witravelmom

Hello!
We are planning a two week venture to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier in June/July 2020. We will leave June 20th and return July 4th. We will be traveling from Wisconsin and driving. We are planning to do camping and we are a family that is very comfortable camping with all the supplies needed. While we would love more solitude and privacy camping we will be securing reservable campsites so we are not wasting time trying to get the first come and first come sites. At the same time on our drives out and in we will be using hotels. We will be two adults and two children ages 10 and 7 at the time.

Here is our tenative plan:

June 20th-Head as far as we can in South Dakota. We did South Dakota two years ago so will make this our long drive day. (Hotel)
June 21st-Cody, WY with a stop at Devil's Tower, We would like to spend the evening in Cody and see a rodeo. (Hotel)
June 22nd-June 24th Stay in Canyon campground in Yellowstone. in our 3 days in this area we will try and see the top loop (Mammoth, Canyon, Norris, Twoer-Roosevelt and Lake Yellowstone.
June 25th-26th-Stay at Colter tent cabins in Grand Teton. We will have two days here and think a float ride andboat/ride hike to Jenny Lake will be on the agenda. Along with other site seeing.
June 27th-28th-we will head back to Yellowstone and will stay at Madison Campground. We will do the lower loop West Thumb, Old Faithful and Norris area.
June 29th-July 2nd will include travel and staying in Glacier. We are thinking of staying on the west side of Glacier for the first two nights and then will stay on East side of Glacier. We know that there is a possibility that the Going to the Sun Road may still be closed, but hoping it will be open since we are doing this at the end of our trip. I am looking for advice on any sites/hikes that you would recommend we see with two kids in Glacier. I would love to see the Grinnell Glacier but not sure even with the boat ride that my youngest will be able to do the hike. Any advice on how to see what we can see by Many Glaciers if we don't do the Grinnell Glacier. The campsites are not reservable until 6 months prior so not able to reserve until later in the year.
July 3rd-4th This will be very long days of driving home to Wisconsin through North Dakota. We lived in North Dakota for several years and understand the long drive. I would like to stop at have the kids see Theodore Roosevelt National Park and spend a few hours here on our drive home.

Any suggestions of how we have laid out and if you would suggest any other order of doing the things that we would like to do. Both my husband and I have been to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons about 15 years ago. Since we saw a lot with our 5 days in Yellowstone and 2 days in Grand Teton we will be more go with the flow and let the kids have some time to relax and do more kid friendly sites. We would maybe consider taking Grand Teton off the list o

Do you have any suggestions on our way to Glacier in terms of route and any stops to be see on the way?

We are also open to hearing about any must do attractions with kids and places to eat. We will be doing a lot of picnics, eating at campsites, but want to mix that up with places to eat that the kids may enjoy.

Michael

On the way to Glacier you might want to stop in Garnet, a ghost town. When we camped on the east side of Glacier, we were enclosed by a chain-link fence as a bear protection. On the west side, no reservation for the Bowm,an Lake campground at the end of a rough dead-end road on the west side. But there are bear warnings close to the campground.

kureiff

Stops between Yellowstone and Glacier:

Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. Fantastic dinosaur exhibits.
Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. Two hour through beautifully decorated caves.
Carousel in Missoula is a fun stop for kids or the carousel in Helena. Big Dipper ice cream in either Helena or Missoula.

Patty

For a shorter hike in the Many Glacier area https://hike734.com/hiking/fishercap...redrock-falls/ Along the GTTS road, I'd look at Hidden Lake Overlook and St Mary & Virginia Falls. On the west side, maybe Avalanche Lake.

tomfuller

After that many days of camping in Yellowstone, you might want to spend one night at a condo or room at the Meadow Lake Resort in Columbia Falls MT. The resort is not too far from the west entrance of Glacier.
Expect to see some snow at the top of Logan Pass on the GTTS road. There is a museum of the Plains Indians on the west end of Browning.
On the way through South Dakota, you night enjoy the Corn Palace in Mitchell.

witravelmom

Thank you! I am loving all the ideas that we can do on the way to some destinations to break up the trip. These are some great ideas and makes me want to add more time. I think @tomfuller that spending some time in a resort will be nice to break up the trip and camping a bit.

Do you feel that I have given our family enough time in the national parks?

Myer

I've been to Glacier a couple of times. In my opinion the place to be is on the east side. The weather is better, the scenery is better, the hikes are better and the chances of seeing wildlife is better. In fact Many Glacier area is "wildlife Central".

Hidden Lake, St May and Virginia Falls are pretty good options. Hidden Lake trail starts right behind the visitors' center. There's also a good chance on seeing mountain goats near the start or near the lake.

In Many Glacier Grinnel Glacier is not as long as Iceberg Lake but I would definitely do Iceberg Lake.

Iceberg Lake is slightly uphill at the start but then is pretty easy the rest of the way. The scenery is spectacular. Iceberg Lake at the end is in a great setting to sit around and have some lunch.

Grinnel Glacier is quite a bit steeper and a tougher hike. And unless they have redone the part where you walk under a small waterfall this is a dangerous hike. That small waterfall is running water over the rocks below and they are very slippery. I was there on a ranger hike and we could see that waterfall spot across the valley. Somebody over there started to blow a whistle and our ranger took off. We continued as a group, went thru the waterfall with great care and went on. On the way back we saw a helicopter leaving. Apparently the person who slipped off the rocks below the falls was airlifted.

I've done the Iceberg lake twice. Once with my daughter and a year later with a friend.

I don't know what your interests are but if photography and/or wildlife are of interest then Many Glacier is the place to be.

The hike to Redrock Falls is pretty short and nice and also passes Fishercap Lake. Hopefully they've put a sign up telling you where Redrock Falls are.

Fishercap Lake deserves a writeup on its own. It's a 10 minute walk from the end of the parking lot at Swiftcurrent Motor Inn It's less than 2 minutes off the trail to several places Redrock Falls included.. That lake is quite unique. It's very shallow so deer and moose have no problem walking across and getting food off the bottom. Go any day early in the morning or late in the afternoon and there's a good chance of seeing wildlife at the lake.

Many Glacier is not only wildlife central but grizzly country. So you want to take normal precautions like making sure anywhere you go puts you in a group if make noise (and not with bells attached which are jokingly referred to as dinner bells) along trails. If you do decide to carry bear spray don't carry it in a backpack. It should be on your belt.

If you want to see some of my photos of these places you can go to:

TravelWalks.com

and go to trips in Montana and Wyoming (Yellowstone)

Those are great places.

witravelmom

ruwithme

Our family absolutely love GTNP!

For an exciting trip up the mountain and possibly breakfast, lunch or a snack check out https://www.jacksonhole.com/waffles.html