Glacier National Park - General Recommendations

by Jeff Medkeff

Here is a quick summary of our general recommendations for making a trip to Glacier National Park:

Go during the off season. From West Glacier to Saint Mary over Going-To-The-Sun Road during the summer, things are incredibly, and often unpleasantly, crowded. I'm told that visitor numbers drop significantly by early September, and usually there is no significant snow by that time (such as might close trails). Take advantage of this window. Note, however, that stream volume and waterfalls will be down considerably in this season, as they are fed substantially by snowmelt.
Buy the book "Exploring Glacier National Park" by David Rockwell, Falcon Press. Read it thoroughly, twice, before you leave.
By the book "Hiking Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Park" by Erik Molvar, Falcon Press. Unless you are in very good shape, assume that the ratings on these hikes were conceived by olympic athletes between the ages of 18 and 28. Our rule of thumb was to put each hike one level more strenuous than the book did - this aligned pretty well with our impressions of the difficulty of the hikes we took.
Once you are there, the rangers are the most friendly, knowledgable, and helpful people you could possibly find anywhere. This goes for those manning the park entrances and the naturalists as well, in case you aren't sure what I mean by "ranger."
Glacier national park has the best website in the entire national park system. Make liberal use of it!
Plan to spend at least two weeks in the park. A month is not unjustified. This place is worthy of an entire vacation. Planning to spend one day in Glacier, spent driving over Going-To-The-Sun Road, is insufficient.
When driving over Going-To-The-Sun Road, act cruelly to other drivers by doing the following. When you notice a car behind you, pull out at the next available turnout and let them pass. If there is more than one, let them all pass. Then continue on your leisurely way. The speed demon that you let pass will see a hell of a lot less of the park than you will, and it serves them right.
Hike. If you don't get at least two miles away from your car on foot, you aren't even beginning to think about scratching the surface of seeing this park.
You will see far more wildlife hiking than driving.
Don't do stupid things. Follow the rules. If you stop your car in the middle of the road and jump out to take a picture of the posterior end of a whitetail deer, you might get hit by a car. If you sleep with cheddar cheese in your tent, you might get eaten by a bear. I'd not blame anyone for rooting for the cars/bears in these circumstances; but these foolish actions will also significantly hassle the rangers, so don't do it. A few days prior to our arrival at the park, someone got into a waterfall for a picture, slipped on the wet rocks, fell two thousand feet, and was killed. If you leave food strewn about your campsite when you strike camp, a bear might stop by and hassle the next people to use the campground. Mostly this stuff is obvious.
Get out of the car at every turnout and look around. At worst, you won't see anything interesting. However, time after time when my wife and I did this, we saw things we weren't expecting. One time it took us several minutes to spot a group of six mountain goats profiled on a nearby hillside (apparently, we were the only ones to notice these goats for a fifteen-minute period). Time and again a little patience and a relaxed attitude toward schedules was rewarded.
Camp if possible. Our first campground was Avalanche. This was preferred to Sprague Creek, as the latter is right on the busy Going-To-The-Sun Road. (Apgar was a zoo.) The Avalanche campground is separated from the road by a fair distance and the road noise is difficult to hear. (Multitudes of waterfalls in the early season tend to drown out road noise, as well.) The campground is also well away from the busy Avalanche Lake Trail (and Trail of the Cedars). The Two Medicine Campground is also nice. Many Glacier Campground looks nice, but we didn't stay there - it was all full up. We have no information on campgrounds near Saint Mary.
Camping anywhere along Going-To-The-Sun Road will be convenient to any point along the road - West Glacier, Apgar, Logan Pass, and Saint Mary, and anywhere in between. There is no real need to camp west of Logan Pass for a while, and then move east of it; however, you might want to do this if you spend more time in the park than we did.
The best places to eat inside the park are the 'family' restaurants operated by the park concessioner. At Lake McDonald, this is across the street from the General Store and is called Russel's Trails End. At Many Glacier, it is adjacent to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, in the same building. No equivalent restaurant is available at Two Medicine. The service at these places is excellent, the prices are quite reasonable, and the food is terrific.
Skip Goat Lick unless you are on that part of Rt. 2 anyway. The overlook is quite distant from the lick, and if you don't have binoculars at least, you will see a lot less here than if you take some time hiking inside the park. If you spend some time in the park and are still deprived of wildlife views, then maybe Goat Lick would be worth it. If you intend to go here to observe wildlife, I'd really recommend a high power binocular (such as the 15x or 18x Canon IS model) or a tripod mounted spotting scope. But bear in mind there isn't much room on the overlook for a spotting scope.
Avalanche Lake Trail is worth walking, especially in the early season when the waterfalls are active, despite the crowds of bearbell-toting citified nature-huggers that walk this trail every day.
Iceberg Lake Trail is a bit longer/harder than local lore would have it, but is still a do-able trail for almost anyone in reasonable physical condition. One consideration is that the trail is largely out of the trees along a southern exposure; so a cloudy or cool day might be a good idea. (We chose neither - the air was 90 degrees above snowline.) Also, trekking poles may be helpful - considerable snow was still on the trail on our trip in July.
Pick, if possible, a rainy day and spend that entire day doing Going-To-The-Sun Road. It will be less crowded, and the cloud formations will be incredible. This is also amongst the best light for photography (on the assumption you can't be everywhere at sunrise and sunset), so have at it. Note, though, that it will probably be a bit cold up at the higher elevations; be prepared to layer up a bit. On the east side of Logan Pass, you are getting into the rain shadow, so it might well be dryer and warmer - be prepared to delayer a bit.