Anyone been to Glacier National Park? Recommendations?

[JennyLake]

Keen to do a tour of North American National parks. We’ve done Yellowstone and Gran Teton before so plan to go north and do Glacier then head on up to Canada for Banff and possibly Jasper. Anyone any tips on Glacier in particular? Accommodation seems extortionate and hard to find and I’m a bit baffled with the permit requirements around going-to-the-sun-road (we are planning to go in July so will need one).
Top tips and recommendations?

No recommendations as I did it as part of a hiking tour, but it was incredibly beautiful, and incredibly cold and wet. I naively believed that it would be chilly in July but not that bad; it was FREEZING.

Been twice. Was unseasonably cold the first time and foggy and cold. Had to evacuate due to fires the second time!

Anyway, yes v limited accommodation- have you thought of getting a motorhome? Can do from Vancouver or Calgary and drive down or Seattle and across - there are a few parks. You still need to reserv3 campsites in the parks.

On Going to the Sun road, I highly recommend booking and doing one of the red bus tours then you can all admire the view www.glaciernationalparklodges.com/red-bus-tours/

I remember the park having a very good free bus service around the park to encourage people to leave their cars and RVs. I toured the USA and Glacier National Park was my favourite for the stunning views and hiking.And I agree with previous poster to bring a fleece!

Thanks @Justcannot it’s a good reminder. We did Yellowstone in August many years ago and I had to buy a padded coat as I was similarly freezing! And that’s a good few hours south of Glacier…will pack accordingly :)

Are you going to the US or Canadian National Park? Same name. Both are stunning, might be cheaper to be Canadian side? I worked there as a university student (summers) Amazing hiking and biking. Cycled a few times between the parks. Going to the sun road is a must!

I didn’t realise there was a Canadian bit? Will have to check out my guidebook. We do plan to go North up to Banff after but definitely want to do GTTSR. There doesn’t seem to be any accomodation for 4 within the park so started looking at some of the Gateway towns. I’m keen not to spend hours and hours driving though. (Although I am aware we will be spending plenty of time behind the wheel).

Yes I've been and it is absolutely beautiful. We saw so much wildlife too - lots of bears. There is limited accommodation, but you do need to stay on the east side of the park I would say in order to do the Iceberg lake and Grinnell Glacier walks - incredible. Be aware the trails can be closed due to bear activity. We also did a walk from the visitor centre halfway through the going to the sun road which was nice. I can't remember what it was called though. The trail was to a lodge where you could stay overnight, but we didn't go that far - just out and back.

The west side of the park becomes flatter and the scenery less dramatic but still pretty cool. Loads more places to stay though. The Avalanche falls walk was nice but not as good as Iceberg lake etc

Even if you could get just one night's accommodation on the east side it would be good. Then you could do both of those walks with a night's sleep inbetween.

@JennyLake I’ve been there but many years ago. Stayed in one of the cabins at Lake MacDonald Lodge run by the National Park itself. It was cheap back then, don’t know what the prices are like now.

From memory, the cabins were fairly basic, but just we used it for sleeping.

We visited as part of a longer trip starting in Seattle/Vancouver & going through the Canadian Rockies first. It was noticeably quieter than the Canadian parks then as it wasn’t well known but I suspect it’s got a lot more popular now.