Montana Tourist Attractions
Vacation Ideas

The landscape has over 750 miles of good trails for biking, hiking and horseback riding. There is also good boating in the lakes. The camping is great with over 1000 campsites and 13 camp grounds.

It winds around and through the interior of the Park revealing beautiful new vistas at every turn of the road. The road is about 50 miles long and it takes about 2 hours with no stops.

The entire road is accessible between mid-June to mid-September. However, some sections of the road are open during the winter months. Any way you look at it, traveling on the Going-to-the-Sun Road is an adventure you’ll never forget.

We always said “You know, we really should go see the glaciers in Glacier national park, before they’re gone!” and that’s exactly what we set out to do. After some research, we booked a few nights at the Many Glacier hotel in the park. Driving up to Montana from Salt Lake City, we started climbing into the Rocky Mountains.

After hours on the road we arrived at the south entry to the park, prepared to drive across the park to our hotel via the famous “Going to the Sun road”. This twisty 2 lane road is carved on the side of mountains, winding its way through some of the most magnificent alpine scenery we had ever seen.

At the highest point on the road, we came face to face with a mother and baby mountain goat grazing next to lookout point. We also encountered our first sight of a glacier, Jackson glacier miles off in the distance.

The Many Glacier area of the park, where our hotel was, is otherworldly. Mountain lakes, wildlife everywhere, crisp mountain air.

We prepared to set off on a hike to Grinnell Glacier, a moderate day hike away from the hotel through gentle pine forests, around clear lakes, and finally hugging the side of the mountain itself as we ascended through the clouds and mist.

Visibility was pretty low, and we didn’t see the glacier till we were almost on top of it. Suddenly, a wall of ice loomed in front of us, mini ice-bergs floating and melting in the lake, feeding into a graceful waterfall down the side of the mountain.

As the mist lifted, we explored a little, feeling the power of the place in our every step. The glacier, and the park itself, aren’t the easiest things to see in the world – the drive is long to get there, and once you do, some of the best scenes are well off the road – prepare to spend several hours on the trail to really get in touch with the place. Sometimes though, the best vacation experiences you can have aren’t the easiest.

For instance, could you identify any animal tracks? You could easily spot some native animals on the beautiful nature trail nearby. The foundations Montana roots have spread to more than 550 other Elk Foundation chapters.

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