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Planning a Glacier NP trip soon?

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Yeeha! Stephen

Yeeha! Stephen

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FYI - New this year!
You have to have a park pass AND a Reservation/Ticket to get in and drive the Going to the Sun Highway.

Glacier National Park is instituting an online reservation system (ticketed entry) for the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor between the park’s West and St. Mary Entrances from May 28 to September 6, 2021.

https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gtsrticketedentry.htm

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At least you can still get in without taking a shuttle as in Zion.

SS
 
Yep, several parks have gone to the reservation system. Tough for the spur-of-the-moment road trips, but I would imagine it makes for a better park experience for those who do get in.
 
In reality the best thing that could possibly happen to the National Parks is to go to a 100% reservation/ticket system. We are loving the parks to death and the number of idiots continues to grow almost daily.

We fully understand the desire for spur of the moment trips. But there are a lot of specific examples in a number of parks where there are simply more people than there should be. And honestly a number of the people going to the parks in the past 18 months probably should never be allowed into the parks.

Glacier is late to the party with the reservation system. This should have been implemented 10 yrs ago. They debated it and allowed Washington DC influences to inhibit making it happen sooner. All you have to do is look at the parking lot at Logan's Pass visitors center around 9 AM between Memorial Day and Labor Day. And look at Zion almost 365 days a year. Arches has implemented a pretty good system for controlling visitors.

Reservations work really well for camping, why not for entrance to the park.

Don't get a National Park Geek started cause I won't shut up :trust:
 
drfood said:
In reality the best thing that could possibly happen to the National Parks is to go to a 100% reservation/ticket system. We are loving the parks to death and the number of idiots continues to grow almost daily.

We fully understand the desire for spur of the moment trips. But there are a lot of specific examples in a number of parks where there are simply more people than there should be. And honestly a number of the people going to the parks in the past 18 months probably should never be allowed into the parks.

Glacier is late to the party with the reservation system. This should have been implemented 10 yrs ago. They debated it and allowed Washington DC influences to inhibit making it happen sooner. All you have to do is look at the parking lot at Logan's Pass visitors center around 9 AM between Memorial Day and Labor Day. And look at Zion almost 365 days a year. Arches has implemented a pretty good system for controlling visitors.

Reservations work really well for camping, why not for entrance to the park.

Don't get a National Park Geek started cause I won't shut up :trust:
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Im on the other side of this. I hate reservations because i never plan anything more than a day or two ahead. A reservation to a road like that one just assures the fact ill never be able to enjoy the experience. To have to stick to a schedule completely takes the enjoyment out of riding and camping the back country for me.
 
I understand that there are those who hate reservations. BUT in the past few years place like Glacier, Yellowstone, Arches, Zion, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, Yosemite, Big Bend....etc have experiences exploding visitor numbers. You can't simply say oh let's keep the park open and then the roads turn into parking lots. No one can enjoy them at that point.

I spend 6-9 months planning vacations when we take the motorcycles just so we can make sure to get campsites in National Parks. We plan around festivals and other events.

I guess it's the old German grumpy old man genes I inherited from my dad.

The bottomline is....the parks are extremely underfunded. The parks are extremely understaffed. The parks are about 20 years behind on maintenance and upkeep. We can't keep stuffing more people into them with things the way they are.
 
Tim Scholz said:
To have to stick to a schedule completely takes the enjoyment out of riding and camping the back country for me.
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One of these days I'll learn this enjoyment. I'm one of those folks that if there isn't a plan and reservations, the fun goes away because I'm a nervous ball of anxiety.
 
Glacier NP is stunning. Whatever hoops they make you jump through are worth it. Just do it.
 
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Leaving Saturday for glacier got our permits . Rv pulling trailer with 3 Harleys. Staying in Coram rv park. When making reservations lady said not to worry if we didn’t get permits they were ways to bypass. For what it’s worth.
 
The best thing that could happen to our nation parks would be to do away with free passes, cheap camping and full refunds for canceling a camping reservation. People that live close to parks make reservations just in case family or friends come visiting. Nobody comes-they cancel for a full refund. The parks are hurting for money, make everyone pay their fair share. I spent two nights in the campground at the north rim of the Grand Canyon for $7.50/ night. I spent one night in a private campground just outside the entrance gate for $40.00. The one inside the park was walking distance to the canyon rim and had showers available. The private one had a fire pit and a table. I have three LIFETIME passes to national parks and national monuments. One of them cost me $10. In the last year, I traveled 16,000 miles, not counting flight miles to Hawaii, and I visited 17 national parks at a cost of $80.00 for park entrance fees. I only paid $80.00 because I started feeling bad for getting free entry and bought an annual pass.
 
gixxerjasen said:
One of these days I'll learn this enjoyment. I'm one of those folks that if there isn't a plan and reservations, the fun goes away because I'm a nervous ball of anxiety.
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Jasen, I'm leaving on July 22nd for an extended trip. I think I'm going to Canada or Oregon or California. I think it will be an epic trip. I don't have any reservations or even a planned route, but I would like to see Devils Tower, The Racetrack, Big Sur and Sequoia, some gold roads on Butler maps and maybe some nice roads and scenery recommended by locals. Wanna join me? :-P :-P
 
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