Glacier National Park is one incredible park to visit, located in the Rocky Mountains, in Montana. With over 700 hiking trails to choose from, you can easily spend weeks on end here, exploring the park. Just remember to watch out for the grizzlies when you are hiking!

We visited Glacier National Park, back in August 2012, as part of our 3-week road trip across parts of America. We visited after we visited Yellowstone National Park, before heading over to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We spent 3 full days in the National Park.

The best time to visit is in the summer months. The weather is warmer and most of the trails should be open. However, it does get very busy. June and October are good times to go if you went to enjoy the park with fewer people. However, please note that some of the trails might be shut due to snowfall.

To check to see what is open, head over to their website: https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm

Top Things To See And Do

Here is how we spent our 3 days fulls hiking in the park:

Grinnell Glacier Hike

Grinnell Glacier Hike is a lovely walk to do but it is not an easy walk. The route is 11 miles long, takes you up to 1600 feet of elevation, and provides excellent views along the way. Be prepared to get wet as walk past the waterfall and be blown away by the views of the magnificent Grinnell Glacier. If the mileage doesn’t put you off, then I highly recommend this walk. The route is not circular, so you do have to come back the same way. However, I don’t always mind that, as the views look different when you’re facing the opposite way.

The walk starts at the Many Glacier car park. I recommend trying to get to the car park before 8 am, as it is only a small parking lot. As soon as the car park is full, you will get turned away, and will not be able to complete this walk that day. It is a very popular walk to do, so expect it to be busy!

If the 11-mile walk is too long, but you still want to see Grinnell Glacier. You can catch a boat across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine. By catching the boat, you will be shortening the walk by 3.4 miles. The walk will be slightly shorter in distance at 7.2 miles, which some of you might think is more doable than a long 11-mile walk.

Highline Loop Walk

The Highline Loop Walk is a long 11.6-miles walk. You can either start the walk at the top of Logan Pass or the bottom at the Loop. I recommend starting at Logan Pass and finishing at the Loop, as a lot of the route will be downhill for you. You can part your car at either the start of the finish and use the shutter bus to take you back to your car at the end of the route. Just remember to check the times for the last shutter bus, before you start the walk. The other option is, to park your car at the finish and catch the shutter bus to the start of the walk.

The shuttle bus is free to use and I recommend aiming to get to the car parks before 8 am, as they do get full pretty quickly! The shuttle bus does get full very quickly, but they do run every 15 minutes. If you are catching it from Loop, at the end of your walk, be prepared to queue. When the bus arrives at the Loop, quite often there are only 2 spaces free. All the more reason to park your car at the Loop and get the shuttle bus up to the top of Logan Pass, first thing in the morning, when it is quieter.

The Logan Pass is also known as the, ‘going to the sun road’.

The walk is a nice walk, with steep drops, steep-sided mountains, lots of wildflowers, and we even saw snow in August. There is one section, where the trail is only 4 – 6 feet wide, with a steep drop at one side. This section isn’t very long and there are ropes to hold onto. I’m not very good with heights, but as I did, if you can brave this short section, you will be ok. The rest of the trail is fine.

Swiftcurrant Trail

Swiftcurrant Trial was a nice easy hike for us. We didn’t hike the full trail. We only hiked up to the 2nd lake, before turning back. However, just walking this part of the trail was lovely. It was a lovely flat, easy walk. We saw a moose in the first lake, a snake on the path, and some people who passed us, in the opposite direction, had just seen a grizzly.

The walk starts at Many Glacier Hotel. Just like the others 2 walks above, car parking does get full, so it’s best to get there early, ideally before 8 am. You can also take the shuttle ferry across the 2 lakes, to save on the mileage, if you are planning on walking to Grinnell Glacier. From the second lake, it is a 3.6-mile hike to the glacier. As we weren’t walking to the glacier, we decided not to catch the 2 shuttle boats.

Please note, the shuttle boats don’t go from Many Glacier Hotel. They are roughly 1.7 miles away from the hotel, along, the Swiftcurrant Trial.