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Glacier National Park Travel Guide

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Introduction

by Frommers Travel Guides
wiley
Content provided by Frommers

    Majestic and wild, this vast preserve overwhelms visitors, beckoning with stunning mountain peaks (many covered year-round with glaciers), verdant mountain trails that cry out for hikers, and the sheer diversity of its plant and animal life. The unofficial mascot in these parts is the grizzly, a refugee from the high plains.

    Named to describe the slow-moving glaciers that carved awe-inspiring valleys throughout this expanse of nearly 1 million acres, Glacier National Park exists because of the efforts of George Bird Grinnell, a 19th-century magazine publisher and cofounder of the Audubon Society. Following a pattern established with Yellowstone and Grand Teton, Grinnell lobbied for a national park to be set aside in the St. Mary region of Montana, and in May 1910 his efforts were rewarded. Just over 20 years later, it became, with its northern neighbor Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park--a gesture of goodwill and friendship between the governments of two countries.

    If your time is limited, simply motor across Going-to-the-Sun Road, viewing the dramatic mountain scenery. Visitors with more time will find diversions for both families and hard-core adventurers; while some hiking trails are suitable for tykes, many more will challenge those determined to conquer and scale the park's tallest peaks. Glacier's lakes, streams, ponds, and waterfalls are equally engaging. Travelers board cruise boats to explore the history of the area; recreational types can fish, row, and kayak.

    However, to truly experience Glacier requires slightly more effort, interest, and spunk than a drive through--abandon the pavement for even the shortest and easiest hiking trail and you'll discover a window into Glacier's soul.

Glacier National Park Travel Experiences

Traveler Photos of Glacier National Park

Near the end of the hike--Iceberg Lake is below the snow field on the mountain in the middle On the Hidden Lake trail. The actual trail is a wood boardwalk to minimize impact on the meadow but it is still covered by snow. Near the start of the Grinnell Glacier Trail Mountain goats we encountered
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