After we left Grand Teton and Yellowstone, we drove straight up to Montana to visit Glacier! This was Jeffrey’s favorite park so far (#13 on our trip). Overall, the park is absolutely beautiful and it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the others. There is a small town outside of the park that we stayed in and boondocked off of a dirt road. There were also a few other AWESOME boondocking spots right on the river off of North Fork road. We drove by a group of 10-15 vanlifers that were staying right on the river and I yelled “BOONDOCKERS!!!” in excitement. I would 100% come back to the park just to stay at that spot and hang out with fellow nomads.

Getting into the park:

The only downfall about this place is the reservation system to enter the park. When we visited, you couldn’t get into the park without a reservation ticket for the Going-to-the-Sun road. You can purchase these tickets in advance but it’s extremely difficult to get a reservation because the system the park uses gets bogged down. You can either purchase tickets months in advance during the lottery period that they have or 2 days before entering the park. They release around 350 tickets every morning for entrance to the park 2 days from that time. The website is so slow and although we tried for 2 days in a row to get a ticket, we were never able to make it through the checkout process. The reservations are required between 6am-5pm but if you come in the park outside of those hours, you can get in. The reservations + the vehicle length restrictions (21 feet) can make it difficult for RV’ers or families with pull behinds to get into the park and on the Going-to-the-Sun road. However with the help of our hitch-hiker friends that we picked up, we found another route into the park. Once you are in the park (after hours), there’s no ticket required so you’re free to roam.

Once we made it into the park, our first stop was the visitors center to get our passport stamp and a few stickers. This is a ritual that we do at every park. I usually purchase a few postcards to send back home too as it’s a fun way for friends and family to be involved in our journey from home. Near the visitors center was a walking path that lead to the campground in Apgar. We decided to try and see if there were any spots available for us to camp. There were none, but we were told that if you arrive early in the morning around 7am, you can sometimes get lucky and snag a first come first serve spot. At the time of our visit, all of the spots were FCFS. There are a ton of campgrounds within Glacier but Apgar was one of the only campgrounds open (due to COVID). There were some skaters and bikers on the path during our walk and everyone was very friendly. We were shocked to see how few people were at Glacier during our visit. We believe this is because it’s a more secluded park so there are less people willing to make the drive.

Our next stop was Lake Mcdonald. This is Jeffrey’s highlight from our entire trip and you can see why.. it was absolutely beautiful. The water here is freezing cold but it’s also crystal clear. This is a lake that I’d love to scuba dive in although you’d definitely want a thick wetsuit even in the summer. There is a small village by Lake Mcdonald where you can rent boats/boards for the lake. There was also a restaurant in the village but we can’t vouch for the food as we ate sandwiches in the van. We left Raven in the van during our quick swim because dogs aren’t allowed on the lake beaches at Glacier.

Going-to-the-Sun Road

After our cold swim in Lake McDonald, we decided to head up the Going-to-the-Sun road. This road is over 50 miles and has some of the most amazing views we’ve seen on our journey. The issue? It’s a sometimes narrow road with rock overhangs that can hit tall/wide/long vehicles. There are length restrictions that they enforce (just trust us on this one). The biggest risk for damage to large rigs is on the east to west route but we’d recommend not getting on the road unless you are within the length restrictions.

If you’re unable to get on the Going-to-the-Sun road, you can always take Highway 2 around the park which is another beautiful road with river views. This is another way of getting to St. Mary’s on the eastern side of the park, it just takes a bit longer.

Our campground fiasco..

Once we made it to St. Mary’s, we were supposed to stay at Johnson’s Campground and RV Park. We quickly realized that this particular RV park was not in good condition. The rigs were so close that when we pulled in I said “oh this must just be an old parking lot for storage”. We quickly found out that it was not a storage parking lot and that people were literally just parked inches from each other. Once we made it to the office, Jeffrey was checking in and noticed that their wifi was non-existent. They claimed to have wifi on their website (which is a requirement for us as we work remote) and when we arrived they told us that it actually didn’t work. There were also exposed electrical wires in the office which is a fire hazard. Fire and water availability to put out fires is obviously a serious issue in the west, so we were immediately getting more and more uncomfortable. I was walking our pup around the office while Jeffrey was in the office, and found a dead animal right beside a campsite. At this point, we were asking the front desk for a refund. We were promised a clean, safe RV park with working wifi and that’s not what this campground offered. The front desk receptionist informed us that although we hadn’t even checked in yet, we would not be receiving any refund and we would be charged for a full week if we cancelled or didn’t check in. We asked to speak to the manager and were told she was not on site and to call back later. We tried calling multiple times and leaving voicemails and received no call back. We decided to take the loss because we weren’t comfortable staying there. We ended up driving over 7 hours that night to try and make it to our next stop for the work week ahead.. it was a long unnecessary fiasco. We called our bank later and explained what happened and they advised us to file a dispute. After submitting photos of the RV park and hazards, we were able to get reimbursed from the bank. It’s sad because we even asked if we could transfer our payment amount to the on-site restaurant instead and they declined. We felt like they were completely un-cooperative and we just don’t believe businesses like this will last.. There’s a nearby KOA that had decent reviews, so maybe they offer better customer service and wifi if you’re looking for somewhere to stay near Glacier!

After all of this, we still loved Glacier. I think next time we spoil ourselves a bit more and stay onsite at the lodge by Lake McDonald. It’s a beautiful national park if you can get lucky with reservations!