Trying to plan a 12-13 day trip to Glacier National Park and Banff Canada area for July and looking for advice. The basic plan is to hit one spot for 5-6 days and then the other for 5-6 days. Ideally, fly into Kalispell and out of Calgary, or vice versa. Are there any advantages to going one direction or other? will be renting a car and taking it one way, if that matters. Any other advice regarding these two areas would be helpful. THANKS

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Posted by lsufan112001

sportsmans paradise

Member since Oct 2006

11082 posts

Posted on 2/6/23 at 10:29 pm to GITiger66

I’m looking at the same trip this summer. Remember to book the park entrance via car.
This guy is a good narrator.

LINK

This post was edited on 2/6/23 at 10:45 pm

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Posted by nctiger71

North Carolina

Member since Oct 2017

1414 posts

Posted on 2/6/23 at 11:18 pm to GITiger66

quote:
Trying to plan a 12-13 day trip to Glacier National Park and Banff Canada area for July and looking for advice.

We have plans to go this summer also. We travel with another couple and we have had a difficult time planning this trip. I think it is because of the unknown regarding the GNP vehicle reservation.

You may already know this but in case you don't - you need to have a vehicle reservation for 4 areas of Glacier between 6:00 am and 3:00 pm. Each area has to have their own separate vehicle reservation. Or you have to have reserved a service, such as a boat tour or horseback ride, within those areas. Also heard that you can hire a Native American guide to get access to those area.

You can book a vehicle reservation for July on March 1st at recreation.gov at 8:00 am mountain time. Our plan is to book a boat tour in the Many Glacier area (to access that area) and another one in the St. Mary Lake area to have access to Going to the Sun Road. That's in case we cannot get the vehicle passes. And we wanted to do the tours anyway.

Our itinerary:
Fly into Calgary, stay 2 nights.
Drive to the east side of GNP for 2 nights; we're staying near East Glacier Village. Many Glacier and Two Medicine are on the east side.
Take GTTSR to Kalispell, west side of GNP, for 2 nights.
Drive to Lake Louise area for 3 nights.
Then we're going west to Vancouver Island/Victoria for 3 nights and then finish up in Vancouver and fly home from there.

We have all the lodging booked except for the last 2 or 3 nights in Vancouver. We're still working on some of the other reservations and some, such as the Red Bus tour, cannot be booked yet.

There are a few good trip reports on the TB about GNP and Banff. Just have to search for them.

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Posted by idontyield

Tunnel Trash

Member since Jun 2022

552 posts

Posted on 2/7/23 at 6:47 am to GITiger66

You should try to book lodging ASAP. We’re going in august and booking a campsite was like getting concert tickets. I had two computers logged on and hit enter right at 8am for 4 days before I got a site.

Hike 734
This guy is a good guide for hikes. We went for the first time in 2018 and his guide really helped. My kids were smaller then so we did Grinnell Glacier and Avalanche Lake as our bigger hikes. Highline and Ice Lake are on the agenda this year.

Belton Chalet just outside the west entrance is awesome for food and drinks. They cook everything over wood, have a good beer selection and make a great old fashioned.

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