Glacier National Park
We took a 6 day trip to Glacier National Park this summer and I cannot recommend it highly enough. One of my favorite places I have ever been!
I thought 5 days was perfect for the amount of time, but I think you could do longer or shorter depending on the number of hikes and activities you plan to do.
Day 1: We flew into Kalispell Airport (FCA) which is a 2.5 hour flight direct from MSP. We flew on Delta, but there are also several Sun Country flights per week if you have more flexibility.
We rented our car (very small rental area onsite) and stayed at the Glacier International Hotel. This is a very standard airport hotel but had a fun indoor pool with waterslide that the kids loved.
We spent the first day at Whitefish Mountain where we rode the scenic gondola to the top of the mountain for great views and took the Alpine slide back down. They also had zip-lining, bike rentals, and an adventure course which all looked really fun so you could really spend the entire day there.
Summer Activities - Whitefish Mountain Resort (skiwhitefish.com)
We had dinner at the Boatclub Restaurant for lake views.
Day 2: We woke up and went white water rafting with Montana Raft Guides. We did the 1/2 day ride which lasted about 2.5 hours. The kids LOVED going over the rapids and the guide was excellent. I booked in advance and they were very easy to change our booking when I ended up changing our flight.
Glacier National Park Rafting (glacierguides.com)
We had lunch at the pizza place across the street which was great!
We drove to the East Side of Glacier it took about 2.5 hours to get to our hotel in St. Mary's Village. We stayed in the "tiny home" which had a queen size bed in one room and a trundle bed in the second room. It also had a minifridge and burner and coffee maker. The bathroom was in another tiny home area but was spacious and great for our family of 4.
Tiny Homes at St. Mary Village: Eco-Forward in Glacier National Park (glacierparkcollection.com)
We went into the park and went to the St. Mary visitor center so my kids could get their Junior Ranger Books and started working on their books.
We had dinner at the Snow Goose Grill at St. Mary Village.
Day 3: Our Many Glacier Day!
We drove to Many Glacier Lodge (40 minute drive) because we had booked Kayaking but it was too windy to take the Kayak out so we waitlisted for the Scenic Boat Tour. We had booked for the afternoon but with our morning cancelled we bumped up our reservation. The lodge is a beautiful location so I would consider staying there for the views but the rooms did look very "rustic" so in the end was happy that we were staying at St. Mary Village. Here are the boat options: Many Glacier (glacierparkboats.com)
From Many Glacier Lodge you can take the scenic boat ride that takes you across swiftcurrent lake to a short hike followed by Lake Josephine. This leads you to the base of two hikes the Grinnel Glacier Hike and the Lake Josephine hike. You can also hike this entire way from the Lodge to the trailheads but this adds 2.5 miles to your hike (about 1 hour).
My son and I hiked and went up the Grinnel Glacier trail which is one of the BEST HIKES I have ever done. The entire hike is incredible views, waterfalls, and very doable (4 to 6 miles up depending if you do the boat). And you end up at a Glacier! On our hike we saw two moose and mountain goats.
We had dinner at the Many Glacier Lodge.
I also think horseback riding would be amazing at Many Glacier we had already booked for Apgar (see below)
Day 4: Going to the sun road; as mentioned in the overview you either need a reservation for Going to the Sun Road or a booking at one of the lodges for boat or activity. If you travel east to west no vehicle registration is needed.
We drove to Logan Pass which is the highest point that you can drive to. It was very difficult to park at the visitor center in Logan Pass and took about 40 minutes to find a parking spot. I would recommend going EARLY or parking at one of the shuttle stops and taking the free shuttle to the visitor center. Logan Pass is also where the continental divide is where on one side water flows to pacific ocean (eventually) and one side flows to the atlantic ocean.
From the visitor center this is an easy hike (1.3 miles out and back) to Hidden Lake which I recommend. My 9 and 11 year old were able to complete this hike.
On the drive there are tons of turn outs for water falls, views, and other trailheads. We continued on past Lake Macdonald onto Apgar village where we stopped for some Huckleberry ice cream. Then to Apgar stables for horseback riding.
We booked through Swan Outfitters Horseback Rides in Glacier National Park by Swan Mountain (swanmountainglacier.com) and did a 1 hour trail ride which was beautiful and the kids loved.
We then checked into our new hotel Under Canvas Glacier and had dinner at the hotel.
HOTEL: Under Canvas Glacier. Our test was the deluxe tent that had a king bed, a sofa bed and toilet, pull shower, and sink with a wood-burning stove to stay warm. There is no electricity but had a few USB charge banks that definitely did not last our two nights.
It got very COLD at night, and my husband had to feed the fire every hour to stay warm. Also it was very LOUD there was a train track right near the tents so they gave us earplugs at check in.
https://www.undercanvas.com/camps/glacier/
Overall for the cost I would prefer to stay at a normal hotel or at Lake MacDonald in the future.
Day 5: Lake MacDonald. We went back to Lake MacDonald and did our scenic boat tour in the morning and then took the National Park Shuttle (free) back to Avalanche to do the Trail of Cedars. This is a 0.9 mile partially platformed path that is very pretty and easy to do. I recommend this for young children and beginning hikers. For advanced hikers you can hike to Avalanche lake.
We took the shuttle back to Lake MacDonald and had lunch at Jammer Joe's (pizza, not great food) and then rented Kayaks and paddle boards on the lake. You can rent by the hour and they also had row boats and motor boats first come first served and there were always some available while we were there.
We had dinner at Sunflower Cafe for BBQ which was great.
RED BUS TOURS: I think this would be fine to do-- you will see the Jammers driving all around the park. The only negative is that it would be difficult to do hikes from these bus tours but then you don't have to drive. Glacier National Park Red Bus Tours (glaciernationalparklodges.com) It looks like these are all round trip tours from 9am to 5pm or 9 am to 12pm depending on if you do just one side or both. There is also a free shuttle bus service that we used that was very easy to use and comes every 15 minutes that you could ride for the entire GTSR but would take 7 hours round trip.
Day 6: We slept in our last day. We went to Apgar village (you don't need a reservation to go to Apgar village) to see the colorful rocks and had lunch at Eddie's and then did mini golf at going to the sun golf in West Glacier then drove the the airport and flew home!
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