Thinking about planning a trip to Glacier National Park? If you aren’t yet, you should! Here are the 10 things you need to know before you plan your trip to Glacier.
1. Best Time To Go
The best time to visit Glacier National Park is July through mid September. Going To The Sun Road is the main road that runs through the Park, and this road does not open until late June, at the earliest, due to snow cover.
Depending on how much snow is still there, it could be mid July before the whole road opens up. You don’t want to plan a trip to Glacier unless you are able to drive onto Going To The Sun Road the whole way.
If possible, plan your trip a year in advance. There is limited lodging inside the park. The few hotels that are inside the park do book up a year in advance, so if you want to stay in a hotel within the park, you need to plan that far ahead.
2. PLAN TO STAY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PARK
It takes almost 2 hours to drive from the towns in West Glacier to East Glacier and even longer if you are driving from West Glacier to Two Medicine or Many Glacier.
To cut back on driving times, plan to stay in accommodations in West Glacier the days you will be visiting the west side of the park and accommodations in East Glacier the days you will be on the east side.
Book your vacation rentals and hotels on Booking.com or VRBO well in advance.
3. vehicle reservation system
1. Going To The Sun Road— this is a 3 day pass
2. North Fork– this is a 1 day pass
3. Many Glacier--this is a 1 day pass
4. Two Medicine –this is a 1 day pass
How To Purchase Reservations
Each vehicle reservation costs $2.00. Above is the schedule for when the vehicle reservations go on sale. You purchase your vehicle reservations by visiting Recreation.Gov. The tickets are released at 8 am Mountain Time on either February 1st, March 1st or April 1st depending on what month your trip is scheduled.
You have to purchase the reservation for a specific date so you need to know your schedule itinerary for your trip before buying your vehicle reservation.
These reservations sell out within minutes of being released online, so it is important that you log on a little before 8 am and start refreshing your screen until you see them pop up.
I recommend having a family member or friend log on at the same time as you to get vehicle reservations for another part of the Park. Last year, I got the Going To The Sun Road reservations first and then 5 minutes later when I went to get the Many Glacier reservations, they were already gone.
If you are unable to get vehicle reservations on the first release date, more reservations are released 24 hours in advance at 8:00 am MT.
Once you receive your reservations in your email, I recommend printing them out or taking a screen shot of them. There is no cell service inside the Park.
4. unable to secure vehicle reservations
1. You can enter the park before 6:00 am and after 3:00 pm without a vehicle reservation.
2. Booking a tour with any of these companies will get you a vehicle reservation that is good all day the day of your tour. If your tour is scheduled for 2:00 pm, you can still get onto the road at 6:00 am with your tour reservation.
Tour Reservations
Horseback Riding Reservations
Lodging Reservations
3. Lodging or campsite reservations at the following locations will get you a vehicle reservation for the duration of your stay:
Camping Reservations
Lodging Reservations
- Granite Park Chalet
- Sperry Chalet
- Village Inn Motel
- Lake McDonald Lodge
- Rising Sun Motor Inn
- Many Glacier Hotel
- Swiftcurrent Motor Inn
- Reservations held on private lands within Glacier National Park
- Apgar Village Lodge
- Motel Lake McDonald
Courtesy of nps.gov
Sample Itinerary For Vehicle Reservations
Below is the itinerary we used for our vehicle reservations. Check out our full trip itinerary in my post Our 8 Day Glacier National Park Itinerary.
Day 1: Lake McDonald Boat Tour Vehicle Reservation
Day 2, 3, 4: Going To The Sun Road 3 Day Vehicle Reservation
Day 5: St. Mary’s Lake Boat Tour Vehicle Reservation
Day 6: Many Glacier Boat Shuttle Vehicle Reservation
5. Use Guide Along (formerly GyPSy Guide)
6. Boat Shuttles For Many Glacier
If you are planning to do the breathtaking Grinnell Glacier hike, you will want to get boat shuttle reservations at Many Glacier. The Grinnell Glacier hike is 11 miles round trip. However, you can cut 4 miles off of that if you take the boat shuttles across the lakes.
The boat dock for the shuttle is behind the Many Glacier Hotel and the morning shuttles leave at 8:00 am, 8:30 am and 9:00 am. After 9:00 the next shuttle isn’t until 11:00 am.
It is really important that you get tickets for one of the 3 morning boats, either 8:00, 8:30 or 9:00. If you take the 11:00 am shuttle you won’t have a lot of time to get all the way to the glacier and be able to make it back for the last return shuttle at 5:30 pm.
Purchasing Boat Shuttle Reservations
Buy your boat shuttle tickets WELL IN ADVANCE at Glacier Park Boat Company.
If you are planning to do the boat shuttle, you do not need a separate vehicle reservation for that day, as the boat shuttle reservation acts as your vehicle reservation. A road reservation is needed for any day you plan to visit Many Glacier without a boat shuttle reservation.
If all of the morning shuttle reservations are gone and you can only purchase an afternoon shuttle, still do it. As long as you have a reservation for that day, you can go to the boat dock as early as 8:00 am and get your name on the wait list for the 8:00, 8:30 and 9:00 shuttles.
You have a good chance of getting on the morning shuttles with the waiting list. There is a cafe right inside the hotel at the boat dock that you can grab coffee while you wait.
For everything you need to know about hiking Grinnell Glacier, check out my post Hike to Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park.
7. GLACIER NATIONAL PARK ENTRANCE PASS
Your vehicle reservation is not your park pass. You still need to purchase a National Park pass.
A 7 day Glacier National Park pass is $35 per vehicle and covers all persons in the vehicle for 7 days. An America The Beautiful pass is available for purchase for $80 which will get you into all of the Nationals Park in the U.S. for 1 year.
8. Glacier Park Shuttle System
Parking is a struggle at the popular trail heads in Glacier National Park. The best chance at acquiring a spot is to get to the trail heads very early in the morning (by 7:00 am at most trail heads). If you do not want to deal with the hassle of parking, you can utilize Glacier National Park’s shuttle system. The shuttle is no cost and you can choose from either the Express Shuttle or the Full Service Shuttle. Because the shuttle stops are located inside Glacier National Park, you still need vehicle reservations to be able to enter the Park, even if you plan to park at a shuttle stop.
Express Shuttle:
- West side of the park – Provides non-stop shuttle service from Apgar Visitor Center to Logan Pass.
- First shuttle departs at 7 am
- Last shuttle departs at 8:30 am
- Shuttles arrive approximately every 15 to 30 minutes
- East side of the park – Provides non-stop shuttle service from St. Mary Visitor Center to Logan Pass.
- First shuttle departs at 8 am
- Last shuttle departs at 8:45 am
- Shuttles arrive approximately every 15 to 30 minutes
- Express shuttles are small buses (Sprinters) and board ~ 15 passengers
Full Service Shuttle:
- West side of the park – 8 am to 7 pm, 7 days a week
- East side of the park – 8 am to 7 pm, 7 days a week
- Shuttles service all active shuttle stops on Going-to-the-Sun Road
- Service provided from Apgar Visitor Center to St. Mary Visitor Center with required shuttle transfers at Avalanche Creek, Logan Pass, and Sun Point.
Full Service Shuttle Legs
- Traveling the entirety of Going-to-the-Sun Road can be accomplished in four legs.
- Apgar Visitor Center to Avalanche Creek shuttle run approximately every 15 to 30 minutes. Travel time is an estimated 45 minutes. Shuttle buses are 28-passenger buses.
- Avalanche Creek to Logan Pass shuttles run approximately every 15 to 30 minutes. Travel time is an estimated 50 minutes. Shuttle buses are small 12-15-passenger buses (Sprinters).
- Logan Pass to Sun Point shuttles run approximately every 15 to 30 minutes. Travel time is an estimated 30 minutes. Shuttle buses are 12-15-passenger buses (Sprinters).
- Sun Point to St. Mary Visitor Center shuttles run approximately every 15 to 30 minutes. Travel time is an estimated 20 minutes. Shuttle buses are 28-passenger buses.
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- Last shuttle departures
- The last departure from Apgar Visitor Center with connections to St. Mary Visitor Center is at approximately 4:15 pm.
- Last departure from the St. Mary Visitor Center with connections to Apgar Visitor Center is at approximately 5:30 pm.
- Final departure from Logan Pass is at 7 pm.
- Visitors are encouraged to not wait until the last departure of the day
- Shuttles will make additional runs to pick up passengers who are at the shuttle stops at the time of the last departure.
- Last shuttle departures
9. BOOK REFUNDABLE LODGING PRIOR TO VEHICLE RESERVATION RELEASE DATE
If you are like us, and flying from quite a distance to visit Glacier, you will plan your trip around your vehicle reservations. There is a chance that you might not be able to secure vehicle reservations for the week you had hoped to go, and you may need to alter your travel dates or cancel the trip altogether.
You may not want to have to enter the park before 6:00 am or after 3:00 pm every day for a long hike. Hotels and rental homes book up so far in advance, you will be booking your accommodations prior to the vehicle reservation release date.
We made sure to book refundable vacation rentals for both our West Glacier and East Glacier locations in case we were not able to secure vehicle reservations.
10. APPLE AIR TAGS
If you are flying to the airport in Kalispell, chances are you are not taking a direct flight. From experience, I highly recommend putting an Apple Air Tag in each of your checked suitcases.
I recently had my luggage lost on a flight back from Nashville. It took the airline 6 weeks to find my luggage. When I went online to submit my lost luggage claim form, the very first question on the form was “Did you have an Air Tag in your luggage?” I did not.
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This is SUPER helpful for when we plan on trip!! Thank you so much for writing/posting this! 🙂
I am so glad you found it helpful. I hope you have a fabulous trip in one of the most beautiful places in our country! 🙂