Why Glacier National Park is a Must Visit!

It may be no surprise to anyone that we love traveling to National Parks. Over the past three years, we’ve visited 35 of the 62 National Parks and keep a running list of our personal favorites. That list grew immediately after leaving Glacier National Park. Glacier has been on our bucket list for years now and after exploring the park and soaking in its beauty for a week, we can comfortably say it’s our favorite National Park to date. Here are some of the reasons why we’ve ranked Glacier National Park at the top of our list:

Exploring Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park is absolutely enormous, covering approx. a million acres of land with endless adventures to be had. The best time to visit the park is during the later summer months in July and August. Of course, with that, you’ll be battling major crowds, but it’s well worth it for the experience.

If you are planning on visiting the park, give yourself at least 2-3 days to soak in as much as you can. Unfortunately, we visited Glacier in early August, when the entire east side of the park was closed due to COVID restrictions. From what we had researched and heard from fellow travelers, the east side of Glacier National Park is pretty magical. Many Glacier, the Hidden Lakes Trail, St. Marys Falls, and the plethora of accessible glacial lakes and lookouts just to name a few, make the east side of the park worth exploring. However, do some research before you go to make sure the east entrance is open and accessible. Because of this, we altered our trip a bit and were only able to spend time exploring the west side of the park, which is spectacular on its own. The road up to Logans Pass commonly referred to as the “Going-to-the-Sun Road” is an absolute must if you are just driving through. It is a windy, mountain road with views that seem endless. There are plenty of pull-offs along the 50-mile road for epic photo ops and spontaneous river baths. Keep in mind that the road does take at least 2 hours to drive through with a speed limit of only 45 miles per hour. If you are traveling in an RV you may want to check ahead of time to make sure the length of the vehicle meets the regulations of only 21ft or less. At the low end of the road, you’ll find tons of trail pull-offs with parking for some of the most popular hikes on the west side of the park. If you visit the park from June through Labor Day, depending on the times, much of the “Going-to-the-Sun Road” is closed to traffic, which makes it the perfect biking road early in the morning. Pro tip: get to the trailhead as early as possible, especially when visiting in the summer. The crowds here are no joke and if you want a parking spot and a more solitary hike, wake up early or stay later in the park. We entered the park around 6:00 am each day and stayed until after sunset to maximize our time and avoid peak hours of crazy tourists.

For hiking, Avalanche Lake is not one to miss. We say that even though we weren’t able to hike it, due to trail closures. But it’s a popular spot and for good reason. If you are just looking for a short warm-up loop, the Trail of the Cedars is an easy 1.2-mile stroll through a Cedar forest with a beautiful bridge across a stunning Glacier stream. On your way up to Logan’s Pass, you can’t miss the famous Lake McDonald to your left. If you’re a morning person, sunrise here is spectacular with a long dock for a more comfortable viewing experience. Bring some camp chairs and coffee and soak in the morning alpine air in style. Along the road, you’ll find plenty of other trailheads to various mountain lakes and streams. If you have the time, explore and immerse yourself in the beauty of the park. Our personal favorite hike though was along the Highline Trail, which began from the parking lot of the Logans Pass Visitor Center. The trail is stunning from start to finish and if you get out early enough, you’ll be able to watch the sun come up over the mountains as you walk along the narrow and rocky trail. Many people just hike the Highline Trail Loop which is a solid but strenuous 16-mile hike. If you have the stamina and energy to do it, it’s a hike we strongly recommend. We opted to take it a step further and veer off the trail at around 8 miles to take the additional mile-long trail to the top of the Grinnell Lake Overlook. Words cannot express how beautiful this spot is! If you have the time, energy, and fresh legs, this hike is a must on a clear summer day. Make sure you pack properly though and bring plenty of layers as the winds pick up at the summit. On a hike this long, make sure you have enough water for an all-day trek. We both carry 3-liter camelbacks as well as an additional 32oz. Hydro Flask as a backup. To help with hydration and energy we’ve been bringing Liquid IV packets in our bags, which mix perfectly in our water bottles and are an absolute game-changer for long hikes. Don’t forget to take a first aid kit as you never know what can happen on the trail. We always like to be prepared for any situation! The view from the top though is spectacular, as you look down on 4 different glacier lakes in the valley. After the overlook, you can continue down the Highline Trail where the view gets even more spectacular through wildflower meadows and a stunning mountain range as your backdrop. Glacier National Park is truly a hiker’s paradise!

Camping in Glacier National Park

With the east side of the park being closed due to COVID, the campgrounds in the park were fully booked, and many of them were actually closed. This made reserved camping a bit more stressful than usual. Under normal circumstances, there are 13 accessible campgrounds in the National Park scattered on both the east and west side. Some of the more popular campgrounds in the park are Many Glacier, St Marys, Bowman Lake, Fish Creek, and Apgar Campground. But since many of these were either full or closed, we went for plan B and opted for dispersed free camping using one of our favorite apps called iOverlander. The more time we spend on the road, the more knowledgeable we become of dispersed camping and how to find the perfect campsite for free. West Glacier has a ton of free camping options throughout the area if you do a little bit of research on iOverlander or Campendium (another one of our commonly used apps).

The Flathead National Forest near the Hungry Horse Reservoir has designated sites if you are looking for dispersed camping a little outside of the park, roughly 30-40 minutes from the west entrance. The Hungry Horse Dam atop the reservoir is also a spectacular sight if you’re looking to escape the park crowds for the afternoon. But we definitely got lucky finding our site early in the week and chose to stay in one spot for our entire trip. The site we chose was called Blankenship, an area roughly 30 minutes from the entrance of the Apgar Visitor Center. The site was a bit intimidating at first as we drove across a bridge along the Flathead River and peered over to our left to see what looked like a “Van Coachella or Mini Woodstock.” While at first, we had hesitations about staying here, once we got settled in we felt right at home. The dispersed sites, as you will see when you come over the bridge, are scattered along a rocky gravel bar, with an unobstructed view of the Flathead River. When we got down to the gravel bar, we chose to drive further down the beach, where some better sites were tucked away further off the rocks. This is where we found our home for 5 days and a community of people that felt like family by the time we left. We immediately hit it off with our fellow travel buddies and swapped stories around the campfire every night while looking up at the stars. We even watched a meteor shower! It was a special community and one that we always search for on the road, but rarely find. Most nights, we ended up having potluck dinners, sipping beer around the campsite, and laughing together at our most horrifying travel experiences. Because of the accessibility to the Flathead River, we were able to fly-fish right from our site, swim in the river, and Kayak right up to shore. On our last day in Glacier, our new camp friends invited us on a kayaking trip down the river that left from the National Park. We floated on a 3-mile adventure through some mild rapids and even cliff jumped along the way. We highly recommend taking a rafting or kayaking trip as it’s one of the best ways to experience the beauty of the river. It was a magical way to end the trip and one we will never forget. 

Trips like this are what motivate us to keep traveling. Our lifestyle of full-time #vanlife seems glamorous online but has its challenges more often than not. Our goal going into the week was to go with the flow and say yes to as many opportunities as we could. Because of this, we met travelers along the way, fellow van lifers, and even new friends that we never could have expected. Visiting beautiful places like Glacier National Park is more than just sight-seeing from a vehicle. If you wander a little off the path or step just a little bit out of your comfort zone, you’d be amazed at what could happen! 

**An important reminder to anyone visiting the National Parks or any natural area like this is the “leave no trace principle.” Pack out whatever you pack in and leave your site the way you found it. We have an entire blog post on Leave No Trace if you’d like to learn more.