Glacier National Park

itinerary map

Table of Contents

  • 20 days
  • 2020 Fall

What was originally supposed to be a trip to three national parks (Glacier National Park in the USA and Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada) ended up being just a road trip to Glacier, since the Canadian border was closed due to COVID-19. It was still a great trip and well worth the drive across the plains. Which hey, have the badlands, so that was fun too. We stopped at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We’ll just have to go back and hit the Canadian parks someday.

Food & Beverage $30 per day

Average per person per day. We bought breakfast and lunch at the grocery store and ate dinners out. Includes adult beverages.

Lodging $61-$122 per night

Grand Forks was least expensive; Medora the most expensive.

Transportation $383

Gas for our vehicle. We drove 4900 miles at 30 MPG average.

Entertainment $90

We purchased a lifetime senior national park pass.

Days 1-2: Michigan to Minnesota

The Plan: Drive north through Michigan’s upper peninsula then across the northern USA.

The Reality: We started from the family cottage in northern Michigan to shorten the drive the following day. 

Days 3-4: Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit)

The Plan: We plan on spending two nights in Medora to check out Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  

The Reality: The plan worked well. While we had long days of driving they were bearable. The national park had just enough stuff to keep us interested for a day and Medora was a surprisingly cute little tourist town to wander around in. 

Related Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 5-12: Glacier National Park

The Plan: Spend three nights on the east side of the park and five nights on the west side. IF the east side of the park isn’t closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.  

The Reality:  The east side was closed, so we spent all eight nights on the west side. Because the east side was closed we were also unable to visit the Many Glacier and Two Medicine areas, which was disappointing. We enjoyed ourselves, though we probably could have covered what we did in five days. It was nice having extra time to work around smoke from wildfires and rain.

  • Hiking:
    • Avalanche Lake
    • Highline
    • St Mary waterfalls
    • Hidden Lake Overlook
  • Sightseeing in the park
  • Day trip to Whitefish +

Related Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 13-14: Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Unit)

The Plan: Drive back through the northern USA, stopping at the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The Reality: The national park proved a good stopping point on the way back, too.

Related Posts: The first post describes daily activities and the destination. Other posts cover anything that generated lots of photos!

Days 15-20: North Dakota to Michigan

The Plan:

Drive back through the northern USA, again by way of Michigan’s upper peninsula, stopping at the Lake Superior coast in Minnesota and Marquette.

The Reality: We hit rain and fog along the Lake Superior coast in Minnesota and Michigan but that’s not uncommon. We just did a little less hiking. There weren’t any reasonably priced lodgings in Grand Marais so we stayed down the coast. 

  • Hiking at High Falls of the Pigeon River
  • Cascade River and Temperance River state parks
  • Scenic route through Wisconsin
  • Presque Isle Park

Resources

  • The Glacier National Park website was a key resource both for planning the trip and for planning daily activities while we were there. Weather and parking can both influence those.
  • Hiking in Glacier.com was a great resource for hiking information. It categorizes hikes by difficulty, location, and features and lists recommended hikes. It also had helpful information on accommodations.
  • The Theodore Roosevelt National Park website is a good source of information about this lesser known (at least to us) park.

Christmas Ornament

We buy “Christmas ornaments” on each trip. (They aren’t always ornaments.) We bought this bison medallion for the trip because we saw bison all along the way.