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| I found the Moon travel guide for Glacier found me places of interest off the beaten path.
Campgrounds and restaurants know its a tourist destination and plan on great profits.
Go to: https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm for park service information on road conditions and suggestions for places to stay. There are lodges in the park and motels outside the park. Midway across the south edge of the park on US there is a hotel with rooms in railroad equipment like diesel locomotives. Last I checked they were priced like New York City penthouses with several nights minimum on top of a high price. A plain hamburger was $20 in 2011 in their restaurant.
The park service web page says they are plowing on the Going to the Sun Road but its not open. A plow crew did get to Logan Pass from the west yesterday, but the road closed behind them from avalanches in four places. As I recall the road east of Logan Pass can sometimes be covered by 80 feet of snow so plowing is difficult.
When you set your dates, go on line or get out the telephone and make arrangements for rooms and tours at least a week before you get there, else there probably won't be seats on the tours. I found that when I was there that I'd have to stay a week to get a ride in a red bus. There are free shuttle buses that do the Going to the Sun Road. You. have to change at Logan Pass because the bigger buses used on the east side can't make the corners on the west side. I rode the free buses with a couple side hikes and it took nearly the whole day round trip. I was camped near St. Mary. I had lunch in Apgar. Another day I drove across (the driver is too busy with the road to see everything) and then went north to Polebridge and Bowman Lake. The road to Polebridge was good, the road from there to Bowman Lake was in very bad condition. Another day I went to Two Medicine and took a boat tour. There are also such tours and horseback tours all over the park.
The NPS offers brochures for downloading at: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/brochures.htm I think they are good and also thorough.
To get there I drove west on US20 to Wyoming, then north on US 85 and west to Wright, then north through Gillette to Miles City Montana and Jordon, then west on 200 through Lewistown to Great Falls. I took a side trip to Fort Benton which proved to have more interesting museums than Great Falls. From Great Falls, I took US 89 to Browning and St. Mary. I stayed off interstates pulling my vintage Airstream at 52 mph I consider suicidal on interstates.
There is a family owned steam tractor museum east of Great Falls, but there weren't any family members around the day I drove by.
I headed for home going east on US 2. There were several decent and some not open county historical museums along the way and I dropped in on Boysun near Wolf Point. I headed south at Williston ND on US 85 and worked my way south and east through Pierre (good ag museum there) and then to Madison for a farm show (late in August) but the show grounds may be open as a museum. Then up to Brookings for the good university ag museum, then east to LeSueur for the Pioneer Power Show, then home.
State travel guide books should list places to visit, like working county museums, dams along the major rivers, and state and county parks.
I had planned to take a horseback tour but I sprained my back working on the Airstream at Fort Benton and didn't think riding a horse would be fun. The boat tour guide claimed that the average visiting time for Glacier is the time it takes to drive the Going to the Sun Road one way. I was there three days and did get to nearly all of the park that was drivable but not to the Canadian side. A tour to Canada takes planning ahead with a passport or passport card and arranging ahead of time to get the ride.
Gerald J. | |
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