Best things to see and do in Glacier National Park: A guide for exploring scenic drives, nature viewing, and breathtaking hikes in the heart of Montana’s wilderness.
Glacier National Park, established in 1910 in Montana, preserves over a million acres of stunning wilderness and was shaped by ancient glaciers, offering visitors a glimpse into the region’s natural history and diverse ecosystems.
It is a breathtaking destination in the Rocky Mountains on the Canadian border where towering peaks, crystal-clear lakes, and vast wilderness come together in a dramatic display of nature’s beauty.
Whether you’re seeking scenic drives or leisurely hikes, this park offers the perfect escape for couples or families looking to connect with the great outdoors.
Having visited once in 2007 with my husband and 3 kids as a camping trip and then again in 2024 with just my husband for my June birthday, I wholeheartedly concur that this destination deserves the nicknames “The Switzerland of North America” and “The Crown of the Continent.”
It takes all your efforts to keep your jaw from dropping at every single view when exploring this majestic corner of the US.
While this guide listing the best things to do in Glacier National Park is thorough for the mature visitor that doesn’t want to go ‘hog wild’ with over-exertion, you could spend weeks in this park and still leave wanting more ;0.
Be sure to also read my guide with everything you need to know before visiting Glacier National Park here.
In a rush?
Best Things to See and Do in Glacier National Park
- But First: The Little Details
- E-Bike Going to the Sun Road
- Drive Going to the Sun Road
- Best Hikes in Glacier National Park
- Relax at One of the Lodges or Villages
- Enjoy a Red Bus Tour
- Do a Lake Boat Tour
- Visit Waterton Lakes National Park
- Best Photo Spots in Glacier National Park
- What to Wear During a Glacier National Park Visit
- Useful Maps of Glacier National Park
- Our Glacier National Park Itinerary Day to Day Overview
HOW TO USE THIS MAP:
Click the tab in the top left hand corner of the map to view the layers of the map and names of places included. You can click the check marks to hide or show the layers. If you click the icons on the map, you can get more information from each point of interest.
If you click the little star next to the title of the map, this map will be added to your Google Maps account. To view the map on your phone or computer, open Google Maps, click the ‘menu’ button, go to ‘Saved’ on a computer and ‘You’ then ‘Saved’ on phone, click ‘Maps,’ and you will see this map on your list.
But First: The Little Details
Read this blog post with everything you need to know before visiting this slice of Rocky Mountain heaven for all the nitty gritty items you need to know when planning this vacation.
There is so much information to know before heading to Montana, I didn’t want to overwhelm with one ridiculously long guide, so in this one all you will find is my personal suggestions on what to do once you are there.
Disclaimer – as of the writing of this guide (and when I visited the park for the second time), I am 54 years old and my husband is 55. We are in reasonably good shape – but not climb every mountain good shape ;0.
This list is only including things that we have done or would have done if we had a little bit more time than our last trip of 7 days (ie – will be doing when we return AGAIN to one of our favorite parks in the US!).
If you are looking for the more intense or athletic things to do in Glacier National Park, I would suggest using the All Trails app and adding the difficulty filter ;).
E-Bike Going to the Sun Road
If you read my post “Everything you need to know before visiting Glacier National Park,” then you know Going to the Sun Road was still closed for snowpack clearing for the first 3 days of our June 2024 trip ;0.
Which is how we came to learn that Going to the Sun Road is open to hikers and bikers only from about Mother’s Day (in May) until the day the road is fully plowed and open to vehicles in either late June or early July.
This means – you literally get this breathtaking 50 mile scenic road all to yourself without a car in sight if you visit in that time frame!!!
While the whole 50 miles up to Logan Pass and to the eastern side of the park is only open for bikers and hikers for ONE FULL DAY every year, this day and the day the full road is open to vehicles is not announced in advance anywhere.
It’s one of those super secret secrets that only park workers are informed of – and made to sign NDA’s for (just kidding – I don’t think they have to sign NDA’s but they are definitely required to keep this information a secret from visitors – not sure what the reason for this is tho!).
We were just super lucky to be there on that day!
In fact the staff where we rented our e-bikes from thought we were only going to be able to ride our bikes to ‘The Loop’ (about 5 miles from the Logan Pass summit) because of snow removal crews working hard to get the full road open.
And only when we never hit a road closed sign did we realize – holy cow we are allowed to go all the way to Logan Pass ;).
However, we did have to share our hiker/biker only day with the Red Bus drivers being trained.
Which is how we came to learn that the next day of our trip, June 21, would be the one full day of 2024 that the entire 50 mile road is only for hikers and bikers (a driver in training told me my birthday present would be that the road would be opened before my birthday 😂).
June 20th (the day we e-biked) was considered a partial day since the road all the way to Logan Pass and beyond only opened around 1pm that afternoon ;0).
As far as biking or e-biking Going to the Sun Road during peak season, you can learn more information on the Glacier NP website here.
Truthfully, with how busy this iconic road normally is during peak season and how close to the exposed ledges you would have to ride on this sometimes steep and windy road, I do not think I would recommend this activity in the months of July or August.
Once the crowds slow down in mid-September, I do think on a less frequented by vehicles day, you could still enjoy biking this road though ;).
Drive Going to the Sun Road
Even though we got the rare experience of biking Going to the Sun Road on one of two days in 2024 that the road was fully open only to hikers and bikers, we still drove from St Mary Entrance to the Triple Arches Viewpoint on a day that we were staying on the east side of the park.
Driving Going to the Sun Road is one of the highlights of visiting the park no matter which direction you do it from.
If you are looking for more tips on what to do about the required vehicle reservation system currently in place for peak season in the park, you can find that information here.
Best Hikes in Glacier National Park
As mentioned above, none of these hikes are trails we have not or would not do ourselves with our 50+ year old bodies and energy levels ;0.
While there are literally 700 miles of trails in Glacier National Park and clearly many levels of difficulty to choose from – this list is our favorites plus a few that we intend to do on a return visit hopefully soon!
Reference the hiking trails page on the Glacier National Park website here for more information and options.
Avalanche Lake
Difficulty: moderate
Length: 5.9 miles out and back
Elevation Gain: 757 feet
Avalanche Lake was the first hike we did for our June 2024 return visit.
Your reward at the end of this quiet trail through the woods will be a beautiful lake where you can relax on a ‘sandy’ beach – the perfect spot for a picnic break so be sure to bring some food :).
This was a day that we drove into the park without a vehicle reservation at 5:30am and enjoyed cool morning temps at the start of the trail.
The updated version of my favorite hiking backpack can be found here.
And my favorite jacket for hiking is here (mine is the birch white color without a hood!).
I also love that my leggings have pockets!!! Can’t wear yoga pants without pockets anymore – especially when I am hiking ;0.
Trail of the Cedars
Difficulty: easy
Length: .9 miles roundtrip
Elevation gain: 49 feet
Trail of the Cedars can easily be done after you come back from Avalanche Lake Trail as they are located in the same general area.
It is a nice and easy shaded boardwalk trail through massive pines.
You will see Avalanche Gorge on this easy trail.
Iceberg Trail
Difficulty: moderately strenuous
Length: 9.6 miles
Elevation gain: 1459 feet
Our absolute favorite hike in the entire park!!
While the length and elevation gain may make you believe this trail is hard, I promise you – I would not have spent my 54th birthday doing an intense hike!
The majority of the elevation gain is at the very beginning of the trail and after that the elevation gain is so gradual – you barely even realize you are going up ;).
Also in June 2024, we did have to walk over a mile in snow at the end of the trail to get to the lake which I would actually say was the most challenging part to avoid falling ;).
Iceberg Trail is located in the Many Glacier area of the park where from July 1st to Sept 8th vehicle reservations are required from 6a-3p.
However if you just can’t get to Many Glacier before 6am, I would HIGHLY suggest buying one boat ride ticket (in advance as these sell out!). This one ticket gets your car access to the road for the entire day of the boat reservation (which you do not actually have to get on – you just need that reservation to circumvent the vehicle reservation situation ;\).
I have more workarounds for not getting this vehicle reservation in this blog post here.
This is 100% one of those trails that you just want to allow an entire day for because you won’t be able to help yourself with all the stops for photos of the jaw dropping scenery you are surrounded by!
Pack a picnic lunch and plan to spend an hour or two at the lake.
I used my favorite Camelbak backpack on this hike and by the time we were finished hiking, I was out of water ;).
We parked our car at the parking lot behind Swiftcurrent Lodge around 9am and got back to our car around 4pm and I can honestly say – this was one of the best birthdays I have had in a long time :).
These are my favorite hiking shoes and hiking skirt btw :).
Grinnell Lake & Hidden Falls Trail
Difficulty: easy
Length: 2.2 using boats | 6.8 without boats
Elevation gain: 40 feet
Not to be confused with the MUCH more challenging and super popular Grinnell Glacier Trail, Grinnell Lake is a relatively flat forest trail that is perfect for getting out in the fresh air.
If you take the Many Glacier boats (there are two separate boats included in the one ticket you must buy in advance here – these boats do sell out!), Grinnell Lake is an easy 1.1 mile walk once you get off the second boat.
Just to be clear though – you do not need to take the boats for this easy hike. But the boat rides are scenic and the drivers share folklore about the area that is fun to learn.
Be sure to pack a lunch to enjoy on the shores of any of the lakes you will be exploring on this trail :).
Hidden Falls Trail is just a short fork in the trail at the suspension bridge to see a hidden (thus the name!) waterfall and is very well marked along the Grinnell Lake Trail.
To make our hiking day a bit longer, we decided to take the Grinnell Glacier Trail along Lake Josephine and Swiftcurrent Nature Trail back to Many Glacier Hotel instead of the boat rides.
This made for about a 5 mile day with very little elevation but gorgeous views!
we did this trail with our kids back in 2007 too!
Grinnell Glacier Trail
Difficulty: strenuous
Length: 10.6 miles without boat rides | 7.2 miles with boat rides
Elevation gain: 1600 feet
One of the signature hikes of Glacier National Park and yet with two visits under our belts, we still haven’t done it!
In 2007, we did not get an early enough start from where we were camping near West Glacier to make it up and back before sunset with our 3 kids.
And in 2024, the trail was only open halfway due to snowpack still on the trail.
We ran into a couple who were coming down from the trail when we were planning to head up and they stopped us and said – you won’t be rewarded for the elevation gain efforts with lake or glacier views where the trail is closed.
So they advised us to just go to Grinnell Lake and enjoy our relaxing no elevation hiking day :).
I will say – they also told us their favorite hike in the entire park is actually Iceberg Lake and not Grinnell Glacier!!
But we did run into a sweet baby chick before officially turning around :).
Sun Point Nature Trail
Difficulty: easy
Length: 1.6 miles
Elevation loss: 250 feet
On the day we drove from West Glacier to St Mary to change accommodations, we checked out our hiking options on the east side of Going to the Sun Road before it’s closure spot of Jackson Glacier Overlook.
And stumbled upon this easy but striking trail along St Mary Lake.
If you are looking for a simple hike with incredible views in the St Mary area – this is it!
St Mary and Virginia Falls Trail
Difficulty: moderate
Length: 3.1 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 452 feet
We planned on doing this hike on our last day at Glacier National Park but instead went to Waterton Lakes NP in Canada (more on that below!).
After stopping the day before to check out the trailhead and realizing there aren’t really any views of the majestic mountains once you head down into the valley on this hike, we made our decision to not do it.
It is one of the most popular hikes in the St Mary area however a massive fire in 2015 caused the majority of the area to become blackened.
If you stay over 7 days in the park or didn’t bring your passport to cross the US-Canada border, this hike would be a great trail to get some exercise ;).
Hidden Lake Overlook
Difficulty: moderate
Length: 2.8 miles
Elevation gain: 460 feet
Having done this trail with our kids back in 2007, we realized the difference between visiting in June and visiting in July (ie SNOW!).
The Logan Pass visitors center and Hidden Lake Overlook Trail were still completely covered with piles of snow in June 2024…
This is one of the most popular trails in the park which makes the Logan Pass parking lot one of the first lots to fill up in the park. Get here as early as you possibly can to get a spot!
The trail is a partially paved trail that almost always has mountain goats and bighorn sheep grazing around the meadow :).
Granite Park Chalet via Highline Trail at Logan Pass
Difficulty: strenuous
Length: 15.2 miles
Elevation gain: 800 feet
Another signature hike in Glacier National Park that was also covered in snow for our June 2024 visit and therefore closed (obviously!).
I will be doing this hike on a return visit for sure!
A friend of ours did the entire Highline Trail and said there was hours of downhill hiking that killed his calves ;0.
If you are older like us and just wanting a small amount of a challenge – hiking Highline Trail to the Granite Park Chalet and back will still give you insane views and plenty of calorie burning :).
Relax at One of the Lodges or Villages
We spent a couple of hours one afternoon at Apgar Village sitting on the lake people watching.
There is a fantastic ice cream shop at Apgar Village that is a perfect reward for a great hiking day ;).
Lake McDonald Lodge is another great place to relax and people watch as well as Many Glacier Hotel or Glacier Park Lodge :). See map at beginning of post for locations for all of them.
Enjoy a Red Bus Tour
While we have never done this bus ride, I have an Instagram friend that said she did the bus tour while her family did a strenuous hike that she couldn’t do because of her knees.
And I thought – wow! What a fantastic idea!!!
She said she loved learning about the history of the park and various sites in this massive UNESCO World Heritage Site and international biosphere reserve ;0.
Learn more here and buy your tickets as early as possible because they 100% sell out quickly!!
Do a Lake Boat Tour
As mentioned above, we did the Many Glacier boat tour to make our Grinnell Lake hike a little shorter.
And you can also reserve a Lake McDonald or Many Glacier boat tour (depending on which road you didn’t get a reservation for!) to get into the park without a vehicle reservation ;).
Or if your legs need a rest from hiking, a lake boat tour is a great way to spend a couple of hours enjoying the scenery and learning more about the park.
Learn more about the many lake options and get your tickets on the Glacier Park Boat Company website here.
Visit Waterton Lakes National Park
My husband and I always love when we make a spontaneous change to our itinerary when traveling.
Crossing the US-Canadian border was not at all planned for this week long Glacier National Park vacation but luckily I always carry our passport cards in my carry on as backup ID in case we lose the ID’s in our wallets :).
Having these cards sure came in handy when we decided to drive up to Canada to check out the Canadian side of this international site.
When you apply or renew your passport book, just add the passport card to your application and voila – you now have an easy substitute photo government ID ;).
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is a unique UNESCO World Heritage Site that spans the U.S.-Canada border with the main purpose of promoting peace and goodwill between the two nations and to protect the natural beauty of the border lands.
Our day trip to Waterton Lakes was on the last Monday in June and as you can see from the above photos we had a minimal wait at border control :).
Here is a list of what I would suggest for your one day in Canada:
- Get lunch at Prince of Wales Hotel – the views alone will have you drooling!!
- Check out the view of the lake and valley behind the hotel
- Walk from Prince of Wales Hotel down to Waterton Town and stroll the shops for a bit
- Do the international boat ride on the lake from Canada back into the US (we did not do this but it looked scenic!). Learn more here.
- Wildlife watch – we didn’t see a single bear in the US and saw two plus a couple of baby cubs in the few hours in Canada 😉
- Drive to the end of the park road to Cameron Lake day use area (see map above!)
Best Photo Spots in Glacier National Park
See map above for locations of the best spots below:
- Wild Goose Island Overlook
- Jackson Glacier Overlook
- Weeping Wall
- Crystal Point Viewpoint
- Blackfoot Highway Historical Marker
What to Wear During a Glacier National Park Visit
The one thing you need to be aware of for a Glacier National Park visit is you need to be prepared for any type of weather!
And have excellent shoes :).
These are my favorite hiking shoes, raincoat, and white insulated jacket I am wearing in the photo above.
Useful Maps of Glacier National Park
Here are screenshots of some of the best maps I found while actually in the park.
Yes they are screenshots – but many of these are maps I actually paid for because of the information I found useful on them!
And here they are for free for you to hold down and save for your trip ;)!
HOW TO USE THIS MAP:
Click the tab in the top left hand corner of the map to view the layers of the map and names of places included. You can click the check marks to hide or show the layers. If you click the icons on the map, you can get more information from each point of interest.
If you click the little star next to the title of the map, this map will be added to your Google Maps account. To view the map on your phone or computer, open Google Maps, click the ‘menu’ button, go to ‘Saved’ on a computer and ‘You’ then ‘Saved’ on phone, click ‘Maps,’ and you will see this map on your list.
Our Glacier National Park Itinerary Day to Day Overview
DAY 1: Fly San Diego to Kalispell on Alaska Airlines | Arrive 1pm | Lunch in Whitefish
DAY 2: Rent E-bikes and bike Going to the Sun Road | Dinner at The Sunflower Cafe
DAY 3: Enter park at 5:30am | Breakfast at Lake McDonald Lodge | Hike Avalanche Falls and Trail of the Cedars | Dinner at Glacier National Pizza
DAY 4: Drive to St Mary Village with lunch stop at Glacier Park Lodge | Dinner at Johnson’s in St Mary
DAY 5: 11am boat ride at Many Glacier for hike to Grinnell Lake | Dinner at Interlaken Lounge in Many Glacier Hotel
DAY 6: Hike Iceberg Lake Trail (my birthday) | Dinner at Ptarmigan Dining Room in Many Glacier Hotel
DAY 7: Day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada | Dinner at Two Sisters Cafe
DAY 8: Fly Kalispell to San Diego 2pm with stop at Two Medicine on drive back to airport
I hope you found this post with the best things to see and do in Glacier National Park helpful in planning your own incredible time in this awe inspiring corner of the US.
Especially as an empty nester, visiting Glacier National Park is the perfect place to connect with nature and enjoy serene, scenic drives and hikes with it’s stunning natural beauty and majestic mountains.
I am already ready to go back ;).
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Life is short, the world is wide.
I want to make some memories.
~Mamma Mia
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Have a wonderful day my friend! I hope something makes you smile today ;).
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