Everything you should know about Glacier National Park

Glacier at a glance

Location: Montana
Established: 1910
Size: 1,013,322 acres
Annual visitors: 2.9 million (2023)
Visitor centers: Apgar, St. Mary, Logan Pass
Entrance fees: US $35 per vehicle, US $20 per person
Website: nps.gov/glac

Where to find the best views in the park

On its rollercoaster run across the park, Going-To-The-Sun Road offers more spectacular viewpoints than just about any other drive in the National Park System. Logan Pass is a must-stop. But there are lots of panoramic views along the 50-mile route: Jackson Glacier Overlook, Oberlin Bend, Bird Woman Falls Overlook, and every other turnout along the way.

Lakeshores are another great photo op, especially the view from Apgar Village across Lake McDonald; the east side of Swiftcurrent Lake behind the Many Glacier Hotel; Sun Point overlooking St. Mary Lake; and the view from the boat dock at Two Medicine Lake.

Backcountry trails provide almost unlimited scope for awesome panoramas, with the Grinnell Glacier Overlook often cited as the park’s single best viewpoint (although it is a nine-mile hike from Swiftcurrent or a 5.5-mile trek from The Loop.

Where to find the park’s best trails

With more than 700 miles of trails, Glacier offers a hike for just about everyone. The Many Glaciers area has some of the park’s most popular hikes, including an iconic 5.5-mile trail to the base of Grinnell Glacier, a strenuous climb up to Swiftcurrent Pass (6.6 miles), and a relatively easy jaunt to Ptarmigan Falls (2.5 miles). At the western end of St. Mary Lake, trails lead to three splendid waterfalls.

Trails in the Two Medicine area range from the short but highly scenic jaunt to Running Eagle Falls (0.3 miles) to more adventurous hikes to backcountry campgrounds at Upper Two Medicine Lake (almost 5 miles), Oldman Lake (6.4 miles), and Lake Isabel (almost 14 miles).

Of course, one of the longer Glacier hikes is the Continental Divide Trail, which meanders 110 miles through the park highlands between Marias Pass on Highway 2 in the south to the U.S.-Canada border in the north. The route then crosses the international frontier into Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta.

Another epic long-distance hike, the Pacific Northwest Trail runs 55 miles through the park’s little-visited northern region via remote lakes, valleys, and mountain passes.

The best spots for seeing wildlife

Glacier National Park is one of those rare parks that boasts both grizzly and black bears. Their habitat is more or less the entire park from the treeline down to lakeshores, which means you can theoretically spot them just about anywhere—crossing a road, ambling through the woods, frolicking in a meadow.

Wherever there are berries in the spring, summer, or early fall; bears may be spotted. Some of the best places are around Josephine and Swiftcurrent lakes in the Many Glacier area, the north side of St. Mary Lake between the entrance gate and Sun Point, and the Rising Wolf side of Two Medicine Lake.

Scour the cliffs around Logan Pass for a glimpse of bighorn sheep or mountain goats,  and look groundward for marmots and ground squirrels that inhabit the rocky slopes around the visitor center.

In the early morning and late afternoon, elk often graze in a large grassy area called Two Dog Flats near the St. Mary entrance gate.

Visitors should always be aware that Glacier is bear country. Bear spray is essential, even on short walks. As one Glacier ranger explains, “A grizzly doesn’t care if you’re walking 10 yards or 10 miles.”

How to visit the park like a Nat Geo Explorer

Born and raised near Glacier National Park, National Geographic Explorer Megan N. Parker spent her youthful summer and weekends canoeing the North Fork of the Flathead River, cycling park roads, and hanging out on some of the local lakes.

These days she roams the northern Rockies for a much different purpose. Since founding an organization called Working Dogs for Conservation, Parker has used canines to track grizzly bears, mountain lions, and wolves.

It’s mostly in the snow,” she explains. “Following their tracks and collecting their skat for analysis to find out what they’ve killed and eaten. That way you get a lot of information on what they’ve been doing, how many there are, the stage of life the animal is in, are they eating the old and sick or are they just ravaging children. The information can also tell us how wolves are coming back into the ecosystem, how they’re relating to the mountain lions and other behaviors.”

But Parker rarely comes across the actual animals. “I spent this summer between Glacier and Banff looking for skat to get diet information. It’s just me and a dog and an orienteer out there in some of the most dense grizzly habitats in the world, but we never see bears.”

Top experiences in Glacier

Nobody should leave the park without driving at least part of Going-To-The-Sun Road. Constructed during the Great Depression by Civilian Conservation Corps workers, the sinuous 50-mile route could easily double as a rollercoaster ride up and over the Continental Divide. Visitors can start from Lake McDonald in the west or St. Mary Lake in the east.

Among the many landmarks along Going-to-the-Sun Road are Avalanche Creek with its ancient hemlock-cedar forest, a wicked hairpin turn called The Loop, the roadside Weeping Wall, and the overlook for Jackson Glacier. The Continental Divide splits the road at the 6,646-foot-high Logan Pass, where a visitor center and bookstore provide shelter from the chilly highland weather.

Apgar Village anchors the western end of the road with lakeside hotels, shops, restaurants, a campground, and a visitor center. During the summer, scenic cruises run along Lake McDonald; kayaks, canoes, rowboats, and paddleboats are available for rent.