Glacier National Park & the Flathead Valley

North-west Montana's mountain corner: Glacier National Park and its Going-to-the-Sun Road, Flathead Lake, and the towns of Whitefish, Kalispell, Columbia Falls and Bigfork.

Glacier National Park fills the far north-west of Montana, along the Canadian border, and the Flathead Valley below it holds the towns most visitors use as a base: Whitefish, Kalispell, Columbia Falls and Bigfork. Glacier Park International Airport sits between Kalispell and Columbia Falls, and Amtrak's Empire Builder stops daily at Whitefish and West Glacier. The park's main sight is Going-to-the-Sun Road, about 50 miles from West Glacier on the west side to St. Mary on the east, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, 6,646 feet. Built between 1921 and 1932, it is a National Historic Landmark. Snow keeps the full road closed for much of the year: since 2010 it has opened completely on average around 26 June, and it usually stays open until the third Monday of October. Many Glacier and Two Medicine, on the east side, are reached by separate roads. In 2026 the park required no vehicle reservations for the first time in five years; instead, parking at Logan Pass was limited to three hours and a ticketed shuttle, booked on recreation.gov, ran from 1 July to Labor Day. From 2026, international visitors aged 16 and over also pay a $100 nonresident fee per person at Glacier. South of the park, Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi in the lower 48 states, with Bigfork on its north-east shore and Polson at its southern end, on the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Cherry orchards line the east shore. Further south, the tribes manage the CSKT Bison Range at Moiese, where a 19-mile loop drive passes a herd of around 350 bison. Whitefish is the liveliest town, with a historic railway depot, a walkable centre and Whitefish Mountain Resort on Big Mountain, where skiing began in 1947. The best time for the park is July to mid-September, when Going-to-the-Sun Road is open; the ski season runs from December to early April.