We would like to come out the end of August or the beginning of September.  At this time there are still passes available for Going to the Sun Road.

We are not hikers.  We'll go for short walks to see something but these walks don't involve "climbing" or the risk of falling to our deaths.  Just trying to set some expectations.

We do a lot of driving.  For some reason, my wife wants to fly out this time instead of spending 3 days driving out.  We've driven to WY and SD multiple times already.

Here are my questions:
1. For the type of sightseeing we do, which again is mostly driving around, how many days would you spend at the park?  I figure one day to drive out and back on Going to the Sun Road.  What other things should we do there?  Would three nights be enough?  Kind of what I am thinking right now.  It gives us 2 full days to do park stuff.

2. Which airport should we fly into?  Missoula?  We would be leaving from Detroit.  I can check rates for different airports just wondering if there would be a preference.

3. Where's a good place to stay?  I think the various hotel like places in the park are all booked.  I was looking at non-chain places.  My wife suggested the Hampton Inn in Whitefish.  I really don't care.  Any cool places that aren't crazy expensive?

That's all I can think of right now.

Thanks.

Closest airport is FCA (Kalispell). I would do a day or two “in” the park while definitely hitting Logan Pass. Many Glacier is a smaller area but also pretty cool with easy hikes.

Outside the park the Hungry Horse Dam is a great sight to see and Jewel Basin can be pretty cool.

Thanks.

The east side of the park has some excellent views (my preferred side), and some nice drives that can be done…Two Medicine Lake, Swiftcurrent, St. Marys.  There was a good steak house in Babb up to a few years ago…can’t swear to it now.

The north fork is a nice drive as well; Bowman and kintla lake are easy to access, and the town of Polebridge is cool.  There is a little bar/ grill and the mercantile has good baked goods and sandwiches.

I don’t know too much about the lodging.  If you stay in Columbia Falls, the cedar creek lodge seems nice and is pretty new: close to downtown for walking to food etc.  might be a bit cheaper than whitefish.  WF is where the rich folk live; cfalls used to be more of a blue collar mill town…it’s getting gentrified, but is still better than WF in my opinion.

If you need fuel on the east side, get it in East Glacier…Browning is pretty third world.

FCA is likely your best bet for airport.

Whenever family comes to visit I like to take them up Going to the Sun Road after 5-6 pm so we can catch the sunset from the top of the pass. Very pretty and not super crowded, also the animals are really active then.
Untitled by Frisky Dillo, on Flickr
Untitled by Frisky Dillo, on Flickr
Untitled by Frisky Dillo, on Flickr
Untitled by Frisky Dillo, on Flickr

Might be too late but quite honestly I say skip it and head to the bitterroot. I was pretty underwhelmed with Glacier and kalispel was crap as well.

Not too late.

If we go before Sept 8, which has been the plan, we can only get a pass for Going to the Sun Road.

Starting to think we just drive through and head somewhere else in MT.

Maybe make a loop of some sort based on what there is to see.

Thanks for the input.

East side is the prettiest.

Good to know.

Just got back from MT on Tuesday and figured I would let you guys know what we did.  I'll post pics in the pic thread and leave a link here later (pic link).  I'm sure most of you have seen everything we saw.

Flew into Kalispell on Tuesday the 10th.  We stayed at the Best Western there.  It was fine.

Had dinner at Nickel Charlie's.  We didn't really want to eat anything big for dinner that day.  Food there was fine.

My wife was eligible for a senior lifetime National Park pass so we bought one.  Drove to Logan Pass after dinner.  Saw a couple of big horn sheep at the pull-off just west of Logan's Pass.  They were basically right up at the sidewalk.  There were a couple of black bears off in the distance behind the visitor centor at the pass.

Wednesday: Went to Hungry Horse Dam.  That was cool.  worth the visit.  Next, drove up to Polebridge.  Had lunch at the little restaurant there.  Food was ok.  Pretty sure I wouldn't recommend this side trip.  Just not interesting enough.  Stopped in downtown Whitefish on the way back and wandered around a little.  Dinner was at Casa Mexico in Kalispell.  It was really good.  Drove around a little after dinner.  Drove through the Silverbrook subdivision.  Wife was guessing houses were around $400k.  I was thinking $500-700k.  Looked them up and they were $700k to over a million.  That's crazy.

Thursday: Drove through the park and had lunch at the Curly Bear Cafe in St. Mary.  After lunch, drove to Many Glacier.  Saw Salamander Glacier and Grinnell Glacier.  They are pretty small.  I don't think they will be around much longer.  Drove to East Glacier and stayed at the Glacier Park Lodge.  Lodge was amazing.  Rooms were pretty sparse.  Bathrooms were about 2 sq ft bigger than one you would find in a travel trailer.  At least there was a bathroom in the room.  These were added years ago.  We took the one hour walking tour and learned a lot about the lodge.  Had a nice dinner at their restaurant.

Friday: Breakfast buffet at the Lodge's restaurant.  It included huckleberry pancakes.  Tasty.  Left for Helena after breakfast.  Took two lane roads the whole way there.  We didn't use any interstate highways at all on this trip.  Had lunch at Windbag Saloon and Grill.  Fish and Chips were the special of the day.  Would recommend.  After lunch, went to the Original Governor's Mansion and took the tour.  It was worth doing.  Then we went to the State Capitol and wandered around.  Very cool building.  We like going to them in different states if they are near where we are going.  For dinner, we went to a sub shop - Stefano's U Bake.  Pastrami was delicious.

Saturday: Drove to Missoula.  Lucky for us, we drove by the stadium as everyone was getting there for a football game.  Traffic wasn't too bad.  A lot less than what it typically is near U of M.  Had lunch at Cucina Florabella.  Just got a pizza which happened to be a bit smaller than the cashier estimated.  Went to the Heritage Museum at Fort Missoula.  That was interesting and I would recommend it.  Cracker Barrel for dinner.  We always go once when on vacation.

Sunday: Headed back to Kalispell.  Stopped at the CSKT Bison Range.  Took the long route through the park.  Saw a black bear, elk, and bison.  Betty's Cafe for lunch in Polson.  Nice little diner type restaurant.  Went to Whitefish around dinner time for more wandering.  Ate at Blackstar Brew Pub.  Would not recommend for dinner.  We don't drink so can't say anything about that.  After dinner headed back to Logan's Pass on a quest for more animal sighting.  Saw a black bear and her two cubs in a tree right along the road eating away.  Pretty cool to see them up close.  I told the two guys next to me that these were the decoy bears for the big ones sneaking up behind us.  They turned pretty quickly to look.  I thought it was funny.

Monday: Took a ride around the north and west sides of the Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuge.  The roads through the middle of the park are closed from Sept 1 until sometime in December.  Didn't see any wildlife taking refuge.  Getting out the west side of the part back to US 2 was a little dicey.  I had downloaded the maps for this area and the area around Glacier.  GPS sent us down one road/trail that ended about 1/4 mile after we started.  Ended up just staying on the road we were previously on (Pleasant Valley Rd) and made our way out.  Made it to Libby around lunch time and ate at Antlers.  Also a pretty good place for a quick lunch.  After lunch, drove to the Libby Dam visitor center.  Worth the stop.  Continued up to Eureka and then back to Kalispell.  Dinner at MacKenzie River Pizza, Grill & Pub.  Thin crust pepperoni pizza was good.

Tuesday: Flew home.

After the night at the lodge, we stayed at three different Holiday Inn Express'.

We got our rental car through Budget.  They were the only ones that didn't have a mileage limit.  She asked if I was ok with a Santa Fe.  I asked what else they had.  A Yukon Denali was offered.  I took it.  She said it was about $20 more per day.  I didn't care.  It was the XL version.  Such a comfortable road trip vehicle.  We averaged 20 mpg over 1390 miles.

Weather was nice the day we flew in.  The rest of the time it was cloudy and sometimes foggy and temps were 50s to low 60s.

You may have noticed a lot of restaurants were mentioned above.  One afternoon around dinner time, I asked my wife if she was ready to get something to eat.  She said she couldn't believe I was hungry.  My reply, "Man does not live by lunch alone."  We got something to eat.

We had a good time.