Montana- what are must see places?
 

My husband and I are thinking about spending our anniversary in Montana the last week of July. We would be flying in from Atlanta and probably only would have about 5-6 days total. We have never been but would love to do a national park and stay in a romantic lodge/ranch type place. I realize that the national parks are incredibly crowded and many hotels might already be booked, but wanted to see if anyone had recommendations on itineraries.

Should we fly to Missoula and travel to Glacier National Park? Or would it make more sense to go to Bozeman and do Yellowstone? Are there any awesome ranches or places to stay anywhere rural in Montana? We love the outdoors and driving on scenic road trips, hiking, horseback riding, biking, etc. We are in our 20's and don't mind moving around a lot if it means we can see more! We have heard such wonderful things about Montana and would love to get a taste of its authentic beauty. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Oh, cmcfong knows the perfect place! I'll send her over here.

I adore Montana and there are dozens of places to choose from. If you COULD get a reservation in Yellowstone or Glacier that would be good. My favorite in Grand Tetons is Jackson Lake lodge, Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone (get a geyser view room if you can) and about three I'd choose from in Glacier. If you do Yellowstone/Grand Teton, fly into Jackson, WY and if you do Glacier, fly into Kalispell. If you stay elsewhere in Montana, see what flights are available for Billings.

Off to page cmcfong.

Thank you, Starrs!!! I highly recommend Blue Sky Cabins near Red Lodge, MT
http://www.blueskycabins.com
It was one of the most romantic and wonderful holidays we ever took. Check out my trip report for other ideas
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...us-montana.cfm
Happy travels!

Two excellent guest ranches in my neck of the woods are:
WWW.flatheadlakelodge.com
WWW.thebarw.com

Glacier National Park is amazing and I agree that it would be best (although perhaps pricier) to fly into Kalispell.

While the Many Glacier Lodge in GNP may appear to be a "romantic" place to stay, I can't recommend it at all. These historic lodges don't have much in the way of soundproofing and we could hear everything going on outside of our room all night long. I'd recommend going there to enjoy the lobby area and the patio overlooking the lake, but just don't spend the night there.

I haven't been to Glacier yet, but IMHO, Yellowstone is always going to be an awesome trip. The hard part will be getting lodging in/near either park i would guess. Maybe look for lodging then make the decision.

DW and I spent our 30th at the Meadow Lake Resort near Columbia Falls. We had a nice condo with a hot tub in the room. The resort is within a golf course. We arrived in Whitefish on the Empire Builder and were picked up by the van from Meadow Lake.
We had a rental car delivered from the Kalispell airport.
We drove up to Lake McDonald and as far east on US 2 as Marias Pass.
Yellowstone has many more visitors than Glacier.

TOMFULLER: Do you have stock in Meadow Lake and Amtrak:)

No John, Here are the choices in the Glacier area:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...s_Montana.html
Neither Amtrak or Meadow Lake Resort are publicly traded companies.
Next month I am traveling 5631 miles on 4 Amtrak trains.
I cashed in 40K Amtrak Guest Rewards points to ride in Roomettes. My points purchases have cost me about $800 over the last 2 years.
I'm earning quite a few AGR points on my car rental from Galesburg, IL.
I will file a trip report in early April.

Glacier National Park is a special place and a hiker's paradise and my favorite national park. The Going to the Sun Road is also one of the most scenic drives in the country.

I complete agree with longhorn55 above regarding the Many Glacier Hotel. The setting is spectacular and romantic, but the rooms have thin walls!

If you like whitewater rafting, check out Great Northern Resort:

http://greatnorthernresort.com/

The park offers horseback riding, although I've never tried it, but my niece did and loved it. They take guided rides up to Sperry Chalet on the west side of the park - some folks stay overnight and some just enjoy a great lunch and then ride back down.

http://www.sperrychalet.com/

The hiking is awesome and you won't lack for trails to pick from. The highline Trail, Hidden Lake Overlook, Iceberg Lake and Grinnell Glacier are some of the top hikes and also some of the most popular.

http://www.hikinginglacier.com/glaci...-ten-hikes.htm

tomfuller: we have never taken the Amtrack into Glacier but it is on our bucket list!

Let me go in a different direction.

Ignore the west side of Glacier NP.

If you're interested in some hiking, spectacular scenery and seeing wildlife concentrate on the Many Glacier area. Maybe a day in the Rising Sun area so that you can hike Hidden Lake Overlook and maybe part of Highline. Both are at Logan Pass.

Back to Many Glacier. Spectacular scenery on the Iceberg Lake hike and Grinnell Glacier.

For wildlife just drive along the main road ib Many Glacier and good chance of seeing grizzlies.
Go to Fishercap Lake (a 10 minute walk from the end of the Swiftcurrent Inn parking lot) late in the afternoon and stand around talking to others waiting for deer and moose to come down for dinner.

Where would I fly into? Calgary. Yes, a different country so ignored by most in this country. Calgary has a real airport and it's 3 1/2 hours of straight, level driving from the airport to Swiftcurrent Motor Inn.

And if you have a morning flight out you can stay at the Delta Hotel directly in the airport across the street from the terminal.

Oh yes. And if you can stretch out a little and do 2 days in Banff and Jasper to use as a teaser for your next trip, that's 1 1/2 hours from Calgary.

On my second trip to Glacier we spent 6 days there and drove to Banff and Jasper for a very tightly planned 2 days and it got me to go back again.

Glacier has spectacular scenery but in many cases you have to work a bit for it in the form of hikes.

Banff and Jasper have a lot of roadside scenery.

You can see photos of my trips to these places at: www.travelwalks.com

And I forgot to mention. There's a Walmart Supercenter a couple of minutes south of the airport directly on the route to the border and Glacier. The only things you cannot bring across the border are citrus and raw meat.

My husband and I are also planning a trip to this area the end of August. We are staying at a resort outside of Lethbridge, Alberta and are planning to go both directions- Banff and Glacier.
I had hoped to use AA miles and fly into Calgary but not having much luck. So this post was intriguing and I am now considering driving or train. We live in the Chicago area and I don't know anything about the train. Any thoughts on train or car travel (scenic route?)would be appreciated! Thanks!

bwg - you do not want to take Amtrak from Chicago. The route through North Dakota has consistent delays due to all freight trains going to/from the oilfields. You're better off flying somewhere close and then driving the rest of the way.

In this case I do agree with WhereAreWe. The way that a train trip would work on the Empire Builder route would be to fly to Spokane and taxi to the Amtrak station. The eastbound Empire Builder has a good record as far as Whitefish MT.
Train #8 leaves Spokane at 1:30AM PT every morning. It arrives in Whitefish about 5 hours later (7:30AM MT). You can rent a car in Whitefish. You might have to wait until 9AM.
I did enjoy a few daylight hours in Spokane revisiting the grounds of the World's Fair I visited decades ago.

thank you! much appreciated

If you are going to Glacier and you're from Atlanta, check Delta. They had non stop flights last summer from Atlanta to Kalispell.

I like Myer's suggestion of flying into Calgary a lot. It also gives you the option of visiting Waterton Lakes on the way down. You will need a rental car that you can take across the border, not a problem as long as you bring it back:-)

bwg, there is no train scenery from Chicago until you get to Calgary, at least not the kind of scenery most of us think of. The Good Stuff starts after Calgary/Jasper. Any route involving the Eastbound Empire Builder goes through the Good Stuff in the dark according to tom fuller's schedule. I am trying to figure out why that would be a good idea.

We went to Glacier at about the same time you are going. It was not crowded except on the Going-to-the-Sun highway, which was bumper to bumper. We flew into Missoula through Salt Lake on Delta, making a nice loop by car through attractive scenery over the course of a week: as far east as the Blackfoot Reservation, as far north as Waterton Lakes, as far west as Whitefish. I can give details if you are interested.

Sure Ackislander! I'd love any details, help available.
Myer-I looked at your Glacier pictures from 2013-beautiful! what month was this? and how close did you get to the grizzlies?:)

I've been to Glacier NP twice (and would go back again).

Both times it was in very early August. The first time, even thought temperature were in the mid-80s, we could complete Grinnell Glacier due to dangerous snow fields.

About bears.

On the 2013 trip I was with a friend. We saw black bears in Jasper several times but only one grizzly in Glacier (if I remember correctly). We were leaving Many Glacier for Rising Sun and saw some cars on the side of the road.

There was a silver grizzly about 25 yards in the bushes eating berried and not paying attention to us on the edge of the road. I took about 85 photos. Most get deleted since the bears hear is down in the bushes.

When I got home I looked more carefully. Look at #34. The grizzly's paw is on a bush and the claws are fully visible.

If you look at the 2012 trip that I took with my daughter you'll see some real close ups of a grizzly. We were on the return from Iceberg Lake and suddenly saw a grizzly walking in the bushes right beside us. We took some photos and then I yelled at the bear to make sure it knew we were there. Instead of running away the bear walk onto our trail right in front of us. He took a few steps and sat down in a little stream crossing the trail. We had no place to go as people were coming up behind us and the bear was in front.

He bathed for about 20 minutes while we photographed him and then got up and ran away.

That bear was very close to us.

In general, bears are shy and don't want to have anything to do with us. All they want is to eat berries. They're very protective of their cubs (look at the photos of a black bear and her cubs in Jasper near the end) and don't like to be surprised. Still, they're wild animals.

Back to your trip.

There's a Walmart Supercenter just below Calgary airport just off the highway going south to the border.

You can bring just about anything across the border except citrus and raw meat. In fact, my daughter bought some citrus (I didn't realize she did) and the border officer smiled and told her not to sell it.