Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park covers more than a million acres of the northern Rockies along the Canadian border, split by the Continental Divide into a wetter, forested west side and a drier east side where the mountains rise straight out of the plains. It holds more than 130 named lakes, two mountain ranges (the Lewis and Livingston ranges) and the full roster of big Rocky Mountain animals, including grizzly and black bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, moose and wolves. Most visitors see it from Going-to-the-Sun Road, the only road across the park, but the trail network is the real draw: hikes from Logan Pass, Many Glacier and Two Medicine reach lakes, waterfalls and the remaining glaciers within a day.

The land was Blackfeet country on the east side and used by the Salish, Pend d'Oreille and Kootenai on the west; the Blackfeet ceded the mountain portion of their treaty lands in 1895. The park was created on May 11, 1910, and the Great Northern Railway quickly built hotels and backcountry chalets to sell it as the "American Alps". In 1932 Glacier and Canada's Waterton Lakes were joined as the world's first International Peace Park, and the pair became a World Heritage Site in 1995. Of roughly 150 glaciers larger than 25 acres in the mid-1800s, only 25 active ones remained by 2010, and they are still shrinking.

2026 brought the biggest change to visiting in five years: there are no vehicle reservations anywhere in the park. Instead, Logan Pass parking was limited to three hours from July 1 to September 7, and a new ticketed express shuttle to Logan Pass ran over the same dates, with $1 tickets sold only on Recreation.gov. The park no longer takes cash. Non-US residents aged 16 and over now pay an extra $100 per person on top of the entrance fee unless they carry an annual pass; the nonresident America the Beautiful pass costs $250. The season also had rough patches: heavy rain on June 29 closed the Many Glacier valley and dozens of trails for several days, and a storm closed the alpine section of Going-to-the-Sun Road on October 9.

In winter the park stays open. Going-to-the-Sun Road is plowed from West Glacier to Lake McDonald Lodge, and the unplowed road beyond is used for skiing and snowshoeing; Apgar Visitor Center opens on weekends, and rangers lead snowshoe walks on winter weekends. There is no lodging inside the park in winter.

Practical tip: plan around the east side as well as the west. Many Glacier and the Saint Mary Lake shore are often quieter than Lake McDonald and Logan Pass, and the drive between the two sides over Marias Pass on US-2 is the year-round alternative when the high road is closed.