How to Navigate Glacier Park in 2025
TL;DR
(For the TooLong;Didn’tRead crowd, the gist is that while the new rules are a little frustrating on paper, we are very optimistic that our guests will still have a lovely experience and enjoy the best odds of getting to experience Many Glacier without crowds. The hiking and dining and porch-siting experiences should be top-drawer!)
Glacier Park’s Vehicle Reservation system has changed each year since its inception in 2021, and this coming summer will see a few additional wrinkles. There’s a lot of details to like for folks visiting the East Side of the park, and a little bit that will take some figuring out! Let’s dive in with the biggest and most recent revelation: Many Glacier will be closed to personal vehicle traffic from July 1 to September 21, 2025.
1) There is no vehicle reservation required before or after those dates, so consider coming a little earlier or later in the season. We are considering expanding our season in this regard.
2) There will still be access for folks that book lodging, horseback, or boat trips in the Many Glacier Valley so check out Swan Mountain Outfitters and the Glacier Park Boat Company for your ticket into paradise.
3) There will be hiker shuttles available along the road into Many Glacier, and you can book a ride for everyone in your vehicle either a week or a day before your planned hike, with more details to come from NPS. So, the longer you stay at the Park Cabin Company, the more bites at the apple you’ll have to get into Many. Once you get there…we bet it will be the best, non-crowded hiking since the 1980s! (Note, hiking and biking of the Many Glacier Road itself will be prohibited during the closure.)
4) There are still so, so many hikes outside of the closed area that don’t require a ticket! The Belly River, St. Mary Valley and Logan Pass via the Sun Road, and Two Medicine (and more, you can read about some other great out-of-the-way hikes HERE) will each be accessible all summer without a reservation from the East Side of Glacier and very accessible from PCC. (The west entrance to the Going-to-the-Sun Road in West Glacier and the North Fork area will still require vehicle reservations from June 13 through September 28.) Waterton Park is just a skip over the Canadian Border and has fantastic hiking and visitor services.
5) We’re pretty confident that there will be a few workarounds with local guides that become apparent as we move towards spring, and we’ll be sure to provide that info to our guests.
We’ll continue to update our guests and prospective travelers as more information is provided. You can read the full NPS Press Release HERE.