The long road to Glacier

After a quick lunch in Mammoth Hot Springs, we hit the road north, leaving behind both Yellowstone and Wyoming for Montana’s Big Sky Country. We took US-89 out of the park, traveled west a bit on I-90, and then headed the rest of the way north on US-287—a drive I cannot recommend enough, especially the part after it overlaps with I-15. There is nothing around, except the Rocky Mountains to the west, Canada to the north, and rolling fields of the Great Plains all around. For hours. Soul cleansing stuff.

Map showing our route from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park

Our goal for the day was to reach Browning, Montana, the largest city near the east entrance of Glacier National Park. It’s located within the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Upon arrival we discovered that there was not much happening in the way of hotels or restaurants, so we continued up the road to St. Mary, located right at the entrance to the park. We stopped at a nice lodge with a restaurant and got a room for Thursday and Friday night.

A woman in the gift shop informed us that the Going-To-The-Sun road through the park was not yet open, a chunk in the middle was partly destroyed due to a major avalanche during the winter, and another part was still being plowed. But she encouraged us to drive into the park up until the road was closed, about 12 miles, as the animals like to come out before dusk. We’d been driving all day, but since the sun wouldn’t be setting until after 10pm, we figured, why not. We drove into the park, didn’t see any animals, and drove back to the lodge for a late dinner.

Leaving Yellowstone
Leaving Yellowstone
US-89 just north of Yellowstone
US-89 just north of Yellowstone
US-287 on the way to Glacier National Park
US-287 on the way to Glacier National Park
First view of Glacier National Park along the road to St. Mary
First view of Glacier National Park along the road to St. Mary

6 Comments

Csg

Man, your trip is like a greatest-hits of my dad’s design career. And the travelogue of my childhood. My dad is a civil engineer specializing in slope stabilization in alpine terrain. Many of the bridge abuttments and retaining walls you’ve driven past on this trip are his projects. Hopefully you didn’t notice any of them.

Ha! Your previous comment makes more sense now. I just love the idea of a “bridge abutment greatest hits” album. Well, I can say that the drive was an absolute pleasure. Thanks CSG’s dad for helping making it possible.

matt

hello- your trip looked unbelievable! we will be doing a similar trip in a few weeks as we are staying in Big Sky. How long of a drive was it approx. from say Bozeman to YNP? thanks!

Matt, thanks! Since we were heading in the opposite direction, it was about an hour from Mammoth Hot Springs to I-90, and probably half an hour on I-90 to Bozeman. That said, I would give yourself about 2 hours.

Jim

Do you remember the number of hours and number of miles it was from Yellowstone to glacier?

Jim, we left Mammoth Hot Springs after lunch, and arrived in St Mary in the early evening. Google Maps says the route we took should take about 7 hours.

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