Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton itinerary help???
 

My family and I have been hoping to make a trip out west to Montana and Wyoming this summer to visit Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We are finally at the stage where it is time to finalize dates and times and of course, our itinerary. We already have a house in West Yellowstone lined up for six nights in early August. Our initial plan was to fly into Kalispell, spend two nights then drive down to West Yellowstone for six nights and then on to Grand Teton for two or three. Most of the locations in and around West Glacier seem to require a three night stay and I wondered how many nights would you recommend for this area? It seems that the flights in would get us there around early afternoon, so I guess by the time we would get wherever we would be staying we would not have much of the first day to sightsee. Do we need a good two full days to see what we need to see in and around Glacier? Of course our aim is to drive the Going to the Sun Road and possibly do a whitewater raft ride. We won't be doing much hiking and are not sure if we need longer than a full day or two, or if we'll be ready to head onto Yellowstone after that initial two nights. Also, at the end of the trip (we plan on flying out of Jackson), how much time (nights?) do we need to enjoy Grand Teton? Again we won't do lots of hiking, but would be interested in a raft ride down the Snake River and possibly some horseback riding at one of these parks. Any help or suggestions you could give me would be so appreciated. Also, are there areas between Glacier and Yellowstone we should plan on seeing on the way? What are some of the "not to be missed" sights (besides the national parks, of course) that are in Montana? Again, thanks to all for your help.

It takes longer than you would think to drive from West Yellowstone to Jackson - only way is thru the Park and there can be frequent "animal jams".

We found far less to do and see in GTNP than at Yellowstone. Had booked float trip, but it got rained out. We spent 3 days and that was about right.

Gail,

Do you think we are alotting enough time in Yellowstone then? I figure we'll get four full days, at least and can spend part of the travel day to Jackson in Yellowstone and head on to Jackson later in the day. What do you think?
Thanks, Diane

You say you have 6 nights in West Yellowstone - so I am assuming that means arriving late one day, leaving early on the 6th day - that is how you come up with 4 days.

Yellowstone has a figure-8 road system. By staying in one place, you end up retracing your steps on each day's activities (not necessarily a bad thing, but more time consuming). So you could do the top loop of the "8" for 2 days and the bottom for 2 days.

We are not hikers either. The way it worked for us was to get an interpretive guide book that gave details about various road pull-offs in the order the come on each road. For example, book would mention a certain geyser field, tell how long the walk in was (usually well under 1/2 mile) and give some highlights to look for. This worked great.

Some hints. Do not approach the animals but enjoy looking at the really stupid tourists trying to pet bison. We were secretly hoping some of these people would get stampeeded or eaten by big animals.

Bring a cooler and pack a lunch and water each day - limited places inside Park for either.

Near Gardiner (northern entrance to Park) is a place called Boiling River (not in most guide books). It is just past Continental Divide sign with a parking lot. What it is is a convergence of river and hot spring, so that you climb over rocks and sit in a natural jacuzzi - there is a sign at the parking lot describing it.

Try to catch a rodeo in the evening in West Yellowstone. We went to one that a feared would be hokey and touristy. But we were the only non-locals there and ended up sitting about 3 feet on the other side of a flimsy fence during the rodeo. It is the only event I have every been to where spectators leave mid-show to go buy suitcases of beer at a nearby store. I am sued to the Red Sox confiscating water - who knew one could bring in beer!

If you do not like switch-backs and roads with limited guard rails, do not look down during parts of the drive, especially in northern part of the Park.

Near Gardiner there are relatively tame white water rafting trips that are great fun.

Don't know where you are planning to stay in Jackson, but we stayed at Teton Village - it is a series of condos - our had full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. Great for family. We spent one entire day driving thru GTNP looking for a moose to photograph and when we gave up and went back to condo there was a huge one eating the shrubbery outside our unit. (Also some half-brained people trying to touch it). There is also a ski tram there that runs in summer to top of mountain - said to be great view, but too foggy when we were there.

Try not to lose wallet in Jackson (as our son did) - makes checking in for return flight home difficult.

Have a good trip.

There are lots of attractions between Yellowstone and Glacier------in addition to the miles and miles of scenery there are the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, World Museum of Mining in Butte, the capitol building and museum in Helena, and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls. Any route you take will be scenic and interesting.

Check the Travel Montana website at http://visitmt.com/ for more information.

We stayed in some tiny cabins at the Rising Sun Motor Lodge at Glacier. They were very small but clean and quaint and we stayed only one night. I found them on the internet. We had a fun meal at the Two Dogs Mesquite Flat Grill nearby; buffalo burgers and local microbrewed Montana beers. We spent 2 nights total in Glacier; one at the cabins and one at Fish Creek campground. That was plenty of time. Allow more time for Yellowstone and points in between IMHO. ternstail gave you good tips; we loved both the Lewis & Clark center in Great Falls and the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.

We did Glacier last year stayed on the east side just outside the park at the Glacier Park Lodge in the Pinnacle Cottages. it was beautiful. I hear the lodge is up for sale. Anyway, Glacier is very remote. If you are not hikers then the main thing would be the going to the sun road. Absolutely do it with a tour. Also the Many glacier lodge area is beautiful. Also if you are going as high as glacier you can even cross over into canada to Waterton Park which is the other half of Glacier. very cute little town. Anyway, if you wanted more scenic variety then go to bryce because it will be a completely different experience.

Hi Rubigayle,
Thanks for the post! Since you've recently done Glacier, do you think that it's worth the trip from Yellowstone/Grand Teton to go there to see Glacier, or is the scenery not all that different from them? If it's not that much of a change in scenery, then I guess it would be a totally different experience adding the Bryce area to our Yellowstone/Grand Teton trip. Any thoughts?

When you get to glacier you will see beautiful mountains,lakes, lot of them.
If you don't hike then the main thing is the going to the sun road which is breathtaking. Worth driving for?Not in my opinion and the reason i say that is because you can raft in Tetons or surroundings. I would do glacier in the following way:
Fly into calgary canada, head to to Glacier about 3hours, Do about 3 days in glacier, move to waterton for a night or two then back up to calgary and over to canmore/banff Lake louse and Jasper if you are inclined. Finally i would fly out of edmonton becaust the Edmonton mall is like nothing you have ever seen.

I think that you will get enough mountains without Glacier and this will leave you time to explore other regions if you are so inclined.

I am going in September to Yellowstone and Tetons and this post helped me a lot as I was recently looking at Glacier since so many people mentioned it. Gail - it sounds like you are saying save that trip for a trip combiend with Canada - which is what I was thinking. Is that what you meant by your last post.

When you go up to Canada you should do the rail tours through the Canadian Rockies. They have one line that goes up to Jasper and another to Banff. They have lots of side trips on the stops along the way to keep you busy.

Also, here are some good lookup maps for Yellowstone and Glacier -

www.cccarto.com/wmaps/glacier/index.html
www.cccarto.com/wmaps/Yellowstone/index.html