Travel tips for Glacier NP and Jackson Hole?

[sugarbear]

It'll be mid-August.
Glacier for 3 days, just my two boys (11 and 8) and me. We are staying outside of the park, equidistant from the two entrances.
Jackson Hole for 4, and my parents are meeting us there. 

What's not to miss?

Rafting recommendations?

Hikes that my kids will do, particularly that involve a waterfall?

[RoxMonster]

I haven’t been to Glacier but for Grand Tetons:

For a waterfall, I’d take the Jenny Lake boat (go early! It gets crowded) across the lake and hike to Hidden Falls and then on to Inspiration Point. This is a fairly easy hike.

Other hikes I liked at GT:
Lakeshore Trail that starts by Colter Bay Visitor Center
Leigh Lake/String Lake - super easy and flat. Also a great place to kayak.
More moderate hike: Taggart Lake

You can rent bikes at Dornan’s and bike on the paved bike path through the park - it’s gorgeous! Dornan’s is also great for lunch or dinner.

Check out the beach at Colter Bay - it’s beautiful! The lake is so blue and the mountains are like right. There.

Ah I love the Tetons! Are you doing Yellowstone as well?

[sugarbear]

Jun 14, 2021 16:46:55 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

I haven’t been to Glacier but for Grand Tetons:

For a waterfall, I’d take the Jenny Lake boat (go early! It gets crowded) across the lake and hike to Hidden Falls and then on to Inspiration Point. This is a fairly easy hike.

Other hikes I liked at GT:
Lakeshore Trail that starts by Colter Bay Visitor Center
Leigh Lake/String Lake - super easy and flat. Also a great place to kayak.
More moderate hike: Taggart Lake

You can rent bikes at Dornan’s and bike on the paved bike path through the park - it’s gorgeous! Dornan’s is also great for lunch or dinner.

Check out the beach at Colter Bay - it’s beautiful! The lake is so blue and the mountains are like right. There.

Ah I love the Tetons! Are you doing Yellowstone as well?

Sort of. LOL.
The whole trip is 11 days.
Seattle --> Idaho (Silverwood theme park)
Idaho --> Glacier, three nights
Glacier --> Bozeman, two nights
Bozeman --> Jackson Hole (will -- at least -- visit Old Faithful on the way, I know this is ridiculous), 4 nights
Jackson Hole --> Boise, one night -- just a pit stop on the way home
Boise --> Seattle

[poe]

I’m heading to glacier in two weeks. Do you have your tickets to GTTSR? I can report back after we come back if you would like!
Also Yellowstone. Tetons and Yellowstone are so close to each other.
Jenny Lake is beautiful!
In Jackson there was the best coffee shop called Persephone we went to everyday.

[InBetweenDays]

I agree with doing the Jenny Lake boat to Inspiration Point in the Tetons. I'd actually recommend hiking a bit beyond Inspiration point as it goes along a beautiful creek and we were able to dip our feet in a bit. And it's significantly less crowded beyond Inspiration Point. We also floated the Snake River with a guide while we were there. The river was very calm though so not sure if you're looking for more of a whitewater experience.

For Glacier, we hiked with our kids to St. Mary's and Virginia Falls which is right off the Going to the Sun road. I don't remember how long the hike was but it was easily doable for our kids who were 5.5 and 8 at the time. I also HIGHLY recommend driving out to Many Glacier Lodge. It is absolutely gorgeous out there. We did a short but somewhat steep hike up to Apukini Falls, and also hiked out towards the Grinnel Glacier. We couldn't make it all the way to the glacier because the trail was covered by snow (we were there in late June). Again they were both hikes our kids easily did.

[meowmaps]

I second hiking Taggart Lake. It does require some endurance but it's a really lovely hike. The lake is so peaceful and serene. When we were there we barely saw anybody so that made it especially nice (this was during shoulder season/October though).

[InBetweenDays]

I want to add that while West Glacier is pretty, I'd personally spend the majority of your time in East Glacier. West Glacier is beautiful, but the mountains and terrain are similar to what we see around here. East Glacier was more what I think of when I picture the landscape of GNP.

[InBetweenDays]

Jun 14, 2021 17:08:30 GMT -5 sugarbear said:

Jun 14, 2021 16:46:55 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

I haven’t been to Glacier but for Grand Tetons:

For a waterfall, I’d take the Jenny Lake boat (go early! It gets crowded) across the lake and hike to Hidden Falls and then on to Inspiration Point. This is a fairly easy hike.

Other hikes I liked at GT:
Lakeshore Trail that starts by Colter Bay Visitor Center
Leigh Lake/String Lake - super easy and flat. Also a great place to kayak.
More moderate hike: Taggart Lake

You can rent bikes at Dornan’s and bike on the paved bike path through the park - it’s gorgeous! Dornan’s is also great for lunch or dinner.

Check out the beach at Colter Bay - it’s beautiful! The lake is so blue and the mountains are like right. There.

Ah I love the Tetons! Are you doing Yellowstone as well?

Sort of. LOL.
The whole trip is 11 days.
Seattle --> Idaho (Silverwood theme park)
Idaho --> Glacier, three nights
Glacier --> Bozeman, two nights
Bozeman --> Jackson Hole (will -- at least -- visit Old Faithful on the way, I know this is ridiculous), 4 nights
Jackson Hole --> Boise, one night -- just a pit stop on the way home
Boise --> Seattle

When you stop at Old Faithfull I'd recommend taking a walk over to the Morning Glory Pool (there are other geysers to see along the way too). It's about 1.5 mile walk along a paved trail but the pool is gorgeous. It was actually one of my favorite stops because of the beauty and there was no one else there when we were there. 

[dutchgirl678]

I don't have recommendations for Glacier for you but we went to Yellowstone last summer and visited Old Faithful on our first evening there. It was set to erupt at around 7pm (you can see the projected time in the Yellowstone NPS app on your phone). It was not too crowded and towards the end everybody started to leave and go to their cars. We decided to walk the trail instead in that upper Geyser basin and it was gorgeous. Sun setting, hardly any people on the path.

If you had more time in Yellowstone I could also recommend the Fairy Falls hike (but only to the overlook from where you can see the Grand Prismatic spring). Spectacular colors!

We went to Grand Teton years ago and I remember stopping at Mormon Row to take photos of the gorgeous old wooden barns with the mountains in the background.

[dirtyred]

The Avalanche Lake hike at Glacier is great. No waterfalls that I recall, but really varied scenery that was quite different from the rest of the park.

[steamboat185]

Phelps lake in Grand Teton is really nice for a swim and hike. We did it last year with a 7 year old and 3 year old (the 3 year old was carried part way). There is a rock you can jump off and several beaches. We left the parking lot around 8 and had the official beach to ourselves all morning. We packed small inner tubes that we blew up and floated in surrounded by mountains.

[stephm0188]

A portion of Glacier was closed when we went last summer, so we missed a lot. I thought a lot of the hikes are pretty tough compared to GT. The hike to Avalanche Lake was moderate, but we were moving pretty briskly to make it there for sunrise.

Logan’s Pass is a popular spot and you need to get there early for parking. The snow made the hike there too tough for our 12yo, but if he had been wearing hiking shoes it probably would have been ok.

You’ll see some pretty waterfalls on Going to the Sun Rd.

GT was my favorite and I wish we had more time there. The hikes felt more accessible and it was pretty gorgeous.

Pick up bear spray and make noise as you hike.

[mambo123]

For this summer just make sure you have your ducks in a row with rental cars (if you need one) and timed tickets. Seems to be a lot of frustrated people on the Trip Advisor forums, especially due to lack of cars/prices.

[sugarbear]

poe, I do! Reserved them today. Would love to hear more when you get back!

[sugarbear]

Jun 14, 2021 20:28:02 GMT -5 mambo123 said:

For this summer just make sure you have your ducks in a row with rental cars (if you need one) and timed tickets. Seems to be a lot of frustrated people on the Trip Advisor forums, especially due to lack of cars/prices.

Thank you! We are driving, and it’s not until August. Planning everything now and so far I’ve been able to book the dates / times that we want, though I can tell it’s getting busy.

[sugarbear]

Jun 14, 2021 17:22:31 GMT -5 InBetweenDays said:

I want to add that while West Glacier is pretty, I'd personally spend the majority of your time in East Glacier. West Glacier is beautiful, but the mountains and terrain are similar to what we see around here. East Glacier was more what I think of when I picture the landscape of GNP.

Made a special note of this in my spreadsheet! LOL.