I am tired of surfing the web for ideas. So I thought I would ask the great people of IDO.
We are taking the family to Glacier National Park and possibly Yellowstone this summer. I am looking for some ideas of places to stop and do some sight seeing along the way.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Ron
I am so looking forward to the 17 hour drive 
There’s a pretty cool water park outside of Kalispell if you want to make a stop like that.
Nothing compares to Glacier though. That’s the crown jewel of the trip.
I would plan to spend most of a day sight seeing the Badlands, also stop at Devil’s Tower near Huelitt, WY too.
That is in SD though.
Take some warm clothes it gets cold in the high elevations at Glacier. 
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I would plan to spend most of a day sight seeing the Badlands, also stop at Devil’s Tower near Huelitt, WY too.
That is in SD though.
We did that trip last year, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, and Custer.
Your right though, the kids and I could have spend an entire day exploring the Badlands.
Ron
Talk to Joel. He worked ou in the park in Montana. I know he’s got some great info on where to visit.
I can give ya lots of ideas and info for the Glacier area that you probably won’t find by surfing the net.
I grew up just east of Glacier and my grandparents lived just west of Glacier, so I’ve been through there quite a bit.
PM me or I can post a buncha stuff right here on the forum if ya want.
I’m on lunch right now so can’t start writing a vacation guide, but will post more this evening/weekend.
Have you looked at any info on Medora ND ?
If you’re driving out to MT, it’s worth spending an afternoon and evening at Medora. The outdoor stage-play / western-variety-show is quite enjoyable with entertainment value for ages 8 to 88.
(oops, I see Hunting4Walleyes already offered up Medora … hmmm, two recommendations already?, hmmmm)
orrr … have you considered riding Amtrak to Glacier?
that alone can be a fun family adventure.
Kooty,
I knew Joel worked in Yellowstone and was going to shoot him an email. Thanks.
Don,
I will check out your suggestion. Your personal experiences are exactly what I am looking for
, you can type out your list and email it to me at;
[email protected]
Thanks
Be sure to take the south loop around Glacier. Goatlick is an amazing area to get out and hike. Depending on the time of year you can see mountain goats and bighorns at this nature mineral lick. Cool place.
Thanks Hunting4Walleyes and Dfresh. I will look into both of your suggestions.
Ron
How much time are you taking for this trip?
Having been to both national parks, I can tell you that I enjoy the parks much, much more when we finally figured out to SLOW down. We saw more in-depth and enjoyed it more and we did a ton of stuff that most people never do.
I talked to a ranger in YNP and she said that they estimate that 95% of the park visitors never get farther than 100 yards off of a paved road in YNP.
Once she found out we were actually interested in putting in a little work to see more, she tipped us off to some places like a valley where hundreds of bison had been gathering. It was quite a site, well worth the 30 minute hike to get in there, but nothing you’d ever see from the road.
If you REALLY want to see two NP in one trip, have you thought of YNP and Grand Teton?
The trout fishing in both YNP and GT is terrific, if you can put in the time to get away from the roads.
Grouse
Tom,
That area was mentioned in my Hiking Glacier book that I picked up.
It sounded like a great stop so it made it on my list of places to visit, now with your suggestion it moved closer to the top.
Thanks,
Ron
the Mountain Goats licking the minerals on the river bluff is definitely on the list
… I’ll email how to get to a spot where the locals view the goats from (not the “public viewing platform”). It gives you a much better view of the goats and it’s a pretty easy pretty short hike.
It is a great area to visit. On our first visit to goat lick we saw quite a few animals actually using it. The second time around a few years later and we missed any animals, but ran into some bikers tired of Sturgis. They were entertaining.
The comment on Grand Teton National is spot on too. Below Jackson Hole there are a couple of super National Campgrounds. They have biffies and some well water but are other-wise primitive. We stayed in one a couple days and had moose walk right thru out site one day and had elk wander thru the next. Couldn’t believe it.
Take the advice and do Medora too. The Badlands loop there is 10 times what they are in South Dakota. And be sure to backtrack and do the other loop east of Medora too.
If you enter Yellowstone at Roosevelt Arch you’ll drive right past a research area for Bighorn Sheep on your way to Hot Springs. We saw 37 of them one afternoon within a 100 yards of the road. Great campground right at Hot Springs too.
Plan for some time to soak in those hot springs too. Unreal how HOT that water can be, yet so refreshing.
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How much time are you taking for this trip?
A couple weeks.
The wife and I have done Yellowstone and Grand Teton 15 years ago. This trip is more about seeing Glacier.
All though, I am a realist when traveling with my kids. They seen one mountain view they have seen them all. One hike is as good as another.
The only reason I am even thinking about hitting both parks is I know that Yellowstone has so many different geothermal anomalies, hot springs, geysers, mud volcano, sulphur springs… and those would keep my kids deeply involved in our vacation.
Ron
what ages are the kids?
there’s plenty in the Glacier area that will thrill them.
Maybe a whitewater raft ride down the Flathead River?
The ski lift at Big Mountain (Whitefish) runs in the summer. You can ride to the very top of the mountain and have a picnic lunch up there (view is SPECTACULAR from up there).
Then when it’s time to go back down the mountain, you can;
– ride the Ski Lift back down … “awww dad, that’s the borrring way”
– OR take a ride down an Alpine Slide … “now, that looks exciting” (just like at Wild Mountain of Taylor’s Falls Minnesota BUT with TEN TIMES the vertical drop!!)
– OR take a ride down a zip-line … “ummm, might be a little scary; do ya think mom would even let us try it?”
when you get to the visitor’s center at the top of Going to The Sun Highway, it’s only about a half mile hike to get onto a glacier which has the perfect slope for sledding (steep enough to keep ya moving, but not to get fast and outta-control-hurt-yourself kind of speed)
I’ve taken a plastic saucer sled, or plastic tobaggon type sled and gone sledding down that glacier on a seventy degree afternoon in the middle of July.
Sometimes we just hiked out there and had a snowball fight.
One day we didn’t hike out there at all because we were in the visitors center with binoculars watching grizzly bears play on the glacier. BRING BINOCULARS
To me it depends on where you’re traveling. As far as ND goes everyone above has it right. Medora is the best part of the state. My mom’s side of the family is from the area and used to spend a lot of time there when we were young. Do the musical if you stop there. Lots of other activities as well.
One note not in the tourism guides – beware of possible issues staying in the Medora area. The oil boom has affected the availability of hotel rooms for many miles around there. Book early!!!
when you go through the town of Hungry Horse MT, you HAVE TO stop at this place for an ice cream cone no matter what time of day it is
http://www.huckleberrypatch.com/
they have huckleberry ice cream (yes, mom it’s even OK to have huckleberry ice cream for breakfast … this is a vacation in the mountains of Montana)
huckleberries grow wild in this area
they are a lot like a blueberry but TASTE A LOT BETTER
you know how when you cut a blueberry in half, the inside is white?
a huckleberry is PURPLE all the way through
and just like the COLOR goes all the way through, so does the FLAVOR
(hey, now that I’m craving it myself; I just had a great idea … in trade for all this info, would ya bring me back a pint of huckleberry ice cream?) mmmm, mmmm 
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when you get to the visitor’s center at the top of Going to The Sun Highway, it’s only about a half mile hike to get onto a glacier which has the perfect slope for sledding (steep enough to keep ya moving, but not to get fast and outta-control-hurt-yourself kind of speed)
I’ve taken a plastic saucer sled, or plastic tobaggon type sled and gone sledding down that glacier on a seventy degree afternoon in the middle of July.
Sometimes we just hiked out there and had a snowball fight.
One day we didn’t hike out there at all because we were in the visitors center with binoculars watching grizzly bears play on the glacier. BRING BINOCULARS
If the park is open, bears can be around. Our last visit there was three days after the roads were cleared for summer travel. Man, the cuts thru the drifts were just awesome to see. We saw a griz on that trip.
That glacier is just plain cool to see up close and personal.
of course it’s “cool” when you get up close
IT’s MADE of SNOW and ICE 
okay, in all seriousness;
if you stand next to a glacier on a seventy degree day, you can actually feel the cool air radiating from the glacier 
Check out Fort Peck Lake on the way out to Glacier it has the worlds largest earth dam on the east side off highway 24. Exciting, the dive is pretty cool if you take 94 to 200s to 200west to highway 24 north then to 2. Then on the west side of Fort Peck take highway 191 south of highway 2 to the Charles M. Russell national wildlife refuge. Way cool! Neat little parking area on the Missouri in the park just off 191 for a lunch . Head south to Highway 94 then west through Lewistown to Greatfalls then up to Glacier. This rout will take you out of the way though. Or bypass the 191 rout and continue on to Glacier. Never been on 2 west of 191. I took this rout coming back from Greatfalls for something different. Got family out in Greatfalls.
Wow, do great minds think alike.
That is honestly the next place I was thinking about.
You can tour the hydro-electric generating station below the dam (they let you touch the shaft between the turbine and the generator so you can feel how fast it’s spinning).
And the visitors center there is full of dinosaur fossils from the area. The best tyrannosaurs skull and the best triceratops skull I’ve ever seen.
CAUTION
If you take this route going out, fill your gas tank in Glendive.
If you take this route coming home, fill up in Glasgow.
It’s 155 miles between the two.
There’s only one other place to buy gas in the 155 mile stretch between Glasgow and Glendive; which is the town of Circle MT … and if the sun isn’t up, the gas station in Circle might not be open.
Glasgow and Glendive both have (open 24/7) SuperAmerica type places.
The 85 miles between Circle MT and Fort Peck is scenery much like the North Dakota badlands. I have driven that 85 mile stretch without seeing another vehicle.
Havre MT
When the railroad was built, there were locomotive maintainance shops at St Paul MN, Minot ND, Havre MT, and Spokane WA. Consequently, there was a significant Chinese population who ran laundry services and opium dens.
Most of these businesses were subterreanean. Today you can tour them at what is called Havre Beneath The Streets.
Buffalo Jump
On the west edge of Havre is the Holiday Village Shopping Mall. Just behind the mall is a buffalo jump that has been excavated by archaeologists.
Across the highway from the mall is the county fairgrounds. The visitors center at the county fairgrounds can provide you with info for touring the buffalo jump.
The Norwegian-style Stave Church in Minot ND is worth a one hour stop. It’s in the city park right dead center in the middle of town.
Flathead Lake – fishing charter or sightseeing tour
The Wilcraft dealer in MT is also one of the premier guides on Flathead Lake.
If ya want a Lake Trout charter, he’s your guy.
They also do SightSeeing Tours of the lake. One of the coolest places on the tour is ancient rock paintings done by indians; the paintings are on a cliff face about 6 to 10 feet above the water line. The only way they can be seen is from the water (or I guess by hanging from a loooonnggg rope, if you’re an expert at cliff rapelling).
Couple comments on Glacier. I did not read all the posts so others may have already made these comments.
1. I personally love driving the highline across Montana – Hwy 2. Try it either coming or going.
2. The first time I went to Glacier we took the “Going to the Sun” pass/drive. That was Fourth of July weekend and the pass had just opened for the season the day before. 10 feet of snow on either side of the road.
3. There is a hike called the Garden Wall. It’s about a 8-10 hour hike but spectacular. There is also a spur off of it that goes to a ridge top. Watched 2 wolverines play in the snow for 45 minutes on the other side of the ridge – my wildlife watching highlight.
uhhhh, if ya doan wanna look like a furner … it’s the “Hi-Line” 
and yes, it is a phenomenal place … mostly because of phenomenal people
why some of IDO’s finest members were born and raised right in the “Heart of the Hi-Line”
(well at least one was anyhow)
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