beachtee

Our family of 4, all adults, will be visiting the parks in early July. We are camping in the parks, and would like ideas on hiking trails within each. We will be in Glacier 4 nights, Yellowstone 3 nights, and Grand Teton 2 nights.

Thanks in advance for any rec's. We enjoy moderate trails, w/some challenge but not extremely strenuous.

kalwire

Regarding Glacier National Park a popular hike is the Iceberg Lake Hike. You can view video here -

http://www.kalispellwired.com/video?page=2

- along with others about Glacier Park and Montana's outdoors.

Enjoy!

beachtee

I believe I have read about the Iceburg lake hike. It also involves a boat trip, right? We are staying on the west side of the park, and I was hoping for some suggestions for there. Also, what is the approx. drive time from West to East side? Will it be possible to drive the Sun Road, and then still do an East side hike?

Thanks!
T. in FL

indy_dad

re: Glacier

My memory is a little fuzzy . . . 1.5 hours for GTSR?

On the west side, we liked Avalanche Lake.

We liked the Hidden Lake Overlook trail at Logan's Pass and you can go farther if you'd like. The St. Mary's and Virgina Falls hikes on the east side of GTSR were also good.

Many good hikes around Many Glacier as well. More details at my trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...amily-of-4.cfm

beachtee

indy_dad: Trip report was great! Just what I was hoping for! Your hiking choices are similar to what we would choose, although we could probably go a little longer. But, not really knowing, since we are at sea level here. The elevation could change our ability level!!!

I would love some similar links for Yellowstone/Grand Teton day hikes. We are all looking forward to our time "out west".

Thanks for any additional pointers....
T. in FL

christabir

Trail info for all the parks is available at nps.com. They do a good job with difficulty and time info. It should be helpful.

bisonquest

Having a tourist business, we take numerous guests to Yellowstone each summer, and while I love hiking, if you only have 3 days in Yellowstone and want to make the most of it, I would do the majority of your hiking in Glacier and Grand Teton, and see most of Yellowstone using your vehicle. Yellowstone's geothermal features are unequaled anywhere in the world, and you can do your hiking on their many trails at the various geyser basins. The geologic and wildlife features are almost as fabulous, and both of those are also best done with a vehicle. There are some amazing hikes in Yellowstone for sure, but if you only have three days, I would do some planning beforehand and figure out a route that will encompass the majority of what matters to you. Yellowstone is a huge Park, and even in driving, you'll not see close to everything in three days. Most of our guests want a sample of everything - wildlife, geothermal, and geologic, so we usually enter at one entrance (in our case, at Mammoth) and do the loop staying at Lake Lodge and exiting a day or two later at West Yellowstone. This time of year, Hayden Valley is probably your best bet to see griz, if that's of interest to you. Early morning and evening are the times to look for wildlife, and tour the geologic and geothermal sites during the day. Yellowstone is magnificent and, no matter how often we go, there is always something new and we never, ever get tired of it. But 3 days will barely be enuf time to get a good taste of it even in a vehicle. Have a great time!

ElendilPickle

One of the nice things about Yellowstone is that most of the cool stuff is close to the road. We had planned to do a couple of longer hikes near Mammoth and Canyon, but it was raining too much for us to do them. But we saw plenty of wildlife and geothermal features without extensive hiking.

Lee Ann

beachtee

bisonquest: Thanks for the great tips! We will definitely take that into consideration, since we are visiting Glacier first, then Yellowstone, then Grand Teton. We can plan on Yellowstone as vehicle time. (although it looks like we will be doing some driving in Glacier as well, since we are staying on the west side). In Yellowstone, we will be camping at Madison, I believe.

ElendilPickle: I had read your trip report awhile back, and was much entertained! Thanks for the tips!

christabir: I will check the website!

Since we have limited out Yellowstone time to three days, should I forego a side trip to Cody? Was thinking the gun show at Irma looked entertaining, and it would be a tourist-y diversion to camping. Any rec's?

Thanks again for all of the help!