Visit Glacier National Park during the Summer with little planning.

Glacier National Park is definitely a national park that I recommend visiting. It is beautiful and unlike any other National Park. The pure nature that surrounds you is difficult to put to words and it is a place you just have to see in person to experience. It contains plenty of hiking options, wildlife sighting opportunities, old growth forests, beautiful mountains, and crystal clear lakes. 

Initially you will find mixed opinions and sometimes confusing perspectives on when to visit and how hard it is to park and to get onto the main drive that runs through the park. Glacier initially seemed to be one of the more difficult parks to find helpful information on online leading up to our arrival. I would like to share some tips from my own experience visiting the park both in 2024 and 2025.

A simplified list of Glacier tips that I will explain details further below: 

• Research in advance for park opening and snow road closing dates (even during the summer)
• Expect to see wildlife in Glacier and carry some bear spray, it is better to have it than to not have the bear spray, in case you encounter a bear.
• Drive on Going to The Sun Road. 
• Hike at least some of the Highline trail.
• Prepare for Logan Pass parking lot to be full. As of 2026, Logan Pass parking is limited to 3 hours.
• Acquire, if needed, express shuttle tickets to Logan Pass at least a day in advance if you need more than 3 hours at Logan Pass.

If you have more time to explore Glacier, here is a list of additional places that we discovered during our Glacier visit that I will also describe further below: 

• Nature seeing and hiking: Lake McDonald, Trail of Cedars, Highline Trail, St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls Trail, and Many Glacier area
• Wildlife sightings: Highline Trail, Lake Josephine and Grinnell Lake Trail in Many Glacier
• Huckleberry products: Huckleberry Patch Store is located just outside of the west Glacier park entrance, Polebridge Mercantile on the way to North Fork
• The more secluded North Fork area is appreciated for its more rugged location, beautiful lakes, and as an escape from tourists. 
• Medicine Lake on the East side (I did not have the time to visit this lake, but it is well reviewed.)

I found that while you can visit Glacier spontaneously, it does still require some additional planning before showing up at the park entrance.
Why? Because:
1.) Glacier is located near the northwestern corner of Montana and shares a border with Canada. If you are on a roadtrip, it can feel out of the way from other major roadtrip attractions and requires some planning to secure multiple days there at Glacier in order to make the drive up feel worth it.
2.) Glacier is only open for a short time frame each year due to intense snowfall during winter.

If you are planning in the moment of your travels without reservations, the moment that you know when you will be in Glacier, you need to be regularly checking for overnight accommodations and cancellations. If you are planning to hike a long portion of the Highline Trail or if you need more time at Logan Pass than the limited 3 hours parking limit, you will need to be aware of when the last minute Logan Pass express shuttle tickets are being released so that you can be placing the passes in your cart at the exact time they are released the night before. I will explain this in more detail further below.

Which Glacier National Park trails are the best and most worthwhile?
At first I found it difficult to find, while researching, which trails would be worth the time spent hiking on. When I asked at the visitors center about their hiking suggestions, aside from one ranger, I usually got questions back such as what type of hiker are you? And what do you like to see? Aside from knowing whether or not I am up to a certain hike physically, I didn’t know how to best answer their questions. The rangers usually just ended up telling me what I already knew and so I turned to my online research. I do understand why they ask these questions. However, because I am open to seeing pretty much anything, I was expecting more helpful information from them. I would definitely hike a trail, even one that may be a little more strenuous, to see a magnificent view.

In order to better locate good hikes in parks, I recommend to search ‘family friendly hikes at (insert National Park that you are researching)’. I used this to research Glacier and it was helpful. Whether you have a family or not, this way of searching can give you a good general idea of what has worked for others to make for a nice time at the park. Since there are usually more people of varying ages in a family group to please, if everyone leaves with good impressions of the hike and the hike itself wasn’t too strenuous or long for what you get to see, their shared suggestions can really help. From the suggestions I read, we picked out what interested us, and fit them into our visit accordingly.

I mostly did my ‘in the moment’ research online. I found the actual nps.gov information site for Glacier to be a bit confusing to understand without actually being in the park experiencing firsthand how the vehicle reservation passes work. The park’s visitor’s center also was not picking up their phone. So, I found that looking at various blog posts written by other visitors online helped me the most to answer some questions I had. The rest of the unknowns, we just faced in the moment as they came up.

Check the website to make sure Going to the Sun Road is open for your visit because sometimes, even in the summer months, the Glacier area could get a heavy snowfall causing the park to close the road.

How do I know if I need a Glacier Park Timed Entry Vehicle Reservation Pass? 
As of 2026, Glacier National Park is no longer selling timed entry vehicle reservation passes for Going to the Sun Road, North Fork, or Many Glacier. 

If you are interested in reading how the timed reservation passes worked in Glacier National Park prior to Summer of 2026, click the side arrow here for more details.

Prior to 2026, during most of the season that Glacier National Park’s main scenic road, Going to the Sun Road, was open, you needed to get a timed entry vehicle reservation pass in addition to having or paying the vehicle entrance fee to enter Glacier National Park. Between June 13-Sept 28, in order to drive on Going to the Sun Road, you needed to purchase a separate $2 per day, per vehicle, 2 hour timed entry pass (7-9am, 9-11am, 11am-1pm, 1-3pm) which secured your timed vehicle reservation entrance on the Going to the Sun Road.  You needed to purchase this timed pass for each day that you planned to be driving on Going to the Sun Road by entering from the West Apgar Entrance heading East through the park. 

Where did they scan and check these timed entry vehicle reservation passes in Glacier?
The actual area where they stopped your vehicle and checked your pass was right at the four way stop intersection, coming from the West Entrance of the Park, where you could turn left to head to the Apgar campground, Apgar Visitor Center, and Apgar Village. You did not need a timed entry vehicle reservation pass to access Apgar Village, one was only needed to go further along the Going to the Sun Road. If you were staying at the campgrounds or the lodge beyond this Apgar checkpoint, you did not need a timed entrance pass. You were asked to show your reservation for staying at these places in order to enter the Going to the Sun Road here without the timed entry pass and during the timed entry pass time frames.

What were my options if I could not access a timed entry vehicle reservation pass to Glacier?
If you could not acquire one of these timed entry passes, you could still access the Going to the Sun Road if you came before 7am or after 3pm at the Apgar West Entrance. You also did not need a timed entry pass if you drove in from the East Entrance of Glacier National Park and drove towards the West Entrance in Apgar. You just had to remember to not go past the four way stop in Apgar or you would not have been able to re-enter the Going to the Sun Road until after 3pm.

After September 28th, you could access Going to the Sun Road without a timed entry vehicle reservation pass. The road closes sometime in the following weeks after September 28th, due to freezing temperatures and the approaching heavy snow that begins to collect on this road and is very difficult to clear. This winter closure date will be announced, so you will need to check the website regularly for updates. 

When can I purchase a last minute timed entry vehicle reservation pass?
Acquiring the timed reservation pass could be purchased at 7pm MDT (Mountain Standard Time) the evening before you plan to visit.  For example, if you were hoping to drive on Going to the Sun Road on June 2nd and wanted to enter between 11-1pm, you could purchase the limited timed entry passes for sale for June 2nd on June 1st at 7pm MDT. Because others were also attempting to purchase these timed passes, you needed to already be signed in to your account on the recreation.gov website ahead of time, refreshing the page at exactly 6pm MST, and ready to add the desired time frame pass into your cart for purchase. You could also purchase these timed entry passes 6 months in advance of your vacation if you had planned that far in advance.

Which other areas of Glacier National Park require a timed entry reservation pass?
The North Fork area of Glacier National Park also required a timed entry vehicle reservation to access the area between June 13-Sept 28th. Be aware that portions of the roads to get to North Fork are gravel or dirt, and once you get through the entrance station at North Fork, the road is dirt and it is narrow. 

Lodging at Glacier National Park
The most lodging options are found on the west side of Glacier park in the nearby towns. There is lodging available on the east side of Glacier, you will find that it is more remote than the west side is in terms of dining options, stores, and places to stay.

If you are not staying within Glacier National Park and are entering the park on the west side, you will need to first pass through the main entrance gate for the National Park where a ranger will collect your fee. Because the west entrance is a more popular entrance point, the line up of cars to enter the park can get long and you will need to plan for this wait so you do not miss the entrance time frame for your reservation pass to get onto Going to the Sun road. 

Camping in Glacier National Park
As with any popular park, the campground reservations at Glacier are usually booked up well in advance. As I mentioned above, it is best to start looking for availability as soon as you know the dates that you would like to stay in Glacier. I had no trouble finding a week’s worth of camping during the summer busy season in Glacier. I started looking as soon as we knew we would be heading to Glacier next and was able to find what we needed. I learned that within a week before your desired stay time frame, many of the campgrounds in Glacier hold aside campsites for “last minute” reservations that can be booked. It is similar to the idea of first come first serve only it can be done online through the recreation.gov app. You can see the campsites that are Not Yet Released and you can also see when they will be available to be reserved. Once the site is released, you can select the check out date that will work for you so long as it is not over the 14 day maximum limit of nights you can stay in the campground.

It can be competitive to get these Not Yet Released campsites, when they are released, because there are other people and even AI apps/programs also set to hold reservations for people at the same time that it opens. Because there are multiple sites to select, you can usually still find something to book. 

Be sure to have the ‘not yet released’ campsite that you want and the check in and check out dates you are planning to book entered in the search, so that all you need to do is refresh right at 8am MDT and then hopefully you can reserve the site that you want. If someone is faster booking the site you want, which did happen to me, have some back up site numbers in mind so you quickly switch and hopefully still get something for your desired time frame.

There is limited access to campground showers at Glacier National Park campgrounds throughout the camping season. At Apgar Campground, for example, there is only one building in the campground that has hot water for only three individual showers. There is a dump station and multiple bathroom buildings throughout the Apgar campground with flush toilets and cold water. Just know that only Loop A has the showers and there is usually a line of people waiting to use them. Fish Creek Campground, also located on the West side of Glacier, has a limited number of showers in Loop A.

St. Mary’s Campground on the East side also has a similar limited set up for available showers in Loop C. There is also a dump station at St. Mary’s and flush toilets during the camping season.

Many people didn’t know this about the campground showers before their visit, so I am passing along the information so you know in advance if you are planning to camp at Glacier.

Campgrounds do start to close down for the winter season, but Apgar campground stays open longer with access to water, before becoming primitive for the winter season. The St. Mary Campground on the East side of the park becomes primitive fairly early in the fall season, which means there is one loop open for in person First Come First Serve, no online reservations. There is no access to water and the dump station is also closed. The nearby Visitor’s Center does have flush toilets during the Visitor Center open hours each day.

At the time of both of my visits, Many Glacier Campground was closed, so I did not experience staying there. However, I know there are many references from others online of a great time visiting this campground before construction began.

Exploring Glacier – Where do I hike? What is worth seeing in Glacier National Park?
Yes, the answer to these questions are subjective. Maybe someone likes a certain type of view, maybe another comes needing to see an actual glacier, or, as in my case, is hoping to spot a moose. Where you go is going to be different for everyone, but knowing in advance what you are hoping to see can help steer you in the right direction as to where to hike.

One hike I recommend for everyone to try, is hiking on the Highline Trail. This trail is located across the road from the Logan Pass parking lot. You do not need to hike all 14.9 miles one way and then take a shuttle back to Logan Pass parking lot, in order to experience the Highline Trail. Even if you just get to the point where there is a garden hose to hold on to along the side of the trail, the view is worth experiencing! To hike the full thing takes all day, requires an early start in the day, and you need to be early enough to get a parking spot at Logan Pass Visitor Center. 

What are the new changes for parking at Logan Pass?
As of 2026, Logan Pass parking lot will have limited parking of 3 hours at a time. If you are planning to spend a longer amount of time at Logan Pass or to hike most of the Highline Trail, you will no longer be able to park at Logan Pass and you will need to get shuttle tickets in advance for the express shuttle ride to Logan Pass for your hike. The shuttle tickets are available to acquire both 60 days in advance or 1 day in advance at 7pm MDT. There is a $1 processing fee for these shuttle tickets and you can ride the express shuttle to Logan Pass from Apgar Visitor Center and Lake McDonald Lodge (on the West side of the park) or from St. Mary’s Visitor Center (on the East side of the park). Each hiker needs to have a shuttle ticket in order to ride to Logan Pass.

Finding a parking spot at Logan Pass Visitor Center may still be a challenge at any point in the day due to the many visitors using the parking lot in order to hike the Hidden Lake Overlook Trail and visit the Visitor’s Center. Even with the new 3 hour parking limit starting in 2026, you need to be prepared for this parking lot to be a popular stop along the Going to the Sun Road. Sometimes near the evening hours, finding a spot there can be easier. 
Just know that it may be frustrating and will require a bit of patience to get a spot.

From personal experience, it wasn’t as difficult to find a parking spot during the fall season. 
It was a challenge, especially in the afternoon, during our visit in the summer of 2025 to find parking. After circling the lot in the afternoon multiple times and even watching people choosing cars to fill their spots as they were walking to their car, we decided to park at the nearest shuttle stop, ride the shuttle from there to Logan Pass, where we then walked along the Highline Trail, and rode the shuttle back to our car when we were done. We were usually able to find parking later towards the evening at Logan Pass.

The Hidden Lake Overlook Trail begins behind the Logan Pass Visitor Center. The trail itself  includes some gradual stair climbing on your way to the lake overlook spot. The weather was quite windy there, both times we visited, but it is a pretty hike. In the summer time it was nice to see the colorful wildflowers as well as the Colombian ground squirrels moving around and nibbling on the plants. You can continue along this trail from the overlook down a more strenuous trail that leads to Hidden Lake.

There are some short hikes that are popular along the Going to the Sun Road that I would recommend. Trail of Cedars loop trail takes you through an Old Growth Forest amongst giant cedars and you can continue along beyond that trail to Avalanche Lake. While many people would recommend the entire hike to Avalanche Lake, I would actually say that my favorite part of the Avalanche Lake trail, was the loop of the Trail of the Cedar’s trail followed by the very beginning of the Avalanche trail that went along a bubbling creek. Avalanche lake itself was  shallow and it was pretty amongst the backdrop of a bowl shaped mountain scenery, but, I don’t know that I would completely recommend the full trail over some of the other hikes. If you do the Avalanche Lake Trail it is a continual, yet gradual, uphill climb to the lake and downhill coming back. Parking in the Trail of the Cedars area was a little tricky to get initially. We had to turn around and drive the road a few times back and forth in order to find an available parking spot. 

Closer to St. Mary Lake are two pretty waterfalls that you can access by trail, St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls trail. St. Mary Falls is the closest falls to the trailhead. The parking for this trail is limited and also can require some patience to find an open spot. We actually walked this trail in the fall time during off season, so parking was not too difficult to get, but just know that parking could be limited and you may need to take the shuttle there and back. 

At the Many Glacier area, we chose to hike to Grinnell Lake. This trail loops around Lake Swiftcurrent and Lake Josephine and makes its way through the woods to Grinnell Lake. It is a flat trail and an easy walk to the lake. Once you get to Grinnell lake, the blue tinted water is beautiful there, as is the mountain scenery around it. On the way back on the trail we were able to spot both a male and a female moose in the water of Lake Josephine. This was honestly the main reason we went to Many Glacier area. We wanted to see a moose, and it was great to be able to spot them both near dusk. Many people go to Many Glacier to hike to Grinnell Glacier. We did not have the time to hike this trail during our visits, but we were very satisfied with what we did see. Those that have hiked to Grinnell Glacier have really enjoyed the experience.

Wildlife
When we were at Glacier for 5 days in the fall, we saw a mother Grizzly Bear and her two cubs climbing along the mountainside in the near distance not too far from the Highline Trail, bighorn sheep in the distant mountains at the Hidden Lake overlook spot, two moose in nearby in the water of Lake Josephine and mountain goats way up in the distance in the mountains as we walked to Grinnell Lake in the Many Glacier area, and a black bear near the St. Mary Campground.

During the summer visit for another 5 days, we saw many mountain goats up close, including two young mountain goats, near the Going to the Sun Road on the Oberlin bend curve just before you turn into the Logan Pass parking lot if coming from the West Entrance of Glacier National Park. We also saw multiple Bighorn sheep right along the Highline Trail, and we later saw a big male grizzly bear relatively close by. We were able to avoid direct contact with the grizzly bear as he briefly walked along the Highline Trail. He was initially heading towards us on the trail, in order to cross a waterfall, before he headed up the mountain side where we then continued forward and observed him safely.

Grizzly bears are common at Glacier and regularly seen on the Highline trail, Hidden Lake overlook trail, and even the Logan Pass parking area to name a few places that we experienced seeing them. We did have bear spray with us. We did not have to use it, but, it was a relief to at least have had it with us especially when it looked as if we might have had to cross paths with one. It is commonly shared and stated online that having bear bells does not make a difference as you are hiking. Just carry bear spray as your best protection from a bear encounter. 

You don’t need to be afraid, just do your best to be prepared. There are other people usually also regularly walking along these trails and generally you can help each other out when it comes to warning what may be up ahead or behind you. Bighorn Sheep also can be territorial on the trail by running fast and seemingly charging, so make sure you are paying attention to your surroundings. Again, don’t be afraid for your whole hike, just pay attention, carry bear spray, and let the animal go where it wants to go.

Lake McDonald, which stretches from Apgar Village to just beyond the McDonald Lodge, is a beautiful lake with crystal clear water and a perfect still reflection. If you get the opportunity to either swim in or paddle in Lake McDonald it is a beautiful experience. Glacier National Park also offers narrated boat rides that you can book in advance of your visit that take you out on the lake. You can also book these boat tours for Medicine Lake and also in the Many Glacier area.

We went to North Fork in Glacier, during our summer visit, in order to paddle on Bowman Lake. The road to access the North Fork section of the park is gravel and dirt for some of the way and once you get into the North Fork area, you will travel on a dirt road to get to Bowman Lake parking. It wasn’t really a rough road, it just didn’t have a paved surface. Parking can be limited during the 7am-3pm time frame. Paddling on Bowman Lake was really nice. There was beautiful scenery on all sides and the lake was absolutely clear, with a reflection so perfect that without knowing any better you could mistake where the water actually started.

A fun treat along the way to North Fork is a stop at the Polebridge Mercantile for a huckleberry bear claw. Many people rave about these bearclaws and after having one, I would have to agree with the raving positive reviews.

There are definitely many options for huckleberry products in the Glacier National Park area. We did not explore all of them. We only went to one that sounded like the best overall experience with fair pricing. The Huckleberry Patch store has souvenirs, huckleberry products, and a counter service restaurant. It is located just down the road from the west Apgar Glacier National Park entrance. It is a great location to buy a slice of huckleberry pie and also a huckleberry shake with actual huckleberry berries throughout the ice cream. This is a great place to stop. Everything is delicious and was well worth it for us.

How many days do I spend at Glacier National Park?
It is hard for me to give a set recommendation for how long one would need in order to fully see all that Glacier has to offer. There is a lot of scenery to see, but, even just going for a few days, is definitely worth it! As I mentioned in the beginning, Glacier can feel a bit out of the way, depending on where you are coming from, and you want to make sure that your drive, or your plane ride, to get there is worthwhile. I would say that the time frame that you have to spend in Glacier is going to feel worthwhile, because you are going to be able to see quite a bit simply from driving Going to the Sun Road. Some visitors have been able to get a lot out of their visit in a three day weekend. We enjoyed five days at a time. Just try to see what you can, figure out what you like about the park, and if you enjoy it, you can begin to plan your next visit!