Glacier Park Fires. Effect 2016?
 

Planning stages of a trip meeting up with a HS friend and her family. We plan on Staying in Many Glacier area and hope to hike to and spend the night at Granite Chalet(providing we can get reservations).
What exactly has burned in the park is my biggest question?

We have friends who are currently in Many Glacier. As of yesterday they said it was pretty smoky. Last night the park received rain which did dissipate some of the smoke, but long range forecast looks dry. Here's the latest on all the wildfires burning along with a map:

http://hikinginglacier.blogspot.com/...highway-2.html

My guess is that there will probably be cancellations at Granite Chalet due to the fires, so you might get lucky. Under normal conditions, that's an incredible hike, so I hope it all works out for you!

Why would there be cancellations in 2016 because of fires in 2015? Are you hiking from many Glacier or from the west side? West side hike was where we had the Roberts fire in 2003 and so you will be hiking in new growth if you go down to the loop . Hike from Many to GPC hasn't been bothered by fire in a long time.
Many Glacier has NOT been affected by the fires as they are burning WAY south of Many and the east side fire is totally contained and the Sun Road is fully open again.
In fact , all roads are open though some trails on the east side are still closed.
Smoke has cleared but some expected tomorrow from the fires in Washington. Should be cleared out by 2016 :) Frost is expected tonight with temps in the 30's which is good!

I'm not worried about cancellations. I was just worried about what the fires had done to where I would be hiking at. I don't want to hike a lot of burned area.

There's a lot of Glacier (yet) unburned -
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap...dland_fire.txt

And it's kind of cool to see the forest succession after a burn.

So what trails will you be taken to GPC and I can answer your question.

Highline Trail in and Swift Current Trail out. I guess I could reverse that tho, but I like altitude loss better than altitude gain.

I don't mind hiking a mile or two thru burned places, but I just didn't want to be hiking more than say 15 to 20% of it being burned. I just don't like that at all. Burned places and trees damaged by the beetles just really bother me. I know that's part of it.

Thanks for the link to the map, starrs. John, thanks for your imput and any other thoughts you might want to add. I was thinking the 1st weekend in August. It's my understanding that they aren't going to take reservations at GPC this year until Jan. 1 as opposed to their normally doing that in October.

Highline Trail in and Swift Current Trail out. I guess I could reverse that tho, but I like altitude loss better than altitude gain.

I don't mind hiking a mile or two thru burned places, but I just didn't want to be hiking more than say 15 to 20% of it being burned. I just don't like that at all. Burned places and trees damaged by the beetles just really bother me. I know that's part of it.

Thanks for the link to the map, starrs. John, thanks for your imput and any other thoughts you might want to add. I was thinking the 1st weekend in August. It's my understanding that they aren't going to take reservations at GPC this year until Jan. 1 as opposed to their normally doing that in October.

Highline trail was not affected at all by fires this year and neither was Swiftcurrent trail. Should be good to go once you get reservations.
How are you getting to Logan Pass from Many Glacier?

Process to get reservations at Granite Chalet began at 9:00AM. I was able to finally get logged on to their server, complete the reservation, and get my reservation request by 9:06AM. I was number 770. I did not get either of my dates that I requested. So, will try again next year.

Keep trying. Almost can guarantee there will be cancellations..

I agree; keep trying.

It's a nice hike and the views from GPC are amazing. We wanted to do the Highline Trail to the Chalet, but it was closed, so we ended up doing Swiftcurrent in and out.

I'll try again next year. This was going to be with some friends of mine that live in another state. We both would need to have this planned out in advance. It isn't worth the risk to either of us if we can't get exactly what we wanted. So, won't try again until next year.

I'm thinking that less than 4% of the park burned last year.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...fire/31448371/
Areas that burned last year will have slides if the snow melts rapidly.
If you want to stay outside the park and make day trips in, check out the Meadow Lake Resort in Columbia Falls, MT.