Glacier National Park - Itenirary Help Needed
 

My family and I are leaving for Glacier National Park in a little over a week and need some help with planning our trip. We will be spending 3 days in Whitefish (only place where we could find hotel rooms near the park on the west side), and then we plan to drive the Going to the Sun Road and head up to Waterton for 2 days. After that, we plan to return to Whitefish for 2 days before starting our trek back to Oregon. We would like to do some light hiking (we have an 18mo old), and would like to visit Many Glacier. What are some good hikes in the park? Given where we are staying, what are some other areas not to be missed both in the park and the Whitefish area? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

On the west side of the park :
- north fork : Hidden meadow, Bowman Lake and hike to Lower Quartz lake are not too difficult and nice. They are clear of snow at this time.
- Lake Mc Donald area : Avalanche Lake , Snyder lake(longer), trail of the cedars and some hikes around Lk Mc Donald Lodge are easy and scenery worth the efforts...They seem open and free of sno<w for the major part...
- Loggan pass : Hidden lake trail to the overlook is not difficult but thre is a lot of snow and I don't know if it will be open at your date...
There are some nice small trails to some falls between Logan pass and St Mary...
- Many Glacier : around swifftcurrent lake some natural hikes, and also to Grinel lake.
Iceberg trail is not strenous but a bit longer(but worth+++ the difficulty...).On the way to Swiftcurrent pass, you can hike to Bullhead lake(and so see the redrockfalls..).
You have to hike with a "backpack" for your 18 month and not allow him to hike alone or before you because it's bear country...
The website of GNP is easy to visit and there is a trail status page by site which give you conditions and evbentually closure/trails.
Erik

We stayed at mountain lake lodge and loved it. It is at Flathead lake. Very comfortable. We also stayed in Whitefish. Found Whitefish uninteresting. Just a thought.

Did you check with Meadow Lake? My DW loved the place for our 30th anniversary. http://www.meadowlake.com/
You will enjoy Flathead Lake and the GTTS road.

Best bet. Check at the visitors center in Apgar (west side entrance) for up to the minute trail conditions and suggestions.

One of my favorite walks is the Trail of the Cedars loop at Avalanche Gorge. It is a nice walk and you can choose to go another 1-2 miles on easy trails to Avalanche Lake - fed by SEVEN waterfalls! Did you see the Today show episode Friday? It shows this very place. It's so beautiful, I cry every time I'm there so gratefully we get there once a year.

I was hoping to go to Hidden Lake this year, it's accessible from the summit of Going to the Sun's Logan Pass visitor's center. Please stop there and see the WALLS of snow! I'm sure it will still be there next year!

Apgar is a beautiful spot to start and I'm sure you'll enjoy your time in GNP - take loads of photos and post them when you are back! Enjoy!