 USD to $550 Usd a night.  

For those on a bud­get, the undoubt­ed best and most bud­get friend­ly option will be to camp with­in the park – with there being 13 camp­grounds across the park which will set you back on aver­age between $10 — $20 a night. An option that requires you to bring your own tent, sleep­ing mat and com­fy sleep­ing bag – as well as the nec­es­sary camp­ing sup­plies, camp­ing is a great option to recon­nect with nature and tru­ly expe­ri­ence the ambi­ence and atmos­phere with­in the park. While the camp­site you opt for may well be deter­mined by access and avail­abil­i­ty (a book­ing in advance is required) — for those self-dri­ving or based with­in Cana­da and seek­ing a spe­cial expe­ri­ence we’d advise seek­ing out the Water­ton lakes camp­site – where if you’re lucky – you may get to fall asleep under not only clear star­ry skies, but beneath the lights of the stun­ning Auro­ra Bore­alis – for a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  

While camp­ing can offer a fan­tas­tic and bud­get friend­ly way to stay and con­nect with Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, it is not always the most com­fort­able or acces­si­ble for trav­ellers. So, for those with a lit­tle bit more in their bud­get and who are seek­ing a more mod­er­ate lev­el of com­fort, there’s a range of hotels both with­in and out­side the park that rep­re­sent a great place to stay to explore the park.  

The cheap­er option, the hotels out­side are found as far away as white­fish (where a shut­tle can con­nect you to the park – and you can expect to pay around $100 a night for a stay, with the hotels pro­vid­ing all the expect­ed ameni­ties, and pro­vid­ing access to super­mar­kets and restau­rants, which can real­ly add to the enjoy­ment of your stay.  

Along­side those hotels based out­side the park, you’ll also find hotels clos­er to the park, and even with­in the park bound­aries, with the Cedar creek lodge and con­fer­ence cen­tre, and the moun­tain pine and Glac­i­er lodge both being great options and con­ve­nient­ly locat­ed. How­ev­er, you will have to pay a lit­tle extra for the loca­tion perks, with rooms in these hotels book­ing up fast and start­ing from $200 Usd a night.  

 Final­ly, for those who are seek­ing not only a high lev­el of com­fort but to con­nect with the his­to­ry of the park and be based not only inside the park but with­in and with views of the major peaks, glac­i­er and lakes of the park – then the lodges inside the park are an incred­i­ble, if expen­sive option. Con­ve­nient­ly locat­ed on the perch­es of lakes, and offer­ing stun­ing Glac­i­er views, of the sev­en lodges we’d high­ly rec­om­mend the Sper­ry Lodge, the Lake McDon­ald Lodge or the Many Glac­i­er hotel – all of which are not only superbly locat­ed but which come with the tra­di­tion­al cab­in feel of a nature gate­way.  

 Open sea­son­al­ly, and incred­i­bly pop­u­lar – you’ll need to book ear­ly to grab a room in these lodges and you can expect to pay between $300 — $450 Usd a night in each lodge.  

Experiences & Food & Supplies:  

With your accom­mo­da­tion sort­ed, you can turn your atten­tion to the cost of the expe­ri­ences and your itin­er­ary with­in Glac­i­er nation­al park, and Glac­i­er Park is one of the unique won­ders in that (aside from the entrance fee) expe­ri­enc­ing the best of the park and its stun­ning nature is com­plete­ly free to explore for every­one.  

This applies not just to the incred­i­ble views and panora­mas across the park but the major­i­ty of the trails as well (be sure to check in advance based on the trail you opt for) and you’ll even find free shut­tle bus­es dur­ing the sum­mer months to trans­port you. In fact, the only costs that explor­ers may face for explor­ing is if they opt to take on a dri­ve across the going-to-tun-sun road  — dur­ing the sum­mer months, which requires reser­va­tion and costs $2 Usd, or if you opt for a guid­ed tour inside the park (both lake and high­light explo­ration or Auro­ra Bore­alis chas­ing) both of which will cost between $50 — $100 Usd for a half day tour.  

Along­side the option of pay­ing for a half day tour, for those who are keen on their adven­ture activ­i­ties and want to get their adren­a­line pump­ing at Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, then there’s also the option for either Kayak­ing or white-Water raft­ing, with both tours being half day trip and cost­ing between $60 — $100 Usd per per­son.  

An incred­i­ble park to vis­it for those on a bud­get, where the full nature and the best of the park’s activ­i­ties (hikes, explo­ration, wildlife and nature view­ing) can all be under­tak­en at a min­i­mum cost, one area where trav­ellers will need to bud­get and pre­pare for is when it comes to food and sup­plies.  

For those on a big­ger bud­get, you can bud­get to get break­fast, lunch (packed if on a hike) and your evening meal from the hotel or lodge in which you’re stay­ing -, as well as at one of the cafes or shops dot­ted around the park that are open dur­ing the sum­mer months. How­ev­er, do be warned that food with­in the lodges and restau­rants are not only sub­ject to avail­abil­i­ty but come at a high cost – with meals aver­ag­ing at least $30 if not high­er when order­ing with­in the park – and that doesn’t include drinks! 

 So for this rea­son, and espe­cial­ly for the bud­get con­scious trav­eller, we advise com­ing into Glac­i­er Nation­al Park with all your food, water and sup­plies ready to hand – with those tak­ing on hikes advised to bring at least an extra meal for each hike and plen­ty of ener­gy bars to pow­er their way through the hike. The eas­i­est and most effi­cient way to get your food, and water is to stock up before­hand by buy­ing in bulk at any of the major Amer­i­can super­mar­kets.  

Using this method you can not only ensure you are well equipped for your hikes with food sup­plies and water, but also vary the cost of your food cost to suit your bud­get, with our rec­om­men­da­tion for the bud­get trav­ellers who stick to pas­ta and bread being to bud­get $10 a day for food and water, and for those with a lit­tle more mon­ey to treat them­selves able to set aside $20 usd a day for food and water.  

 Total Cost: 

Cou­ple the cost of food with addi­tion­al costs, includ­ing bear spray ($40), hik­ing gear ($150), a knife and Swiss army knife ($35) insur­ance ($70) and a cou­ple of well-earned sou­venirs ($30) and exclud­ing the cost of flights a bud­get con­scious trav­eller who is not self-dri­ving can bud­get $400 as a base to get to Glac­i­er Nation­al park and then an extra $40 a day extra for each day spent with­in the park. With those self-dri­ving and on a bud­get advised to set aside $550 as base and $200 a day for each day with­in the park.  

Sim­i­lar­ly, for those with a health­i­er bud­get, you can increase the amount on accom­mo­da­tion, food and activ­i­ties and expect to pay either $500 as base if not self-dri­ving or $600 as a base if self-dri­ving, and then expect to bud­get between $100 — $300 a day based on your lev­el of accom­mo­da­tion, trans­port method and feed­ing options. With the range of trans­porta­tion meth­ods, accom­mo­da­tion options and explo­ration options mean­ing that regard­less of bud­get, Glac­i­er nation­al park is an incred­i­bly acces­si­ble and afford­able won­der of the world that can be enjoyed by all.  

Fun Fact: 

Across the Mil­lion Acres of stun­ning nat­ur­al beau­ty found with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park that lies not only 130 serene lakes, 100’s of species of wildlife, tens of thou­sands of pris­tine tow­er­ing trees, hun­dreds of snow capped moun­tain tops – split across two moun­tain ranges – and of course the ever dwin­dling glac­i­ers, whose num­ber stands at 26 – down from more than 150 since 1880.  

Yet along­side being a nat­ur­al par­adise and undoubt­ed­ly the true crown of the con­ti­nent, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is awash with stun­ning his­to­ry and inter­est­ing facts – with the park’s lega­cy since its found­ing in 1910 con­tin­u­ing to grow. So, to help explor­ers not only enjoy the full beau­ty of this true won­der of the world – but also under­stand the his­to­ry, lega­cy and sto­ry of the park – we’ve round­ed up a series of fun facts about the mighty Glac­i­er Nation­al Park: 

Fun Fact 1: The park has been inhab­it­ed for more than 12,500 years:  

 While Glac­i­er Nation­al Park was first estab­lished in 1910, exca­va­tions and research have point­ed to the park being the home of the Koote­nai native Amer­i­can tribe as far back as 12,500 years ago – who would come to the lands sea­son­al­ly (avoid­ing the cold win­ter) – who would come to the park to hunt, col­lect wood and make use of the abun­dance of nat­ur­al sup­plies across the park. With the park still hold­ing deep and spir­i­tu­al mean­ing to the Koote­nai peo­ple – which is explored with­in the parks vis­i­tor cen­ter.  

 Fun Fact 2: Glac­i­er Nation­al Park the world’s first Inter­na­tion­al Peace Park.  

As well as being occu­pied by human­i­ty for more than 12,500 years – and hav­ing been a sta­ple of the famed adven­tures of Lewis & Clark in their ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry adven­tures – fol­low­ing the estab­lish­ment of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in 1910, the park was award­ed the world’s first inter­na­tion­al peace park sta­tus in 1932.  

This sta­tus was grant­ed with the aim of cel­e­brat­ing peace between Cana­da and the Unit­ed States – into whose bor­ders the park cross­es – and, to date, the park stands as a sym­bol of the uni­ty and friend­ship between the two coun­tries – with park preser­va­tion and fire man­age­ment with­in the park being joint­ly man­aged by both coun­tries.  

Fun Fact 3: Glac­i­er Nation­al Park sits on the Con­ti­nen­tal Divide:  

A fun fact – but also a warn­ing! – Glac­i­er Nation­al Park sits on the Con­ti­nen­tal Divide, per­fect­ly bal­anced between the Pacif­ic and Arc­tic. While this undoubt­ed­ly adds to the mys­tique and won­der of the Nation­al Park – it can also cause extreme weath­er and tem­per­a­ture – which can hap­pen in an instant, with parts of the park – regard­less of the sea­son, known to be hit by instant cold snaps which can see tem­per­a­tures plum­met, for this rea­son com­ing with plen­ty of lay­ers and an extra set of clothes is essen­tial.  

Fun Fact 4: Vis­i­tor Num­bers & Archi­tec­ture: 

Such is the beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and despite the fre­quent weath­er snaps, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park remains one of the most pop­u­lar nation­al parks for vis­i­ta­tion any­where in the world – fre­quent­ly see­ing more than three and a half mil­lion peo­ple vis­it annu­al­ly – with esti­mates say­ing that there have been more than 100 mil­lion peo­ple vis­it the park since records began in 1910.  

While the explo­ration of the park by this extreme num­ber under­lines the beau­ty of the park – it has also led to over­crowd­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the sum­mer months, so a range of tick­et­ing sys­tems – par­tic­u­lar­ly on the Going-to-the-Sun Road — have been intro­duced to curb park num­bers dur­ing peak times.  

This exten­sive vis­i­tor num­bers has also led to devel­op­ment with­in the park – par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the accom­mo­da­tion and restau­rant sec­tors, how­ev­er in an effort to main­tain the beau­ty of the park – this has been in the form or “parki­tec­ture” designed to repli­cate the beau­ty of Swiss chalets in the form of a series of lodges – with the lodges at Lake McDon­ald and with­in the Many Glac­i­er area being incred­i­bly spe­cial.  

Fun Fact 5: Walk­ing Trails & Wildlife:  

Undoubt­ed­ly the high­light of any trip to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park will be wit­ness­ing and soak­ing in the incred­i­ble vis­tas atop the sum­mit of the many hikes – with the views from the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look, many Glac­i­er View­point and Scenic look­out being three of our favourites that offer the absolute best of the panora­mas that have made Glac­i­er Nation­al park such an icon.  

Yet these three trails are just some of the 700 miles of hik­ing trails avail­able across Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – with there tru­ly being a hike and trek for every­one, and the vol­ume and scenery afford­ed upon these trails being some of the most spec­tac­u­lar on the plan­et.  

It is also upon these trails – and par­tic­u­lar­ly those that see dra­mat­ic ele­va­tion to reach their sum­mit – where you are most like­ly to encounter some of Glac­i­er Parks most famous res­i­dents and wildlife – includ­ing the elu­sive lynx, the mighty griz­zly bear and the icon­ic moun­tain goat. With a sight­ing of these ani­mals (from a safe dis­tance) being not only  priv­i­lege, but allow­ing explor­ers to step back through time – as the ani­mal pop­u­la­tion and species with­in the park has remained almost the same over the last thou­sands of year – thanks to a series of pro­tec­tion efforts.  

Fun Fact 6: Sym­bols of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park: 

As well as being a priv­i­lege to wit­ness, the ani­mal res­i­dents of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park stand as sym­bols of the beau­ty of both Mon­tana and the park itself – with the Griz­zly Bear being the nation­al ani­mal of the great state of Mon­tana – and the moun­tain goat being the offi­cial sym­bol of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. While both ani­mals are tru­ly pho­to­graph­ic – to take care upon inter­ac­tions with them, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the trails – as both can be aggres­sive when in search of food or threat­ened – see our top tips sec­tion on how to safe­ly deal with ani­mals with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

As well as the Moun­tain Goat being the ani­mal sym­bol of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, there’s anoth­er icon­ic sym­bol of Glac­i­er nation­al park that explor­ers should not only be on the look­out for – but should utilise as a form of trans­port; the bright red jam­mer bus­es. These bright red bus­es – which you’ll see fre­quent­ly around the park dur­ing the sum­mer months are styled on the orig­i­nal 1930’s park trans­porta­tion – with a jour­ney with­in one of these bus­es along the Going-to-the-Sun road being not only a chance to soak in the beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – but ride an icon in what is sure to be one of the most mem­o­rable and enjoy­able expe­ri­ences of your explo­ration of the park.  

Fun Fact 7: Glac­i­ers: 

Final­ly no vis­it to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park would be com­plete with­out explor­ing, mar­vel­ling at and pho­tograph­ing the parks mighty Glac­i­ers – of which there are cur­rent­ly 26 with­in the park – with the tallest being the 9,579 ft and 0.7 mile wide Black­foot Glac­i­er.  

A tru­ly immense and impres­sive Glac­i­er – even dur­ing the sum­mer months when its ice begins to dwin­dle, the Black­foot Glac­i­er is com­pli­ment­ed by a series of moun­tain peaks and warm forests – and you can find stun­ning views of the Glac­i­er across the park and atop the scenic over­look hike. While this Glac­i­er is undoubt­ed­ly impos­ing, our favourite with­in the park is undoubt­ed­ly the 8851-foot Grin­nell Glac­i­er that lies on the edge of the Many Glac­i­er Area – and from which the Grin­nell Glac­i­er and Many Glac­i­er View­point hikes offer stun­ning views – par­tic­u­lar­ly ear­ly in the morn­ing.  

Yet while these two glac­i­ers – and the accom­pa­ny­ing 24 – will be the true high­light of the park, it’s worth not­ing how frag­ile this eco-sys­tem and these glac­i­ers are, with the num­ber of Glac­i­ers hav­ing dropped from 150 in 1880 to the 26 that remain now, with sci­en­tists pre­dict­ing that by 2030 all the Glac­i­ers with­in the nation­al park will have melt­ed away.  

For this rea­son, we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend a vis­it to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park as soon as pos­si­ble – not just to mar­vel at the incred­i­ble Glac­i­ers while there’s still time – but also to under­stand and con­tribute to the ongo­ing efforts to pre­serve these time-threat­ened and dying won­ders of the world.  

Top Sights & Best photo spots: 

A pho­tog­ra­phers par­adise, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is one of the few places on the plan­et where explor­ers can cap­ture not only con­ti­nen­tal drifts – but the ‘crown of a con­ti­nent,’ with this stun­ning nat­ur­al par­adise, topped by tow­er­ing glac­i­ers, serene lakes, rolling forests, panoram­ic vis­tas, a series or rare wildlife, and of course the elu­sive auro­ra bore­alis in all its glo­ry mak­ing for some of the most charm­ing, awe-inspir­ing and emo­tive pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties on the plan­et.  

In fact, with Glac­i­er Nation­al Park home to more than 140 lakes, five nation­al land­marks, two moun­tain ranges, hun­dreds of ani­mal species – which are spread across 1,000 acres of charm­ing land that encom­pass more than 700 miles of dif­fer­ent trails– choos­ing the right spots to pho­to­graph and vis­it can be incred­i­bly tricky. With pho­to plan­ning with­in the park made even more com­plex by the sev­en dif­fer­ent entrances, the dif­fer­ing land­scapes in the east and west sides of the park – and that the park cross­es and stretch­es into two sep­a­rate coun­tries.  

Com­bine this with the ear­ly morn­ing or late evening starts required to cap­ture the wildlife with­in the park – includ­ing the elu­sive Lynx and Black and Brown bears – as well as the chase, patience and right spot to cap­ture and gaze at the daz­zling lights of the auro­ra bore­alis – and there’s a real chance that pho­tog­ra­phers could miss out on what could be a tru­ly mem­o­rable pho­to­graph and to cap­ture this incred­i­ble won­der of the world in all its glo­ry.  

So, to make sure any explor­er can cap­ture not only the full beau­ty of the nat­ur­al won­der of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – but has the best pos­si­ble chance to cap­ture both nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na and elu­sive wildlife – which real­ly encap­su­lates the mag­ic of this stun­ning nat­ur­al par­adise, we’ve round­ed up our top pho­tog­ra­phy spots and tips to help ensure than any explo­ration of this true won­der of the world can stay with explor­ers for­ev­er.    

Going to the Sun Road: 

Regard­less of the pho­tog­ra­phy spots you wish to cap­ture with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – from tow­er­ing glac­i­er and moun­tain peaks, serene lakes and charm­ing mead­ows, wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy or even the Auro­ra Bore­alis – find­ing the best spot will undoubt­ed­ly see you make use of the 50 mile scenic dri­ve of Going to the Sun Road.  

A road that stretch­es across the entire­ty of the park, and an engi­neer­ing mar­vel in itself, the going to the sun road is one of the most spec­tac­u­lar and scenic dri­ve on the plan­et, so much so that a series of tours have emerged whose sole focus is to nav­i­gate the road to allow for pho­to shots.  

So, whether self-dri­ving or on a tour, the going to the sun road is one of the pre­mier pho­to loca­tions with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, and you’ll find awe-inspir­ing views at every turn – with the going to the sun road tak­ing explor­ers to a series of stun­ning, eas­i­ly reached view­points and panora­mas, where the best of the high­lights of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park can be reached – includ­ing sweep­ing views of Lake McDon­ald, the cas­cad­ing falls of the Weep­ing Wall, tow­er­ing view of Mt Gould and Grin­nell Glac­i­er, and up over the Jack­son Pass – where the mighty Jack­son Glac­i­er awaits you.  

A road that requires a tick­et to access – to both help main­tain it and lim­it  access to make a jour­ney upon it that extra bit spe­cial – the going to the sun road is both a pre­mier pho­to loca­tion with­in the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – that tru­ly gives explor­ers a high­light reel of this immense won­der, and the jump­ing off point for a series of spe­cial hikes where fur­ther immense views await you. For those with a lit­tle extra time we’d encour­age you to also make time for five great spots on the Going to the sun Road; the east tun­nel pull­outs, Big Bend, McDon­ald Creek, Look­ing Glass Road and the Logan Pass.  

East Tunnel Pullouts:

An incred­i­ble spot on the going to the Sun Road, the East Tun­nel Pull­outs is the largest of the tun­nels on the road – and it itself is an incred­i­ble mar­vel, hav­ing been expert­ly carved through 408 feet of moun­tain rock, to pro­vide not only an easy pas­sage through the park – but thanks to a series of pull-outs that lie past the tun­nel and which take in the incred­i­ble vis­tas of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, one of the pre­mier spots for sun­rise and sun­set pho­tog­ra­phy.   

Tru­ly breath-tak­ing, the East Tun­nel Pull­outs lie on an ele­vat­ed peak, which help pro­vide stun­ning sweep­ing views of moun­tain forests, lakes and glac­i­ers both below and above, with the incred­i­ble panoram­ic views here tru­ly com­ing to life at both dusk and dawn – where for those lucky enough to have got them­selves a spot on a pull­out – you can watch all of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park laid out before you and come to life in a twin­kling and daz­zling dis­play of light as the glow­ing sun reflects of the moun­tain peaks and lakes below – for a sim­ply stun­ning and majes­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

Big Bend:

A fur­ther spot on the Going-to-the Sun Road, the Big Bend is one of the most stun­ning and beau­ti­ful spots with­in the park – and is a fan­tas­tic place to snap not only a beau­ti­ful sun­set light­ing up the forestry and Glac­i­ers before you – but, for those seek­ing to cap­ture the true nat­ur­al beau­ty of the park – one of the best spots for wild­flower pho­tog­ra­phy.  

Found just pass the pho­to spot of Weep­ing Wall – a stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful for­ma­tion blessed dur­ing the sum­mer months with cas­cad­ing flows of Glacial water – the Big Bend look­out has it’s own well-sized park­ing lot – which makes it per­fect for those self-dri­ving to find – and we’d advise get­ting to this look­out an hour before dusk – to ensure you can get a pic­ture per­fect spot to set up your pho­tog­ra­phy equip­ment and tru­ly take in the best of this incred­i­ble vista.  

A spot blessed with incred­i­ble views out over a series of peaks and moun­tains – includ­ing Heaven’s Peak and Mount Can­non – the Big Bend is a per­fect spot for those who don’t fan­cy hik­ing, but are seek­ing to take in the best of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park and cap­ture one of the most exquis­ite sun­sets on the plan­et.  

McDonald Creek:

A fur­ther stop on the Going-to-the-sun-Road – and one that is often skipped in favour of a direct route to Lake McDon­ald, the McDon­ald Creek is a small stop-off but one that offer a unique view of some of the most stun­ning scenery on Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. These views include the tow­er­ing McDon­ald Falls – fed by a series of impos­ing Glac­i­ers, and the soft water­falls of the Sacred Danc­ing Cas­cades – which when put against the back­drop of Grin­nell Glac­i­er, rolling forestry and serene water bod­ies – makes for a fan­tas­tic vista to cap­ture.  

A qui­et and often over­looked view­point, the McDon­ald Creek is per­fect not only for those seek­ing to take in the beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in a qui­et spot, but also for those seek­ing more inti­mate pho­tographs of the nature with­in Glac­i­er Park. With it being from this spot dur­ing the sum­mer months that world-class pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of danc­ing bright wild­flow­ers, charm­ing mead­ows, and the rolling creek can all be cap­tured – mak­ing McDon­ald Creek one of the best and most under­rat­ed pho­to spots across all of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and one we’d tru­ly rec­om­mend­ing mak­ing time for.  

Looking Glass Road:

Anoth­er road only open dur­ing the sum­mer peri­od, the Look­ing Glass Road is a seclud­ed and iso­lat­ed road that is per­fect for those seek­ing the best of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park and pho­tograph­ing the beau­ty of its nature and wildlife away from the crowds.  

Run­ning from East Glac­i­er Vil­lage norther towards the many High­way 89 that can take you into the Cana­di­an part of the park, the look­ing glass road is blessed with a series of pull­outs, where explor­ers can pull over and cap­ture unique and off the beat­en pho­tos of the parks lakes and moun­tains – with the view of Mt Gould being par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial from the pull­outs on this road.  

Cou­ple this with incred­i­ble views of Glac­i­ers and – as a result of the seclu­sion of the road out­side the main parts of the park – the look­ing glass road being a hotspot for wildlife view­ing, this stun­ning road is well worth vis­it­ing for spec­tac­u­lar and unique pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Yet best of all, giv­en the seclu­sion of the road – and it’s posi­tion away from tourist hotspots and towns – the night skies along the road and with­in the pulloffs is incred­i­bly clear, mean­ing that on a star light clear night, pho­tog­ra­phers who get incred­i­bly lucky can be for­tu­nate enough to wit­ness the auro­ra bore­alis from along this road. With the chance to wit­ness this immense and phe­nom­e­non light­ing up not only the night sky, but reflect­ing the lakes, forests, moun­tains and glac­i­ers below in a daz­zling dis­play of emer­ald green and pur­ple being not only one of the most spec­tac­u­lar pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al park – but one of the tru­ly mag­i­cal moments with­in this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

Logan Pass (High Point):

Found just before the East Tun­nel, and eas­i­ly accessed by the Going to the Sun Road, the Logan Pass is not only the start of a series of trail­heads that lead to incred­i­ble ele­vat­ed vista points (see below) – but at almost 6,650 feet is the high­est point on the going to the sun Road that is reach­able by car – with this unique view­point pro­vid­ing a stun­ning ele­vat­ed spot that looks out over a series of lush wild­flow­ers, forestry and moun­tain peaks – for an eas­i­ly reached pho­to spot.  

Giv­en that the Logan pass high point can be reached by car or by shut­tle bus, it’s not sur­pris­ing that this stun­ning vista and gold­en pho­tog­ra­phy spot is extreme­ly pop­u­lar, with the car parks known to fill-up with­in half-an-hour of open­ing. For this rea­son – and giv­en the immense beau­ty at the Logan Pass high­point, we’d encour­age to reach the high­point at either sun­rise and sun­set – where crowds will be at a min­i­mum, and you’ll get to take in not only the stun­ning vista before you, but see it lit up by the ascend­ing or descend­ing sun – whose bright yel­low rays tru­ly bring the immense views below you to life, mak­ing for a pic­ture per­fect shot.  

For those who do get here ear­ly, or who find them­selves over­whelmed by the crowds when they’ve reached the high point, we’d rec­om­mend tak­ing on one of the Ober­lin Bend Over­look – where you can grab a great pho­to of the beau­ty of the forests below you, or tak­ing a gen­tle stroll down from the high point to the Logan Pass Vis­i­tor Cen­tre – where if you’re lucky you may get to take in a series of wildlife pho­tos. For those who fan­cy a hike – and want to take in a series of incred­i­ble panoram­ic vis­tas and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties – it’s also at the Logan Pass vis­i­tor cen­tre where you’ll find a series of trail­heads that lead you to not only some of the best hikes avail­able in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, but some of the Parks, and world’s, great­est nature pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Hiking in Glacier National Park 

While tra­vers­ing the many pull-outs and scenic view­points along both the going to the sun road and the Logan Pass will give explor­ers stun­ning vista and panoram­ic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties, the real beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is uncov­ered by delv­ing deep­er into the secrets of this great nation­al park.  

To do this, explor­ers can take on one of the trails that stretch across the more than 700 miles of trekking options with­in Glac­i­er Park, where incred­i­ble pho­tos, hid­den jew­els and the true immense beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park’s stun­ning scenery awaits you.  

While there is tru­ly no bad trail to under­take with­in the Nation­al Park, in our view there are nine key trails which pro­vide icon­ic and must have pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of some of the absolute best of the great won­der of the world that is Glac­i­er Nation­al Park: 

The Trail of the Cedars:

Start­ing with one of the gen­tlest hikes in the park, but by no means not stun­ning hikes, the trail of the cedars is ide­al for those who are a lit­tle averse to walk­ing, the trail of the cedars is a short 1 mile round trip with lit­tle ele­va­tion gain – that see’s hik­ers take on a board­walk through lush green rain for­est and over a fan­tas­tic pho­to spot of Avalanche Creek – which is the true high­light of this trail.  

Per­fect for those in a wheel­chair, the loop trail of the cedars starts and ends on the Going to the Sun Road, and along­side being incred­i­bly acces­si­ble, and givers pho­tog­ra­phers a true chance to con­nect with – and snap – the beau­ti­ful nature of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – as they trav­el through the his­to­ry of the park tak­ing in and cap­tur­ing hun­dreds of red cedar trees which stretch into the sky and which are believed to date back more than 600 years.  

Through strolling and admir­ing this for­est, explor­ers will then quick­ly come to the pho­to­graph high­light of the foot­bridge over Avalanche Creek – from where, perched above the creek, you can snap deep pho­tos into not just the creek but the low­er Avalanche gorge. A short but incred­i­bly scenic hike, a trip along the trail of the cedars will allow you to cap­ture the free flow­ing creek and the tow­er­ing forests of nature of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in all its glo­ry – and this hike is also a pre­lude for those who want to go a lit­tle fur­ther and seek out more stun­ning views of the creek and a serene lake on the Avalanche Lake trail.  

Avalanche Lake:

An exten­sion of the trail of the cedars, the Avalanche Lake trail is again eas­i­ly found on the going-to-the-sun road, with the start of the trail tak­ing pho­tog­ra­phers on the same route as the trail of the cedars – afford­ing the great shots of the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park For­est on that hike along a board­walk – before tak­ing a turn­ing at the Avalanche Lake Trail junc­tion just pass the creek, that will lead you along this incred­i­bly pho­to­genic trail.  

Clock­ing in at four and a half miles round trip, after con­quer­ing and pho­tograph­ing the trail of the cedars, the Avalanche Lake trail con­tin­ues on for a good mile – where a stun­ning view of the creek from a unique angle awaits you, and where it tru­ly is nec­es­sary to stop for a fur­ther pho­to of this Creek in all its glo­ry.  

Hav­ing snapped the creek again, the trail then con­tin­ues to ascend along­side the creek and par­al­lel to the cedar for­est, and then after a short mile ascent, you’ll find your­self before the stun­ning lake vista of Avalanche Lake. A tru­ly serene spot, the calm – if cold – waters of Avalanche Lake reflect both the forests on it’s shore­line, the 8700-foot Bearhaut Moun­tain in the dis­tance, and the cool blue skies above – mak­ing for an absolute­ly incred­i­bly pho­to of one of the most stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful spots across the whole of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

For those who want to soak in the beau­ty of the lake, and the stun­ning views of the moun­tain range before you, a lit­tle stroll along the lake will lead to a small beach, where you can again snap incred­i­ble views back across the lake. With the seren­i­ty and beau­ty of the lake behind you and well snapped, you can then begin the ascent to rejoin the trail of the cedars and jour­ney on to your next hike in search of fur­ther stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Hidden Lake Overlook – great for Sunrise & the continental Divide:

A fan­tas­tic hike to take on at sun­rise, where not only will the crowds be at a min­i­mum, but you’ll get to see the sun light up the reflec­tive lake, the Hid­den Lake Over­look is a five and a half round trip that has an ele­va­tion gain of more than 1,300 feet – which is sure to test both your car­dio and morn­ing alert skills in the ear­ly morn­ing.  

Acces­si­ble on both the going to the sun road, or the Logan Pass, the Hid­den Lake Over­look trail start behind the parks vis­i­tor cen­tre and takes explor­ers on a quaint ear­ly morn­ing jour­ney through some of Glac­i­er Parks most serene flow­ery mead­ows, where explor­ers can snap the soft beau­ty of the flow­ers and plants of the park, which are par­tic­u­lar­ly alive and colour­ful dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son.  

From the mead­ow, a fan­tas­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty awaits, as for those armed with a GPS you will then cross the Con­ti­nen­tal Divide and con­tin­ue to head upwards, where a stun­ning view of Logan pass awaits below you. Tak­ing time to snap the road below, explor­ers will then enter the final part of the trek, where like­ly accom­pa­nied by goats and sheep who have risen ear­ly, some small charm­ing water­falls will await you – which again make for anoth­er fan­tas­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

Pass­ing these water­falls, and stop­ping for a breather, you will then be on the final stretch and will see the tow­er­ing fig­ure of the mighty Bearhaut Moun­tain before you, and as the track lev­els out – you will then arrive at the shores of the Hid­den Lake, just in time for sun­rise. A tru­ly spe­cial place, the calm waters of the hid­den lake are bought to life by not just the ris­ing sun, which trans­forms the waters into a shade of reflec­tive gold, but the sur­round­ing moun­tain ranges and soft mead­ows – for one of the most glo­ri­ous and must snap pho­to spots across the whole of the stun­ning won­der of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Many Glacier Grinnell Glacier Viewpoint:

Undoubt­ed­ly the high­light of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, and the chief Glac­i­er, no trip to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park would be com­plete with­out glimps­ing and pho­tograph­ing Grin­nell Glac­i­er in all its glo­ry, and there are two main hikes that let you snap this incred­i­ble icon of the park, the Many Glac­i­er Glac­i­er View­point Trek and the more stren­u­ous over­look trek, which extends from the Many Glac­i­er trek.  

Start­ing with the chal­leng­ing but short­er Many Glac­i­er Grin­nell Glac­i­er hike, this sev­en and a half mile round trip begins at the Many Glac­i­er Hotel for those tak­ing on the full length of the hike – how­ev­er we’d advise tak­ing a shut­tle boat across the Grin­nell Glac­i­er and Swiftcur­rent Lake to the oppo­site side of the hotel, and then, once at the edge of the Swiftcur­rent lake you can then take a fur­ther boat across Lake Josephine, where your hike to glimpse the Grin­nell Glac­i­er will begin.  

Tak­ing the ascend­ing and well marked road, and keep­ing right, the path will cir­cum­nav­i­gate Lake Joseph and we’d strong­ly advise tak­ing a few moments here to cap­ture and pho­to­graph this serene and reflec­tive lake below you, before fol­low­ing the signs to ascend on the Grin­nell Glac­i­er trail.  

As you ascend the trail, you’ll find a series of stairs await you around a third of the way into the trek, which will see you quick­ly gain ele­va­tion, before the trail becomes flat­ter and then ascends again – test­ing your car­dio to the extreme. It is after these sec­ond set of stairs that you’ll glimpse not the Glac­i­er but the Glac­i­er Lake of Grin­nell which is fed by the mighty Glac­i­er, which lie in the shad­ow of the twin moun­tains of Angel Wing and the 9,553 foot Mount Gold – and which rep­re­sents anoth­er incred­i­ble pho­to shot of the raw but beau­ti­ful nature of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Con­tin­u­ing up through the trail, you’ll then pass a series a mead­ows, which are sim­ply lush in the sum­mer time and then be greet­ed by the sounds of cas­cad­ing water, as the Grin­nell Falls await you – as do does your first glimpse of the 8.851 foot Grin­nell Glac­i­er. A tru­ly pho­to­genic spot, and one to snap away, the Grin­nell Falls serve as a halfway point on the trail, so we’d advise tak­ing a moment to soak in the mag­nif­i­cent vista before you.  

Back on the trail, and the path con­tin­ue to ascend fur­ther, tak­ing you pass and along a cliff edge, through griz­zly bear coun­try (so be sure to be aware of your sur­round­ings and take bear spray), past a rest area (with a toi­let) and then up a series of steep and chal­leng­ing stairs where the sum­mit of the Grin­nell Glac­i­er view­point – and a stun­ning vista will await you.  

Tru­ly spe­cial, you can catch you breath atop the moun­tain pass and in line with the clouds, and admire the incred­i­ble Grin­nell Glac­i­er before you – which is a true icon of this stun­ning park, and which encap­su­lates the very rea­son why Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is a won­der of the world. 

Tak­ing time as well to admire the tow­er­ing Mount Gold, the pris­tine Grin­nell lake below you – and the accom­pa­ny­ing ice plateau and caves, this unique van­tage point is a tru­ly spe­cial place and one of the pre­mier Glac­i­er pho­tog­ra­phy spots in not just the park, but in the world – which makes the chal­leng­ing ascent well worth it, and which makes the easy descent down that much more enjoy­able.  

Grinnell Glacier Overlook:

A longer, more chal­leng­ing – but arguably more pho­to­genic and stun­ning way to take in Grin­nell Glac­i­er, The Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look is a fif­teen and a half mile full day hike that will take explor­ers along­side steep cliff edges, through rolling mead­ows, and along­side cas­cad­ing water­falls to reach one of the most incred­i­ble panoram­ic pho­to­graph spots of the icon of Grin­nell Glac­i­er.  

While it’s pos­si­ble to con­nect to this trail by using the Many Glac­i­er Grin­nell trek, the chal­leng­ing ascend on that trail com­bined with the fact that the crossover takes you through dan­ger­ous ter­rain and into the heart of known bear nests, means that the rec­om­mend­ed route to the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look begins at the High­line trail­head which is eas­i­ly reached on both the High­line Trail­head and the Going to the Sun Road at Logan Pass.  

Begin­ning on the high­line trail, you can expect to encounter not just fel­low trav­ellers but to begin your hike with a fan­tas­tic pho­to stop on the con­ti­nen­tal divide before the trail quick­ly diverges from the high­line trail onto the steep ledge that requires care­ful move­ment to nav­i­gate. Thank­ful­ly now sup­port­ed by a handrail, for those who man­age to con­quer the ledge you’ll find your­self greet­ed a few miles into the hike by not only a rest area but sun­ning view of the tow­er­ing almost 9,000 foot moun­tains of Can­non, Ober­lin and the well named heav­ens peak – with this spot mak­ing for an incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of the sheer tow­er­ing beau­ty of nature with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

In awe at these tow­er­ing moun­tains, you’ll then need to take a quick breath before sharply ascend­ing up the stairs of haystack pass, which marks the half way point of the hike and will see you reach ele­va­tions of more than 7,000 feet as your approach towards Grin­nell Glac­i­er begins.  

Climb­ing fur­ther, and pass­ing along­side a fur­ther ledge, you should keep your eyes peeled for moun­tain goats, rams and griz­zly bears, and con­tin­u­ing to climb you will then be greet­ed by sweep­ing views of the tow­er­ing Swiftcur­rent Moun­tain, which at almost 8,500 feet marks not only the high­est point of the trail, but your final descent to the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look, after nav­i­gat­ing one final ledge.  

Arriv­ing into the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look, you’ll find your­self not just eye to eye with this incred­i­ble Glac­i­er but also stood atop a con­ti­nen­tal divide, and it’s from here that you can pause to not only catch your breath but to snap incred­i­ble pho­tos of this awe-inspir­ing and stun­ning glac­i­er and the panoram­ic vista before you.  

A vista backed capped by the more than 9,500 feet Mount Gold, and which also fea­tures stun­ning views of two Grin­nell Glac­i­er fed lakes, which tru­ly brings the scenery to life. The con­trast­ing bright blue and white ice caves and tun­nels are com­pli­ment­ed by the bright blue sky, serene lakes and rolling moun­tains below – for what may well be the most com­plete, beau­ti­ful and mag­i­cal over­look and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty any­where on the plan­et – and which cer­tain­ly makes the tough ascent on the Grin­nell Glac­i­er Over­look trail well worth it.   

 Iceberg Lake:

Anoth­er fan­tas­tic hike with­in the Many Glac­i­er area, Ice­berg Lake tru­ly lives up to its name, with the soft serene waters of the alpine lake also home to a series of tow­er­ing ice­bergs – which last well into sum­mer – and which are formed as a result of the freez­ing glacial waters slow­ly cas­cad­ing down into the base of the lake. 

Com­bine these emer­ald and tru­ly pho­to­genic ice­bergs – which can be explored fur­ther on a riv­er cruise – with a hike that not only cir­cum­nav­i­gates the lake, but which takes explor­ers through soft mead­ows, quaint fields to reveal dra­mat­ic moun­tain views, in a place which is a haven for wildlife spot­ting – includ­ing griz­zly bears, and this chal­leng­ing 10 miles round hike is well worth it, espe­cial­ly giv­en the many dra­mat­ic land­scapes it presents to pho­tog­ra­phers.  

A hike that begins by the Many Glac­i­er hotel, on a well defined trail­head, hik­ers will face the most dif­fi­cult part of this hike first – by tak­ing on a step set of stairs that see’s the ice­berg lake trail con­nect to the Ptarmi­gan Trail – an equal­ly stun­ning trail. Yet once upon the Ptarmi­gan Trail, dra­mat­ic views will await you of the tow­er­ing more than 8,000 feet peaks of Mount Wilbur and Mount Grin­nell, and hik­ers can take a moment to pho­to­graph these stun­ning peaks, before con­tin­u­ing along the soft and easy trail­head – where the sounds and views of Ptarmi­gan Falls await you.  

Anoth­er fan­tas­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty, pass­ing by the Ptarmi­gan Falls will then see hik­ers recon­nect to the Ice­berg trail, and pass through a series of soft mead­ows and forests, head­ing towards a tow­er­ing basin and snow-capped moun­tain, which marks the source of ice­berg lake.  

Approach­ing and arriv­ing at Ice­berg lake, you’ll be struck by the dra­mat­ic scenery that awaits you – and of course the incred­i­ble ice­bergs which drift silent­ly along the lake – mak­ing for a tru­ly incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty. Cir­cum­nav­i­gat­ing the lake, you’ll also find a series of van­tage points to cap­ture not just the lake, but the moun­tains back­ground and the lush mead­ows and fields before you – which can make for not only a tru­ly spe­cial pho­to spot, but one of the pre­mier places to cap­ture the nat­ur­al beau­ty and won­der of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

 St. Mary Falls & Virginia Falls  

Mov­ing from stun­ning lakes and glac­i­ers, the more relaxed St Mary and Vir­ginia Falls trail has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as not only a stun­ning hike to two of the most incred­i­ble and awe-inspir­ing water­falls with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – but as one of the best places for up-close water­fall pho­tog­ra­phy across the whole of the North Amer­i­can Con­ti­nent.  

With there being some­thing tru­ly serene about cap­tur­ing cas­cad­ing water­falls, against the back­drop of quaint mead­ows, tow­er­ing peaks and charm­ing lakes, the St. Mary & Vir­ginia Falls togeth­er clocks in at a gen­tle three and a half miles as a hike fea­tur­ing min­i­mal ele­va­tion gain and ascen­sion, and you can find the start point at the St. Mary Falls Shut­tle Stop, which is a lit­tle way down the going to the sun road.  

Once upon the trail, you’ll be greet­ed not only by the sounds of the cas­cad­ing water – but be treat­ed to spec­tac­u­lar views of the more than 8,000 feet Dusty Star Moun­tain before you, and the twin 9,000 feet peaks of Lit­tle Chief Moun­tain and the well named Almost-a-dog moun­tain to your south – which both make for incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Con­tin­u­ing along the path, and after a one-mile hike, you’ll reach the St. Mary Riv­er – which is fed by the St. Mary falls, and after tak­ing a moment to admire this quaint riv­er, you can pro­ceed onwards to the first of the mag­nif­i­cent water­falls on this tri­al, the St. Mary Falls. A tru­ly spe­cial water­fall, watch­ing – the St. Mary Falls is famed for its deep blue water and the scenic wood­en bridge that not only allows for a cross­ing, but which is a fan­tas­tic place to snap great pho­tos of this great water­fall.  

Hav­ing cap­tured this tru­ly stun­ning water­fall, you can then con­tin­ue onwards along the trail towards the high­light of this trek, the Vir­ginia Falls. Accessed after a fur­ther half mile hike, the Vir­ginia Falls see’s water drop more than 50 metres from the peak of the falls, and what is tru­ly impres­sive about these falls, from an explo­ration per­spec­tive, is that you can stand at their base – mak­ing for some incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of both your­self and the descent of the falls.  

Two tru­ly impres­sive and pho­to­genic falls, this gen­tle hike is a fan­tas­tic place to cap­ture two great icons of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, and is a must stop on any pho­to­graph­ic explo­ration of the won­der of the world that is Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

 Apgar Lookout (West Glacier): 

A hike that takes explor­ers to not just a stun­ning look­out point, but to an old fire obser­va­tion point, the views from the Apgar look­out, which lies in the shad­ow of the Apgar moun­tain,  are immense – with a clear day allow­ing for viewe­ing, and pho­to­graph­ic, out over quaint mead­ows and fields, serene lakes snow-capped moun­tain peaks, and tow­er­ing glac­i­ers which stretch to the hori­zon, for a tru­ly post­card per­fect view of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

A chal­leng­ing hike, that see’s explor­ers tra­verse sev­en miles and make mul­ti­ple ascents, the Apgar Look­out hike begins off the beat­en track in the south cor­ner of the park, towards the end of the going to the sun road. Hav­ing found the trail­head you’ll be treat­ed to a gen­tle stroll amongst soft for­est before arriv­ing at a clear­ing, where a series of dead trees await you.  

These burnt out trees, the result of a dev­as­tat­ing 2003 fire, marks the begin­ning of a sharp, almost 2 mile ascent, that will lead you to the Apgar look­out. Giv­en the length and chal­leng­ing nature of this ascent, we’d advise you to take it slow­ly, tak­ing reg­u­lar breaks and snacks, and ensur­ing you’ve tak­en on plen­ty of water as you make your way up towards the look­out.  

Arriv­ing at the old fire post, and tak­ing a moment to catch your breath, you can then relax and mar­vel at the awe-inspir­ing view before you – with the whole of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, in all its beau­ty, laid out before you – includ­ing a full view of Lake MCdon­ald and the tow­er­ing peaks of Mount Gold and Grin­nell Glac­i­er, in what is a panoram­ic and vista pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty that tru­ly under­line why Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is a true pho­tog­ra­phers dream.    

 Scenic Point (Two Medicine Valley): 

A hike and view­point, that tru­ly lives up to its name, the Scenic View­point is one of, if not the, pre­mier pho­tog­ra­phy and view­points across the whole of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. With the views from atop the Scenic Point – which is reached after a chal­leng­ing four mile hike – giv­ing stun­ning panoram­ic views out over the entire two med­i­cine val­ley and its accom­pa­ny­ing lakes, the East Glac­i­er lakes and the town itself, the forests of Lewis and Clark – and a stun­ning wide rang­ing view of a series of snow-capped moun­tains and glac­i­ers, for a post­card pic­ture incred­i­ble view.  

 Begin­ning from the Scenic Point look­out area, the Scenic Point trail is found by first­ly tak­ing on the Mt. Hen­ry Trail – which once served as a rail­way – and the hike begins with a soft ascent upwards, which includes a detour towards the Appis­to­ki Falls – which for those with more time is a fan­tas­tic side trip to view and pho­to­graph anoth­er of Glac­i­er Parks Stun­ning water­falls.  

Hav­ing past the Appis­to­ki Falls turnoff, the trail winds its way through a series of clear­ings and then begins a tough ascent towards the Appis­to­ki basin, which feeds its name­sakes falls, and the more than 8,000 foot Appis­to­ki moun­tain – with the first views of this moun­tain being sim­ply spec­tac­u­lar and mak­ing for a great place to take a breather and snap this incred­i­ble moun­tain.  

Con­tin­u­ing up along the trail, you’ll slow­ly see two med­i­cine lake come into view, backed by a series of snow-capped moun­tains, with this lake not only mark­ing the final ascent towards scenic point, but pro­vid­ing a taster and pre­view of the incred­i­ble views that await you at the points sum­mit.  

Leav­ing the view of the lake behind you for now, you’ll then find your­self cir­cum­nav­i­gat­ing the trail, before being able to take well marked road towards Scenic Point – do be warned though that this final ascent towards Scenic Point see’s you have to cross snow laden path and nav­i­gate a nar­row ledge, before the steep ascent along a series of sharp rocks will see you final­ly arrive at Scenic Point, where the incred­i­ble panoram­ic vista awaits you.  

A tru­ly awe-inspir­ing view­point – and one to cap­ture arguably the best pho­tographs of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, the lakes, forests and moun­tain peaks which are laid out before you on this incred­i­ble view­point will not only under­line why this point has right­ly earned its name, but why Glac­i­er Park is an immense won­der of the world.  

So, hav­ing tak­en time to cap­ture and mar­vel at this stun­ning vista at this incred­i­ble scenic point, you can begin your easy descent down the Mt. Hen­ry Trail, undoubt­ed­ly with a smile on your face – as you leave one of the most stun­ning view­points on the plan­et behind you. 

Exploration through self-drive, shuttle bus & bike: 

Along­side explor­ing the many vis­tas and panoram­ic scenery and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties through the many incred­i­ble hikes across Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, many of the won­ders and vis­tas can also be accessed by Car, Shut­tle Bus­es and cycling. While the views through these meth­ods of trans­port may not pro­vide the pic­ture per­fect and dra­mat­ic land­scapes as those avail­able up close and per­son­al through hikes, they can cer­tain­ly pro­vide fan­tas­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties and the chance to explore the high­lights of the park. 

Lake McDonald:

Undoubt­ed­ly chief among these incred­i­ble vis­tas is the area of Lake McDon­ald, a stun­ning 10 mile long serene lake, that lies in the shad­ow of tow­er­ing moun­tain vis­tas and the more than 8,000 foot tall Sper­ry Glac­i­er – and in which explor­ers can get up close and per­son­al in by boat explo­ration, kayak or pad­dle­board or by sim­ply tak­ing in the stun­ning waters from the Lake McDon­ald lodge – where incred­i­ble views of this Glacial Lake await you.  

A lake that is unsur­pris­ing­ly freez­ing cold – giv­en its ori­gin (although explor­ers are wel­come to take the plunge if they are brave enough !) the views, and pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties on the shore­line of Lake McDon­ald are sim­ply incred­i­ble, and rep­re­sent a fan­tas­tic place to snap one of the true icons of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park. With the views on the West Side of the lake, near Apgar Vil­lage in par­tic­u­lar, hav­ing devel­oped a rep­u­ta­tion as being one of the pic­ture per­fect spots from which to snap this incred­i­ble lake.  

A lake blessed with colour­ful peb­bles and clear water that descends to more than 500 metres, for those seek­ing an extra spe­cial pho­to, we’d encour­age you to head to the Lake McDon­ald beach – where on chilly sand – you can relax and take in not only one of the world’s most unique beach­es, but snap a unique angle of the stun­ning and pic­turesque Lake McDon­ald.  

Many Glacier Area & Swiftcurrent Lake:

Along­side being a haven for a series of walks that can lead to some of the most stun­ning nature views on the plan­et, the Many Glac­i­er Area can also be explored by bike, car or shut­tle – with each of these options able to lead explor­ers to stun­ning view­points, includ­ing of the Grin­nell Glac­i­er and glimpses of the Apiku­ni Falls – with­out the need for stren­u­ous hikes.  

While not pro­vid­ing as panoram­ic views as the hikes, any­one with­in the many glac­i­er area and cer­tain­ly for those bas­ing them­selves out of the Many Glac­i­er Hotel, you can expect to encounter a series of sta­ble view­points along the going-to-sun road that will lead you to great look­outs, where sweep­ing views of the forests, lakes – and Glac­i­ers of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park will await you, for a series of incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties. 

Known as “America’s Swiss Alps” this stun­ning area cer­tain­ly lives up to its billing, and for those explor­ing the Many Glac­i­er Area, we’d cer­tain­ly encour­age a stop at the tran­quil Swiftcur­rent lake, that is found by the Many Glac­i­er Hotel, with this charm­ing lake offer­ing not just a chance to swim in Glacial Waters, but cap­ture an incred­i­bly reflec­tive shot of the whole of the Many Glac­i­er Area – com­plete with moun­tain peaks, forestry – and the icon­ic Glacial Peak all laid out before you – for a mag­nif­i­cent pho­to.  

An area blessed with roam­ing wildlife, includ­ing griz­zly bears, Lynx and Moose, the Many Glac­i­er Area is an area that tru­ly lives up to its name, with the stun­ning vis­tas, views and lakes – which can be explored through both hik­ing and by trans­port – rep­re­sent­ing some of the most scenic and pic­turesque spots in the incred­i­ble won­der of the world of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Waterton Lakes National Park:

Mov­ing into the North­ern Area of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park – and cross­ing the bor­der into the Cana­di­an Part of the park – and a stun­ning oasis of serene and peace­ful lakes await you with­in the Water­ton Lake Nation­al Park.  

Undoubt­ed­ly the high­light of the Cana­di­an sec­tion of the park, the Water­ton lakes area is made up over 80 dif­fer­ent bod­ies of water – includ­ing lakes, ponds and streams – with the high­light undoubt­ed­ly being the main Upper Water­ton Lake – which stretch­es for 7 miles in length, and which lies in the shad­ow of a series of stun­ning moun­tain peaks includ­ing the mighty 8,000 feet tall Mount Alder­son and Mount Boswell – with a walk along the lake and view­ing from the Pad­dock trail offer­ing the most scenic view, vista and pho­tog­ra­phy spot of this soft and serene col­lec­tion of water.  

Eas­i­ly acces­si­ble through a range of walks – includ­ing the famed red rock canyon hike that see’s explor­ers wade through the rivers of Water­ton Lakes —  the lakes are a great spot for cap­tur­ing the North­ern Lights (see below) and for wildlife viewe­ing – with griz­zly bears and Bison being par­tic­u­lar­ly com­mon here. A tru­ly spe­cial place – and Glac­i­er Parks pre­mier bio­di­ver­si­ty spot, a vis­it to explore and pho­to­graph the stun­ning Water­ton lakes should be on every explorer’s itin­er­ary when seek­ing out the best of the Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Wild Goose Island Overlook:

A tru­ly spe­cial spot – and a great place for sun­rise pho­tog­ra­phy, the Wild Goose Over­look is Glac­i­er Parks most pho­tographed spot — and for good rea­son, with the views from this spe­cial over­look stretch­ing not only over the pic­turesque Wild Goose Island, but over the serene waters of St. Mary Lake, a series of stun­ning forestry and the giant Fusil­lade Moun­tain – for a reflec­tive shot that cap­ture the very best of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­rise, where the ascend­ing sun’s light trans­forms the mir­ror body of water at St.Mary Lake into a kalei­do­scope of bright yel­low, orange and red – where the reflec­tive and bright moun­tains shim­mer on its sur­face cre­at­ing a per­fect pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty – the views at Wild Goose Island over­look are tru­ly spe­cial, and would be our pick for sun­rise pho­tog­ra­phy across the whole of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

Per­fect­ly sit­u­at­ed on the Con­ti­nen­tal Divide, which pro­vides not only a chance to pho­to­graph your­self across two con­ti­nents – but pro­vides a stun­ning back­drop for day­time pho­tog­ra­phy. The beau­ty and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able at Wild Goose Island Over­look can­not be under­stat­ed – and it’s real­ly worth get­ting up ear­ly to not only beat the crowds to this stun­ning spot, but watch as the stun­ning scenery and park lights up from this incred­i­ble van­tage point, for a tru­ly spe­cial moment.  

Wildlife:

Along­side pro­vid­ing stun­ning nature views and oppor­tu­ni­ties, and arguably the best Glac­i­er pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties on the plan­et, Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is also a haven for wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy – with the park and its majes­tic sur­round­ings being home to more than 70 dif­fer­ent species of mam­mals, and hun­dreds of dif­fer­ent ani­mal species – which flour­ish in this pro­tect­ed wildlife ecosys­tem.  

Best viewed and encoun­tered on any of the numer­ous hikes through Glac­i­er Park – or on the qui­eter roads – includ­ing the Look­ing Glass Road, or on the shores of both Lake McDon­ald or Lake Swiftcur­rent, ani­mal sight­ings are for the most part fre­quent, and it’s essen­tial that pho­tog­ra­phers fol­low safe­ty guid­ance – includ­ing stay­ing a safe dis­tance, com­ing with pro­tec­tion and avoid­ing antag­on­i­za­tion at all times.  

Yet for those who do won­der with­in the park, and respect the nature and wildlife, it’s pos­si­ble to snap incred­i­ble pho­tos of griz­zly and black bears in their nat­ur­al habi­tat, as well as the elu­sive Lynx in the north­ern part of the park, with these two ani­mals being the undoubt­ed high­light of rare ani­mal pho­tog­ra­phy with­in Glac­i­er Park.  

Com­bine this as well with fre­quent sight­ings of moun­tain goats and bighorn sheep – which are fre­quent­ly seen on the ele­vate hikes, as well as Moose and Wolver­ines who spend their times in the foots of Glac­i­ers and at the shores of lakes – and the charm­ing mul­ti-coloured Har­le­quin Ducks, who you’ll often see rac­ing across the many lakes with­in the park, and Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is a tru­ly spe­cial place for wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy. 

Shots that can require patience to snap, and of course are ani­mal depen­dent, wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is best under­tak­en in the ear­ly hours or at dusk (when the ani­mals are most active) and we’d encour­age you to come with a wide-angled lens to make sure you have the best chance of snap­ping the incred­i­ble res­i­dents that call this incred­i­ble won­der of the world home.  

Northern Lights: 

While Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is undoubt­ed­ly the ‘Crown of the Con­ti­nent’ there’s some­thing beyond mag­i­cal in watch­ing this stun­ning won­der of the world lit-up and reflect­ed by the great Auro­ra Bore­alis – and watch­ing and pho­tograph­ing as the shim­mer­ing sky above the parks many lakes, forests, mead­ows, moun­tains and Glac­i­ers makes the full beau­ty of the park tru­ly come to life in a daz­zling dis­play of shin­ing emer­ald, pur­ple and green – for an awe-inspir­ing and spec­tac­u­lar show.  

Undoubt­ed­ly the high­light of any pho­tog­ra­ph­er and explo­ration of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, the auro­ra bore­alis is unique with­in the park in that it can be viewed year round – but for the best chance of lay­ing eyes and mar­vel­ling at this stun­ning phe­nom­e­non we’d advise head­ing to Glac­i­er Nation­al Park in late win­ter and ear­ly spring, where the cool nights are longer and the sky is clear­er, giv­ing you the best chance to snap this stun­ning dis­play.  

A mag­i­cal show – that will require a cam­era with a high DLS res­o­lu­tion and capa­ble of snap­ping night­time shots in order to pho­to­graph – cap­tur­ing the best shots of the auro­ra bore­alis with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is a rare thing, and will require you to be in the right place at the right time in order to pho­to­graph. So, to help with this – and to give you the best chance of cap­tur­ing the auro­ra bore­alis light­ing up the beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, we’ve picked our four favourite spots that pro­vide a stun­ning back­drop to the auro­ra bore­alis – and where, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll get to see this daz­zling show in all its glo­ry, which tru­ly rep­re­sents the best of the won­der of the world that is Glac­i­er Nation­al Park.  

 Bowman & Kintla lakes:

To seek and find the elu­sive North­ern lights, you’ll need to ven­ture deep into Glaicer Nation­al Park – step­ping away from the crowds and bustling city lights that lie with­in the parks main zone and seek­ing out the tran­quil­i­ty and pol­lu­tion-free clear skies in the heart of the park.  

For this there’s no bet­ter place that the twin lakes of Bow­man and Kint­la that lie close to the charm­ing com­mu­ni­ty of Pole­bridge – and where, so remote is this area, that you’ll have to nav­i­gate through a series of dirt roads to reach the edges of these lakes.  

Yet once upon there shore, you’ll find peace, tran­quil­li­ty and clear skies – as well as a hotspot for the Auro­ra Bore­alis – where, with a warm ther­mos and plen­ty of snacks you can sit upon the shore­line and wait for the daz­zling auro­ra to appear. A tru­ly spe­cial and peace­ful spot wit­ness­ing the Auro­ra Bore­alis by either lake is a true privlige as you watch the night sky, and the sur­round­ing forests and peaks light up in a daz­zling dis­play of emer­ald, green, turquoise and light pur­ple.  

Yet per­haps best of all about this spot, from a pho­tog­ra­phy per­spec­tive is that the clear waters of both lakes pro­vide a stun­ning reflec­tive sur­face on which to cap­ture and pho­to­graph the Auro­ra Bore­alis – mak­ing it one of the unique and blessed pho­tos in the world to cap­ture reflec­tive and stun­ning pho­tos of the great Auro­ra Bore­alis in all its glo­ry against a tru­ly stun­ning back­drop.  

Waterton Lakes National Park:

Mov­ing into more seclu­sion – and one of the most peace­ful parts of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park, the Cana­di­an locat­ed Water­ton Lakes Nation­al Park offers one of the world’s most stun­ning and most fre­quent places to glimpse and pho­to­graph the stun­ning Auro­ra Bore­alis.  

A spot often over­looked on Glac­i­er Park itin­er­aries – with it lying out­side the U.S. bound­aries of the Park off High­way 6 – the Water­ton Lakes lie in the shad­ow of 40 named peaks, includ­ing the tow­er­ing Mount Alder­son and Mount Boswell that pro­vide a per­fect back­drop for the soft waters of the expan­sive Water­ton Lakes – where on a clear night you will be treat­ed to the mighty turquoise and vio­let lights reflect­ing off the serene waters – for both a stun­ning expe­ri­ence and an incred­i­bly reflec­tive pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

A tru­ly mag­i­cal spot that offers incred­i­ble views of this stun­ning phe­nom­e­non, the best pho­tog­ra­phy and viewe­ing points for the Auro­ra Bore­alis with­in Water­ton Lakes undoubt­ed­ly lie upon the Pad­dock Loop. It is upon this loop that along­side viewe­ing heards of Bison, you can expe­ri­ence panoram­ic views out over the lakes and cap­ture and view the absolute best of the Auro­ra Bore­alis in full flow reflect­ing back over the Water­ton Lakes for a pic­ture per­fect moment.  

Looking Glass Road:

Mov­ing back into the Amer­i­can side of the park – and for those who fan­cy chas­ing the Auro­ra and who wish to take con­trol of their viewe­ing expe­ri­ence as opposed to wait­ing in a set place, then the seclud­ed and charm­ing Look­ing Glass Road is a spot that tru­ly lives up to its name – and offers a series of fan­tas­tic pull-outs where North­ern Lights hunters can stop and view the sud­den appear­ance of this phe­nom­e­na against the back­drop of the green­ery and forests of the nation­al park – and if you’re tru­ly luck against the back­drop of a Glac­i­er.  

A road that puts explor­ers in charge of hunt­ing the Auro­ra Bore­alis, the look­ing glass road is only open dur­ing the Sum­mer months and is found along the East Glac­i­er Vil­lage where it runs towards High­way 89 – in a per­fect­ly seclud­ed and qui­et place of the park, mak­ing for clear skies and per­fect Auro­ra Bore­alis view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

A road that will require self-dri­ving – giv­en the late viewe­ing times that the Auro­ra Bore­alis appears, the wind­ing road of Look­ing Glass Bay should be tak­en on at a slow speed – to both increase your chances of viewe­ing the Auro­ra Bore­alis and in con­sid­er­a­tion of the many wildlife that call this spot home. Tak­ing to and ven­tur­ing upon the Look­ing Glass Road is an expe­ri­ence in itself, yet when the mighty Auro­ra Bore­alis appear in the dis­tance and you make your way round towards them, pulling in at a seclud­ed spot – the full beau­ty of this phe­nom­e­non will not only appear before you – but will light up the full beau­ty of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park before you, for an absolute­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence and tru­ly awe-inspir­ing pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

Northern Lights Saloon & Café:

Final­ly — for a tru­ly spe­cial and leg­endary spot with­in Glac­i­er Nation­al Park to wit­ness the Auro­ra Bore­alis – while keep­ing warm and enjoy­ing good drinks and food, the North­ern Lights Saloon and Café is a spe­cial spot sole­ly ded­i­cat­ing to pro­vid­ing explor­ers with the best pos­si­ble Auro­ra Bore­alis expe­ri­ence.  

Found in the small town of Pole­bridge, this icon­ic café is sit­u­at­ed in one of the most pol­lu­tion free and clear spots across the whole of Glac­i­er Nation­al Park  — with the views from out­side it’s doors stretch­ing across the warm forests, lakes and Glac­i­ers and down into the val­ley below, for a stun­ning vista that comes to life when the Auro­ra Bore­alis twin­kles above it and lights up the park in a vari­ety of green, turquoise and vio­let light.  

A pop­u­lar spot, that you should be at no lat­er than dusk, the North­ern Lights Saloon & Café is a great spot dur­ing the cold­er and win­ter days to wait out the chill while you seek the phe­nom­e­non of the Auro­ra Bore­alis. And, we’d encour­age you to tuck into the home­made pie, sam­ple the clas­sic beers and enjoy the live music – which makes for a per­fect build-up while you wait for the tru­ly stun­ning Auro­ra Bore­alis to appear, with the emer­gence of this stun­ning phe­nom­e­non out­side the Saloons doors cre­at­ing not only the per­fect crescen­do for a spe­cial evening, but pro­vid­ing stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties and tru­ly under­lin­ing why Glac­i­er Nation­al Park is an enthralling and beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.