Glacier National Park Chat

Paul, The park is reconstructing GTTSR along Lake McDonald this year. The road will be closed before 6am. Apparently they aren’t going to let anyone through the West Entrance before then. There will also be several bridge replacements on the West side. Sounds like a good year to stay on the East side.

I often backpack into the Belly River around the July 4 weekend. The tunnel is never open then but often is scheduled for several days later so around the end of the first week of July. I haven't been following the snowpack this year but if it is higher than normal that would tend to push opening to...

Scott, Thanks. If and when I see an opening at GAB or COS I will use your instructions to add it. Doing an addition should be less dangerous than deleting something that already exists and then adding something different back. In the meantime I am going to enjoy just having managed to reserve a reas...

Paul & tibber, Yeah, I would definitely like to add another day. I could add COS instead of GAB which would increase the probabilities a bit. I will keep checking rec.gov too. People will change plans and at least some will cancel reservations which should lead to additional reservable openings ...

I made a few mistakes but in the end I got more or less what I wanted. I clicked Book Now on the first itinerary and the button changed properly but nothing else happened. It took me a bit to realize that there was an error message above the itinerary. I had the window sized so I couldn't see it. I ...

Zozeppelin,

So as luck would have it, SLI to GAB is part of my itinerary. So maybe I should plan on GAB - GAB and then change it later? Otherwise on D day I might spend extra time dealing with that. That is what you are suggesting, right?

Orin

So in addition to watching the video, I logged into rec.gov and went to the North Cascades Backcountry Permit page. After looking at the Youtube video and visiting the page you get a good idea of how the selection process will work for Glacier. As near as I can tell you want to be logged in to rec.g...

I agree that it would be a good idea but for whatever reason it has not yet been been set up. You can come close to that in a couple of places on the east side. The Saint Mary visitor center is outside the permit zone so you could park there just within the park boundary and catch the GTTSR shuttle ...

I did an out and back to gpc from Many one year before the Highline was open. I no longer remember the date or what kind of a snow year it was but it is possible. There was some snow in the pass but it was above the steep switchbacks and not dangerous. Time will tell whether I can do that in late Ju...

Paul,

The link to the NPS page above says that 30 5-8 slots and 5 9-12 slots will be available in the lottery. So while I agree with your conclusion that it is not a fair policy, the effects will be limited by the low numbers.

orin

Maybe NPS could add a rule that unless a reservation is either cancelled or picked up the applicant would become ineligible to apply for NPS permits for the next year or two. Obviously some would not care and others might find a way around but at least it would make a point.

Congrats on the reservation. My favorite route is Logan to Granite to Many Glacier. But this year I'm going early and it is quite likely that GTTSR and the Highline won't be open yet. So I will probably need to do an out and back from the Loop. Which is fine with me as I've done all the routes befor...

You don't need an entry ticket on the day of your lodging reservations. You will be able to enter either end of gttsr for Granite. I think you could also enter at Many for Granite if you were hiking in that way. I'm not sure if you could get into Many with a Sperry reservation or Two Medicine with a...

Well, surprisingly, in spite of being 1800 th in line, I already have a confirmed reservation. It probably helped that I asked for the first two nights that Granite is open. With a little luck I won't need snowshoes to get there. Good luck to everyone else.

I did the same thing but you managed to get in 700 requests ahead of me.