Any recommendations about visitng Glacier National Park in MT?

Burritos that is my favorite NP in the country. I spent my teen summers riding motorcycles throughout the park and just outside of the park on trails. I'd ride till the road ended, then pick up a game trail, then when that ended I'd spend the rest of the day hiking in some of the most exquisite country ever. Unfortunately, since my teen years most of the glaciers in the park have melted.

You will naturally either drive or take a park mass-transit to Going-to-the-Sun Hiway where you can (could?) get out and walk on a glacier. You'll never hike alone (at least without a weapon), and you'll see plenty of game. You can raft down the Flathead River (correct name?), and boat on Lake McDonald.

I once was driving my motorcycle on park roads and came around a bend where there was a mountain lion in stalk stance walking along the road. I passed the lion and immediately 'round the bend came upon 2 hikers strolling along the road. They were being stalked and about to be attacked, so I told them about the lion and then hauled the 3 of us on my motorcycle back to civilization. I was once picking berries and filling the tied off sleeves of my shirt with them when suddenly at the opposite side of the berry patch a bear appeared. We scared the bejesus out of each other and both backed away from the bush and went our separate ways.

I once spent the winter in a teepee just outside of the park near Polebridge and in the spring after I broke camp and loaded up my truck, I decided to spend one last night at the site sleeping under the stars. I was woken up the next pre-dawn by a nudging. It was a freshly born baby moose and I was obviously the first warm thing it had ever encountered except it's mom. I reached my hand out of the sleeping bag to pet it when something in my head said 'where there's a baby there's a mommy' and so I gingerly looked all around while lying on my back. No mom, and the baby kept nudging me so again I went to pet it and remembered that I forgot to look in BACK of me, so I tilted my head and was looking through the mom moose's legs, all I first saw was her tail, then her front hooves planted by the back of my head. I knew I was done for (moose have the ability to kick a man probably up into a tree), and pulled the sleeping bag back over my head and cocooned there waiting for the attack, but the baby kept nudging me. At some point I slowly stuck my head back out of the bag and the mom moose lowered her head down to within inches of mine and we very clearly communicated. We looked each other in the eye (hers were as large as a baseball) and through a picture thought process she clearly told me not to touch her baby. I responded I would not but please get the kid away from me and I slowly went back to cocooning. After what seemed like 20 minutes there was no more nudging but also I didn't hear any foot steps going away. Again I slowly peaked out of my sleeping bag and there in the close distance I saw the baby nursing and dribbling milk down it's chin as the sun broke through. I watched for a while then cocooned again and when I next peeked the baby and mom were no where to be seen. During the winter I stayed there I had unmistakable close encounters with big foot (I was 65 miles from the nearest paved road) and while cross country skiing I unknowingly skied over a snow covered beaver lodge and heard them grunting inside. It was not till the next spring when the snow melted when I returned to the spot that I realized it had been a beaver den.

I worked that winter with a Mennonite crew using horses to skid previously cut-down trees out of the woods and onto a landing where in the spring the family hired trucks to bring the logs to the mill. All day long while working all I heard were men softly commanding 'gee and haw' as verbal commands to the horses to turn right or left. All you smelled was freshly fallen snow and horses working hard. This could have been the highlight of my working career as far as a near religious experience. I never felt so at one and at peace with myself and my surroundings. Stress-free physical work in surroundings so beautiful I thanked God everyday for the experience. Still do.

 

Nice story MJ, bears and lions are a rare sight in GNP these days. I suggest wrapping yourself in half cooked bacon if you want to get a look at those two rare critters!

Wildkow

 

I've never been there, but I know that my algebra teacher back in high school always used to say that when he ruled the world, Glacier National Park would be the capital. (And the Pittsburgh Steelers would be the official football team.)

All the word problems he gave us to work on started with "Moe, Joe and Zoey are going camping in Glacier National Park, and..."

 

Yeah, I'd recommend using my ex-wife as a speed bump, she's stationed in Great Falls at Malmstrom. She blapped all the time about wanting to visit the place, I was just much more interested in getting the hell out of Montana. They say it's God's Country, I say even he doesn't want it. J/K, I don't wish ANY harm on her...