Essential Tips to Plan Your Vacation a Park
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GLACIER NATIONAL PARK TRIP PLANNER Essential Tips To Plan Your Vacation A Park Map Glacier National Park is a year-round, natural beauty of mesmerizing peaks and glistening waters surrounded by charming small towns and unrivaled adventure. When the time is right, come see for yourself. ORDER YOUR FREE TRAVEL GUIDE GlacierMT.com | #GlacierMT GETTING THERE Who doesn’t love a good road trip? Head north out of Yellowstone and take this epic route to Glacier National Park. arks Photo Contest), Map by Peter Sucheski here’s a magical evening light that sweeps across the broad Glacier Blacktail 15 shoulders of Montana’s sky. Its radiating pink and purple National Shelby Park 89 colors echo off windows of log-hewn cabins, patios of 2 East Kalispell Glacier Valier Tbreweries and the sides of aging pickup trucks rattling down lonely Hungry Park Horse roads. Montana artist C.M. Russell captured this magnificent light in FLATHEAD 89 15 MONTANA his paintings, and it fills the landscape with a peace that seeps into its LAKE people like water spilling over a river bank. 93 83 Great 287 Falls Discover Montana’s spectacular culture via West Yellowstone, Mont., as St. Ignatius 90 Ravalli 15 you point your wheels north to Glacier National Park. In Big Sky, you’ll 87 find adrenaline-filled activities. Farther north, you’ll find boom-and- Lewistown bust stories in Virginia City, Nevada City and Butte. Missoula 89 Beyond take a dip at the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and sample Helena sweets and sift for sapphires in Philipsburg. Explore Missoula and Philipsburg other lively towns en route to Glacier National Park. 15 287 At the park, take time to get out of your car and explore the incredible Butte 89 beauty of Glacier on foot or boat. We’ve compiled our favorite things to Anaconda 86 90 Bozeman do in this trip planner, along with a Glacier-specific wildlife guide, to 55 help you make the most of your time. 41 Livingston 287 After you’ve traveled the park’s legendary Going-to-the-Sun Road to 89 Yellowstone Dillon National reach the East Entrance, head southeast to Great Falls, home of the IDAHO Park Virginia Big C.M. Russell Museum where Montana comes to light in a very City/Nevada Sky 191 different way. Beyond explore the happening college towns of Helena City Gardiner and Bozeman before you reach the quaint, strikingly beautiful town of 15 West Yellowstone ON THE COVER: Glacier National Park (Len Speiser) • THIS PAGE: Mountain goat in (Brandi Lyon/National P Livingston, the original Yellowstone gateway. MyYellowstonePark.com PARK ENTRANCE PRIMER There are four main entrances to Glacier National Park, one on its west side and three on the east. The West Entrance and St. Mary Entrance put you on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, the only road connecting the park’s west side with its east. WEST SIDE through this entrance. If you are ST. MARY ENTRANCE TWO MEDICINE ENTRANCE planning on visiting the west side, WEST ENTRANCE If you are coming from the east and Located in the southeast corner of do not use this entrance. want to drive Going-to-the-Sun the park, the Two Medicine If you’re planning on entering the Built in 1914-15 and part of a Road, head to the St. Mary Entrance area is an often park from the west side, the West 15-year, $42 million renovation Entrance. You can visit the St. Mary overlooked corner of Glacier. But Entrance via West Glacier is the that ended in early 2017, the Many Visitor Center to see a park film before Going-to-the-Sun Road place to go. You can reach Lake Glacier Hotel is the largest in the Land of Many Journeys or attend opened in 1933, it was the main McDonald, the Apgar Visitor park with 205 guest rooms, plus ranger-led programs and Native destination for travelers arriving by Center, the park’s headquarters, and seven family rooms and two suites. America Speaks programs. It sits on train. You can take a boat tour on the legendary Going-to-the-Sun The five-story hotel presides over the western edge of the Blackfeet Two Medicine Lake in the historic Road, which stretches 48.7 miles Swiftcurrent Lake in an area Indian Reservation and is home to boat Sinopah, peruse the camp across the park, connecting the west known as the “Switzerland of St. Mary Lake, a gorgeous store and gift shop and explore a side to the east side. There are plenty North America.” turquoise-colored alpine body of multitude of hiking trails. The road of historic and contemporary water that stretches 10 miles. dead ends at Two Medicine Lake, lodging and dining options in both The Ptarmigan Dining Room was so you can’t reach Going-to-the- St. Mary is just one mile east of the Apgar and Lake McDonald. renovated in 2011 to restore its Sun Road from here. To access park entrance and offers historic features and offers Going-to-the-Sun Road, you have The closest towns to West Glacier accommodations like the St. Mary breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the to drive to the St. Mary Entrance include Columbia Falls, Hungry Lodge & Resort where you can lounge located in the Ptarmigan about 30 miles north. Horse, Whitefish and Kalispell. Dining Room, you can order locally choose from 116 guest rooms From Kalispell, take Hwy. 2 north inspired drinks like the “Trail Crew among six facilities. Stay in a cabin, Thirteen miles away from the Two for 33 miles until you reach Mule” that is made with Headframe lodge room, house or motel-style Medicine Entrance is East Glacier West Glacier. Spirits High Ore Vodka (out of room. Renowned for its huckleberry Park. It’s home to 363 hardy, Butte, Mont.), citrus simple syrup, specialities like Huckleberry year-round residents. In summer, ginger beer and lime. Salmon, along with dishes like this sleepy town wakes up, offering EAST SIDE Bison Stroganoff, the resort’s motels, restaurants and shuttle There’s also the Swiftcurrent Motor Snowgoose Grill offers breakfast, services. You’ll discover the MANY GLACIER ENTRANCE Inn & Cabins a mile from the hotel. lunch and dinner. There’s also the 161-room, elegant Glacier Park Choose between rustic cabins and At the Many Glacier Entrance on Mountain Bar and Curly Bear Cafe, Lodge built in 1913 here. In the motel inn-style rooms with or the park’s east side, you can access along with Glacier Perk Espresso. lobby you’ll see bark-covered without private bathrooms. the stunning Many Glacier Valley, Douglas fir logs stretching up to the Beyond enjoy miles of spectacular This is the place to fuel up on gas home to visitor services, the Many ceiling. Along with beautiful hiking trails, including one and stock up on outdoor items. The Glacier Hotel and the Swiftcurrent gardens, there’s a nine-hole golf through Ptarmigan Tunnel built to Trail and Creek Outfitters is the Motor Inn & Cabins. The road course and a swimming pool. help hikers avoid a treacherous only outdoor specialty shop on the dead ends here, so you cannot section of trail. eastern side of Glacier. access Going-to-the-Sun Road PHOTO: lake McDonald in Glacier National Park (Gregg Ohanian) Glacier Trip Planner 2021 2 5 BOW-CROW PROVINCIAL FOREST To Pincher Creek and Calgary To Calgary To Lethbridge Cardston 6 SWIFTCURRENT LAKE GOING-TO-THE- W ATERTON Red Rock Parkway Crandell SUN ROAD LAKES 5 Mountain Mountain NATIONAL View 5 BLOOD INDIAN PARK RESERVE FLATHEAD PROVINCIAL FOREST Akamina Parkway MIDDLE 2 WATERTON LAKE Visitor Reception Centre AKAMINA-KISHINENA Waterton Park Belly River 6 Chief Mountain PROVINCIAL PARK CAMERON Customs (Seasonal) LAKE Carway Customs Border UPPER Piegan Customs Closed WATERTON LAKE KINTLA UPPER KINTLA 89 LAKE LAKE Goat Haunt Kintla Lake 17 BLACKFEET INDIAN RESERVATION GLACIER BOWMAN LAKE NATIONAL Babb Bowman Lake 464 QUARTZ P ARK Many Glacier LAKE Entrance Station Many Glacier LOWER SAINT MARY LAKE LAKE SHERBURNE Polebridge SWIFTCURRENT LAKE St. Mary Polebridge LOGGING Visitor Center LAKE The Loop Logan Pass St. Mary St. Mary Entrance Station Quartz Visitor Center St. Mary Creek Going-to-the-Sun Road Rising Sun Logging Creek Siyeh Bend Outside North Inside North Avalanche SAINT MARY Lake LAKE 89 Fork Road Fork Road McDonald Creek (section closed) FLATHEAD NATIONAL FOREST LAKE Lake McDonald MCDONALD Lodge Cut Bank Camas Fish Road Creek Sprague Creek Apgar Visitor Center 89 West Entrance Station Two Medicine 49 Apgar Village Park Headquarters Entrance Station LOWER TWO MEDICINE LAKE To Roosville Customs TWO MEDICINE LAKE West Glacier 93 Two Medicine Whitefish Whitefish Lake Lake State Park East 2 Glacier Coram Whitefish 2 Columbia Falls 2 Hungry Horse 40 FLATHEAD NATIONAL FOREST 93 To 2 206 Kalispell TWO MEDICINE Legend Marias Pass LAKE Continental Divide Paved road Warden / Ranger station Campground Essex Walton Unpaved road Warden / Ranger station Primitive campground (infrequently staed) North Hospital Goat Lick 0 5 10 Kilometers Overlook LEWIS AND CLARK 0 5 10 Miles NATIONAL FOREST Map Courtesy of National Park Service PHOTO: lake McDonald in Glacier National Park (Gregg Ohanian) PHOTOS: Going-To-The-Sun Road, Swiftcurrent Lake (Depositphotos), Two Medicine (Mark Wolsky) MyYellowstonePark.com GLACIER’S TOP SIX Here are some of our favorite things to do from hiking to exploring some of Glacier’s most iconic treasures. 3 2 HIKE ON 1 STOP AT THE CEDAR LOGAN PASS EAT AT LAKE TREE GIFT SHOP At 6,646 feet, Logan Pass is the inspiring high point of Going-to-the-Sun Road. MCDONALD LODGE Shop at the park’s largest gift store in Apgar Both Hidden Lake Overlook Trail for souvenirs or ice cream.