hello.
my boyfriend and i will be traveling to the northwest at the end of the summer. we'll be coming to glacier for 4 nights after camping in yellowstone for 6 nights and grand teton for 4 nights before that.
since we'll be tent camping the whole trip until glacier, we'd like to stay somewhere fairly nice for at least a few of the nights, but without breaking the bank. is it worth it for us to spend any time at all in the waterton area of the park? it seems like a pretty far drive after coming all the way from yellowstone and trying to get the whole park in in 4 days/5 nights. any recommendations as far as where we should stay and for how long? we are avid hikers and that will be our main activity. we'd also like to bike going to the sun road, which i think should be ok, since we will be in glacier from september 6-10. i saw on their site that the glacier lodge system is having a special that is their spring rates during the time we'll be in glacier. are many glacier hotel and lake mcdonald lodge really NOT good places to stay?

any help will be greatly appreciated! thanks!

april

I am not sure which adjective to characterize Lake McDonald Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel, but good is not one of them. Better than a tent? Yes, if it rains. If you want a more solid roof and walls over your head than a tent, the cabins at Many Glacier are cheaper and, for the money, tolerable. Are they worth the money? No, no accomodations around Glacier are in my opinion. But, there is no competition much, the season is short,and the prices reflect the situation.

I suggest you drive the extra bit and stay in either Pincher Creek or Cardston. The problem is that you must recross the border into the USA and I am not current on how tedious that is these days without a passport.

I was in Canada last summer, but I did not cross the border. My son and his wife flew into Calgary, and they got home without passports. With the new rules coming into effect soon that passports will be required even for Canada, I have no idea what the actual situation will be.

hey,
if we are only going to be in glacier for 4 nights and we are avid hikers, where is our time best spent? if we spend one night in Pincher Creek or Cardston, where to next? we don't mind sleeping somewhere different each night. also, we both have passports. thanks for your help!

Waterton is a wonderful little town. We always make time to go up for a day trip--it's not that far.

We enjoy camping at Crandell Mt. Campground just north of town if you end up camping. As you go through the entrance you will see a huge pile of firewood in a fenced in area. It's free for the taking--very nice!

Don't try to take any leftover firewood from the US with you. They will confiscate it as they are worried about a certain pest entering Canada.

I don't mind the conditions of the hotels. I like the old charm and especially like being IN the park. After tents for 10 days it'll feel like luxury!!

There is a good hike from Waterton:
Crypt Lake. You need a water taxi to take you across the lake.

There are some decent motels in Waterton,but like everything in that vicinity they are a bit costly.

Also on the east side of the park there are two great trails from the Many Glacier cabin area:

Grinnell Glacier and Iceberg Lake.
The Grinnell Hike is about 12 miles round trip, depending on how much rambling you do around the remains of the Grinnell Glacier.

Iceberg Lake is 10 miles round trip.
It passes by a nice waterfall and ends at a glacial lake underneath walls that tower some 3,000 feet virtually straight up.

Another hike is along the Garden Wall to the hikers' shelter known as Granite Park. The shelter is usually booked up, but worth a try to see if you could get a bunk for the night inside stone walls with a roof.

From Logan Pass, the walk is about 7.3 miles one way. If you take the detour to the view through a hole in the Garden Wall that overlooks the Grinnel Glacier (what remains of it at least), add about another 3 miles.

The best one of them all, in some respects,is probably too much for one day unless you are into really long ones. The hike from Lake McDonald Lodge parking lot to the Sperry Glacier remnants is about 8 miles with a 4,500 foot gain in elevation. At least the return trip is all downhill!!

Another one is to take the same basic route up to the Sperry Chalet and continue over the pass to Lincoln Lake. That is one the crown jewels of the park, but hard to reach.

There are campgrounds in those areas, but you were wanting to get out of the tent for a few nights.

There is a chalet known as Sperry Chalet but staying there over night is pricey, very much so. I have been there 3 times in years past, but decided after the last trip that I had made my last visit.

At least if you go up there you can view a $1,000,000 potty house. Today it would cost more I am sure.