Visit Glacier National Park from June – August. The main road is closed the rest of the year!

Places to stay
We stayed in a vrbo condo in Whitefish. If we had planned a few months earlier, I would have stayed in the park. Here are a few great options:
Lake McDonald Lodge
This classic Swiss chalet style lodge is located 10 miles inside Glacier National Park’s west entrance on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, nestled on the shores of the largest lake inside the park.
Cabins are $150-$230/night Lodge $500-$600/night
Many Glacier Inn
Many Glacier is at the East side of the park. Going to the sun road is about a 2.5 hour drive without stopping at the overlooks, so I would suggest staying at the east side for half of your trip. I would love to stay at Many Glacier Inn. After a long hike, they have a lake with canoes and kayaks and a restaurant.
$300-$700/night
Swiftcurrent Inn and Cabins are just down the road for a less expensive option. $150/night
There are also lots of camping options on both sides of the park
Under Canvas
I haven’t stayed in these yet but want to soon. A great glamping option just outside of the west entrance. Around $450/night. I would love to do this at least one night for the experience.

Entrance Fee/ Reservations
You will need a park pass or pay the entrance fee. America the beautiful Park Pass gets you into any National Park for a year ( $80 ), or the entrance fee is $35 for a 7 day pass.
In addition, you will need reservations. You can get them here. They release them several months in advance and they book out quickly. Within a few mins. You can read for each location on that page when they will release. They save around 900 spots for the morning before each day at 8am mountain time. We were able to get them the day before, but barely. They booked up with 3 mins of registration opening. My suggestion is to book an activity for each day. They are pretty reasonably priced and when you book an activity, you automatically get into that part of the park for that day. Glacier Boat Company is the approved place to get those that will get you into the park. Just make sure you get one that gets you into Going to the Sun road entrance and then Many Glacier or Two Medicine if you book activities there. See map of glacier above for locations. A camping or lodging reservation inside the park will also work!

Many Glacier
I’m starting this off with my favorite hike, Iceberg Lake Trail in Many Glacier. You will enter into the park at Many Glacier. Make sure you have your reservation. If you are staying on the west side of the park, you will also need the Going to the Sun road reservation for that day. Once you enter Many Glacier, check out the Inn on the left ( or stay there ). Then you will continue on and park to the far left of Swiftcurrent Inn. You will see the trailhead there. The first 15 mins or so is a steep hike, then pretty easy for the rest of it. 9.6 round trip, in and out. We saw a grizzly and a moose. So make sure you have bear spray, bear bells, make lots of noise and read up on bear safety. Hike in groups when possible. There were only 2 of us, but we met some great new people as we started the hiked and all stayed together for safety.

Other hikes I will do on the next trip: Grinnell Glaicer, Red Rock Falls, Cracker Lake

Going to the Sun Road

If hiking isn’t your thing, you can see a lot of beautiful views along Going to the Sun road. It runs through the middle of the park and has lots of overlooks to stop and enjoy the view. The Red Bus was a popular way to see it if you prefer not to drive. There is also a free shuttle. Parking was hard to find in most places. We entered at the West entrance and found parking at the Lake McDonald Lodge and any lot after Logan pass. Then we took the shuttle to a few other places along the road. They run every 15 mins at several stops along the road. There are too many great hikes to list here along this road, but here are a few on my list for next time.
Hidden Lake or Hidden Lake Overlook for a shorter hike. Behind Logan Pass visitor center.
Avalanche Lake
Highline Trail Not the trail for those afraid of heights. The whole thing is 14 miles, but you can do a few miles in and turn around. Park at Logan Pass.

Baring, St. Mary, and Virginia Falls via Piegan Pass Trail
We parked at the Sun Point lot and took the trailhead from there. We exited at the St Mary’s Falls trail head and took the shuttle back just to save a little time and not back track as much.

Two Medicine Lake

We went to Two Medicine Lake on our first day. We booked a boat tour and so glad we did. It got us the reservation for that entrance for the day and was a great way to experience the park other than hiking. You have the choice to go right back, or it can drop you off for a hike. We did the hike up to waterfalls and upper Two medicine lake. It was a beautiful hike! The mosquitos were huge and will attack your face. haha. So bring lots of bug spray!

Final Thoughts. Stay inside the park if possible. I would start at Lake McDonald Inn for a night or two, and then stay in Many Glacier for a night or two.

If you are into the history of the park, you will want to visit the St Mary’s visitor center for a movie and lots of information!

There are gift shops at West Glacier village ( near the west entrance ), Adgar Visitor center, Logan Pass, St Mary’s visitor center, Many Glacier Inn, and Swiftcurrent Inn.

There are lots of restrooms along going to the sun road, and I was surprised at a good amount of “pit toilets” along the popular trails!

Other activities I would love to do: Horseback riding on trails, white water rafting, or a river float!
If fishing is your thing, there are lots of options for that as well.

Star gazing. You can book a star gazing tour at the St Mary’s visitor center. You could probably find info online as well. I plan on trying to stay in the park after dark in the future for views and photos of the milky way.

Stay safe and Travel often! Feel free to post questions in the comments below!