Help... How much hiking to enjoy Glacier NP?

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

Anyone who has toured Waterton/Glacier NP, please view the photos of

http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dmm/page1_E...OCATION_ID=579

and inform me how much is seen without hiking.

Can one see Carthew or Crypt Lakes, Cameran Falls, Red Rock Canyon, Burnt Rock Falls, or Bertha Falls & Lake and the mountainous backdrops from driving the roadways?

Even by taking the Grand Circle tour, do you get to really see these from the bus or must one hike a lot to get these views?

[JoAnn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoAnn]

Robert, unfortunately we won't be back from that Grand Circle trip until mid-September, so I can't help you. We do have a friend who is on that trip right now and I may be able to find out something from her when she gets back next week. I do know that we are only there a couple of nights. We haven't received our 'official' itinerary yet. Hope someone else can give you some information.

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

Apparently this group doesn't share or few have traveled Glacier NP.
Thanks JoAnn.
I'll probably be in that area during your tour.

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

Glacier National Park info

I see they opened GOING TO THE SUN ROAD on Friday, June 23.
That will be great!

http://travel.mt.gov/whatsnew/roadsa.../gtts_info.htm

Added info:
http://www.nps.gov/glac/sunroad/GTSR2006FactSheet.pdf

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Robert, I haven't been to Glacier park so don't know the answer. If hiking is too much for your family or friends, you can always take a photo image tour and see the beautiful scenery right at your computer at home or rent a movie.

I search in the photo share web pages. Here are a few already:

http://search.pbase.com/search?q=gla...ch+Photos&c=sp

http://www.smugmug.com/search/index....rchType=global

http://photobucket.com/search/glacier%20park/

Many are professional photographers and my favorite photographer is here. This will be my way of traveling if we cannot hike anymore.

I would call the park headquarters and ask them that question and especially if the weather is iffy or if the lava is flowing in Hawaii or not.

We called Crater lake several times in one week and they stopped us from coming up because the weather was so misty that you couldn't see any vistas or the lake. Since my nephew wanted to go so badly, he made me stop at the junction where we had to go off to the park and call again and the ranger told us that it was clear. :-) Weather changes so quickly. The park was open that week-end for the first time and it was in July and there was still snow next to the road. We had no time to stop either but it was well worth driving through. Most parks are because a lot of people do not want to walk or hike.

PS. The Pbase search engine is not working now because I tried the link, but it worked fine earlier. They often have issues with their data base, I have noticed.

[itchyfeet Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close itchyfeet]

Can't speak to Waterton or Glacier Park in Canada, but GP in Montana has beautiful scenery visible from the highway. When we were there a couple of years ago, we missed Going to the Sun Road opening by two days! We kept hoping it would open before we left but no such luck. We stayed in Whitefish & took every road we could around & in the park. It is breathtakingly beautiful. We didn't get to see much wildlife but did see the mountain sheep(goats?) at the mineral lick. You have to use binoculars to see them well because they blend in so well with the background rocks.

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

Sorry that I didn't post an answer before, I thought from your previous post that you looking for info on the northern part of Glacier & Waterton up in Canada.
We were in Glacier last May, stayed at Glacier Wilderness Resort just 10 miles from the Western entrance. Going to Sun Road opened up the earliest it has last year, they finished the plowing and the road was open the day we got there. It also reclosed because of mud slides the day before we left to come home.
Going to Sun Road is a very senic ride that runs the width of the park West/East, about a 50 mile drive. The scenery from the road and the vistas is great.
The park is best experienced by getting out on the trails but the hikes can be as short or as long as you want. There are many short hikes anywhere from a mile or two to 5 or 6 miles that have great views of the park. There are also many much longer hikes. There are a couple of hikes (trails) that take off from the visitors center up at the top of Going to Sun Road that don't have a lot of elevation shifts because they are starting up pretty high.
I have some pics posted on Webshots at:
http://community.webshots.com/album/381993173SxRYsi?279
There are several other roads in and around the park that have some pretty nice views. Camas Road on West side is pretty good for seeing wildlife, deer, moose, and even bear. On the West side there are a couple of roads that lead to lakes where there is some very nice scenery and also can see some wildlife.
We are not what you would call hard core hikers, our longest hike while there was about 5 miles in, but we had a great time.

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

Ken, your pics were awesome. You have a great eye for photography. Some day I will make it there to take my own pics. shaggy

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

Ken, your pics were awesome. You have a great eye for photography. Some day I will make it there to take my own pics. shaggy

Shaggy, thanks for the kind words, but having a great subject like the park make it very easy. Glacier Park is incredibly beautiful as are many of the parks in the US and Canada.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Ken, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful photos with us. Only a very few of us can describe how beautiful our National Parks really are but a picture is worth a thousand words.

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

Can't speak to Waterton or Glacier Park in Canada, but GP in Montana has beautiful scenery visible from the highway. When we were there a couple of years ago, we missed Going to the Sun Road opening by two days! We kept hoping it would open before we left but no such luck. We stayed in Whitefish & took every road we could around & in the park. It is breathtakingly beautiful. We didn't get to see much wildlife but did see the mountain sheep(goats?) at the mineral lick. You have to use binoculars to see them well because they blend in so well with the background rocks.

Thanks itchy. That is incouraging. I hate going places where I've seen grand photos only to learn you need to scale the peaks to see those views.

[Laurie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Laurie]

Resort2me, which Glacier do you mean, Canada or Montana, US? And when are you thinking about going?

[djyamyam Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close djyamyam]

Can one see Carthew or Crypt Lakes, Cameran Falls, Red Rock Canyon, Burnt Rock Falls, or Bertha Falls & Lake and the mountainous backdrops from driving the roadways?

We explored Waterton two years ago and I had previously hiked a number of trails a few years before that.

The Crypt Lake and Carthew Summit / Alderson Lake hikes are amazing but moderately aggressive day hikes. Both are 5-7 hours over rocky and at times, steep switchbacks. You will not see these from the road.

Cameron Falls is in the townsite and can be driven to.

You can drive the Red Rock Parkway to see some nice rolling hills to the RR Canyon parking area. You can hike an easy .6 miles to one of the valley's best features, Blakiston Falls. Quite a few people will walk to the falls, which is a short climb through a forest which takes you above a gorge and look down at the falls.

The trailhead to get to Bertha Falls is near Cameron Falls. It's a 3 mile hike to get to lower Bertha Falls with some elevation gain. Upper Bertha Falls is another 3.8 miles with some steep elevation gain. We didn't get to do this hike as it was late in the season so the bears were more active just before hibernation and one bear in particular was frequenting this trail quite a bit. I would add that this is also a popular hike and has a number of people on it.

All these hikes on are the Canadian Waterton side of the border. As always, whether it be on the Waterton side or Glacier side, it's a national park with higher bear concentration. So be smart and nature conscious.

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

That's the way I felt about my pics of the Canadian Rockies. It does make it nice to have such a beautiful subject. shaggy

[djyamyam Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close djyamyam]

That's the way I felt about my pics of the Canadian Rockies. It does make it nice to have such a beautiful subject. shaggy

We're lucky as we live right there. Summer or winter, we're there enjoying the amazing terrain. Gives you a good reason to be active!