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Glacier National Park

rideit

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,341
12,241
In the cleavage of the Tetons
Trying to plan an August trip. I have only been there once, before mountain bikes. This will be a combination mountain bike trip (looking for one big objective outside the park), one day at Whitefish bike park, and one family bike day. We would like to spend 2-3 days in the park not bike focussed. Looking for day hikes off the beaten track, etc. Favorite campsites (two campers), alternatives to busy sites, etc.
Any local knowledge people on here?
 
Montana rider

Montana rider

Turbo Monkey
Mar 14, 2005
1,896
2,502
rideit said:
Trying to plan an August trip. I have only been there once, before mountain bikes. This will be a combination mountain bike trip (looking for one big objective outside the park), one day at Whitefish bike park, and one family bike day. We would like to spend 2-3 days in the park not bike focussed. Looking for day hikes off the beaten track, etc. Favorite campsites (two campers), alternatives to busy sites, etc.
Any local knowledge people on here?
Click to expand...
We've gone every year or so since 2000 and I can loan you our hiking guide(s),

There's only a few campsites that you can reserve in advance (via their frustrating web-based system. Last winter I was trying to book for 2018 summer and I had 2 laptops and 2 phones with browsers open ready to buy at 8:00 AM and still got shot down.)

RV-able sites may be harder to reserve. You might want to consider staying outside the park (KOA-style...)

We like to spend a few days on the west (Fish Creek usually as it's reservable in advance...) and a few days at Many Glacier instead of trying to see/do the whole park from one locale.

My "new" favorite part of the park is the NW corner near Polebridge which is less crowded than the main park (Bowman Lake and further North Kitna...) but that's a bit of a haul on rough roads with two trailers for such a short trip.

Of note: that NW corner of the park is loaded with USFS roads/easy free camping if you get shut down online re: camping.

A kid friendly but scenic ride up there is Whale Lake, and there's a few fire lookout hikes too.

My kids are relatively lazy, so we usually do the normal "easy" hikes: Hidden Lake overlook at the pass and Avalanche Lake.

Grinnel Glacier on the Many Glacier side is pretty cool -- and you can ////Ride the boat each way on both lakes to shorten the hike and Iceberg Lake is another recommended hike on that side.

Similar to YNP, you'll want to head up early/late to avoid the hordes of unwashed masses...

Park Map:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/static-yellowstonepark/public/GlacierNPMap_NPS.pdf

NW Corner USFS Map:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5445582.pdf
 
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