Glacier National Park

I stayed on the west side of the park because I went into 2020 and the east entrance was closed (Blackfeet rez)


I recommend the Highline Trail, and Avalanche Lake trail. Both are great, and pretty easy.

Avalanche Lake is only 4.6 miles and not that much elevation.

Highline is like 14 miles I think, but you can do as much or as little as you'd like, and the views are amazing. I think that we did about 7 miles roundtrip.

We did a trail that goes to 4 or 5 beautiful waterfalls along the St. Mary River. That was cool.

We also drove up to Polebridge, which is the northern part of the park where most visitors of the park don't go. Its about a 40 minutes drive from the west entrance, half of which is well maintained dirt road. There is an incredible lake (Bowman Lake) with beautiful mountains that you make a short drive to from there. You're only a few miles from the Canadian border there.

That's about all I got. Its all pretty mindblowing. Just driving Going to the Sun road is an amazing experience.

I just posted this in another thread last week.

Wife and I just got back from GNP. First time there for both of us. It was incredible. It was our 10-year anniversary trip. Flew in on Thursday and returned home yesterday, so we had 3 full days to hike and explore. We have 4 young kids at home, so it was hard to line everything up to watch them, but ideally, I would've liked an additional 2 more days to hike.

We stayed in this charming little cabin in Somers, south of Kalispell (where we flew into). Airbnb

The first 2 nights we traveled north into Whitefish (which is a 40 min drive) for dinner. Dined at Abruzzo and Herb & Omni. Abruzzo is Italian, moderately priced, and delicious. Very cool interior. Service was great. Would definitely go back.Herb & Omni was fantastic as well, but definitely pricier and more upscale vibe to it. We went to Blackstar Brew Pub a couble times for drinks and food. Food was great for a Pub. Can sit outside on the 3rd floor and overlook whitefish. It didn't get dark until 10pm, which is wild. Our last night we went to Jersey Boys Pizza, which hit the spot after a grueling day of hiking.

The first day we went to Two Medicine and hiked that trail. Very easy hike. At the end is a waterfall.

Second day we took a tandem kayak on Lake McDonald for about 90 minutes then got onto Going-to-the-Sun Road and hiked Avalanche Trail which leads to Avalanche Lake, That was a moderate difficulty hike, but very doable (lots of young kids and older adults hiking on that trail). It's covered most of the way by large cedar trees, then at the end is a majestic view of Avalanche Lake. We tried to hike Hidden Lake behind Logan Pass, but it was raining pretty hard when we got to the trailhead and it was chilly.

Third day we traveled 3 hours to hike Grinnell Glacier on the east side of the park, but we were turned away because parking was full. If you are staying at the Many Glacier Lodge, no problem getting to the trailhead. Some people said the best time to go without problems is later in the afternoon, around 2-3pm. Remember, it doesn't get dark till 10pm so you have plenty of time to hike in daylight. Check online, because as of today, they are closing the entrance to Grinnell Glacier through early September because of road construction. We were slightly disappointed we couldn't hike Grinnell Glacier because it is regarded as the #1 hike in all of GNP. We were close to the east entrance to Going-to-the-Sun Road, so we went back to Logan Pass and hiked Hidden Lake, which was awesome. It was blue skies that day and the views were breathtaking. Lots of snow on that trail, so make sure you have proper footwear. After that hike, we did St. Mary's Fall/Lake. Again, picturesque views. You hike/drive for 5 minutes, and there is a new perspective that puts you in awe.

Plan on driving a lot to get to your hikes. In less than 4 days, we put 860 miles on our rental (we rented a Bronco through Turo...the owner had it parked at the airport parking lot and that's where we returned it). The place we stayed out had incredible views of Flathead Lake and we were secluded, but it was probably an hour drive to the west entrance to the park and 40 minutes to Whitefish where we ate a lot. We already decided we are going to take the kids in 2-3 years, and probably will stay in Columbia Falls, which is right smack in the middle of Whitefish and the west entrance to GNP.

Everything is pristine over there. The weather is incredible, and I would assume temps will be similar in early September as it is now. I had on a long sleeve bamboo shirt for the first 2 days with some Patagonia pants, and the last day just pants and a short sleeve shirt. For our first hike on Two Medicine trail, I actually had on a sweatshirt for the first part because it was in the low 50s with heavy winds, but about 10-20 minutes into the hike I stripped the sweatshirt and just had on a long sleeve shirt. You get sweaty pretty quickly after hiking a few minutes. You are going to love it. We wish we were still there.