By Michael Lanza
The three bighorn sheep lifted their heavily horned heads to gaze at us, but never budged from their beds of grass amid boulders on a mountainside above the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park. The mountain goats we saw on various occasions gave us little more attention than that. And fortunately, the grizzly bear sow with two cubs in tow that passed within about 30 feet of us—an encounter of less than 10 seconds that is etched into my memory forever—gave us no more than a passing glance.
While I have backpacked over much of this amazing park, that trek gave us the definitive grand tour of Glacier, including must-see spots like the Highline Trail and the Ptarmigan Tunnel, the Many Glacier area, the Garden Wall, and Gunsight Pass. Besides an array of wildlife, two friends and I frequently saw an ocean of mountains spreading out before us, long escarpments of Glacier’s signature soaring cliffs, and some of the prettiest of the park’s 760 lakes.
We even enjoyed an unexpectedly high degree of solitude for long stretches of a multi-day hike—something I have learned, over three decades of backpacking all over the country—including more than 10 years running this blog and for many years previously as a field editor for Backpacker magazine—is a rare treat in popular national parks like Glacier.
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Our 90-mile hike also took advantage of the park’s free shuttle bus system, easing trip logistics and enabling us to split the trip up into 65-mile and 25-mile segments—and there are excellent variations for shortening the 65-mile leg, too.
If you want to take this or any backpacking trip in Glacier this summer, the date to apply for a backcountry permit reservation is March 15. (More on that below, along with my recommendation for a second, five-star, multi-day hike in Glacier, and links to stories to help you plan a trip in Glacier.)
All of the route options and need-to-know planning details for the 65-mile portion of this hike are explained in detail in my downloadable e-guide “The Best Backpacking Trip in Glacier National Park.”
Would you like to have my expert help planning all the details of your backpacking trip in Glacier, including figuring out a hiking itinerary that’s ideal for your party and showing you how to maximize your chances of getting a highly coveted backcountry permit? See my Custom Trip Planning page for details.
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Our 90-mile hike began with the 65-mile route known as Glacier’s Northern Loop, a horseshoe-shaped circuit from near Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Road to Many Glacier, Ptarmigan Tunnel, Stoney Indian Pass, the Highline Trail, and finishing at Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. That was followed immediately by a roughly 25-mile overnight on the Gunsight Pass Trail, including an optional side trip to the Sperry Glacier, one of the park’s largest.
Check out the gallery of photos below from this trip.
Click here now to get my expert e-guide “The Best Backpacking Trip in Glacier National Park.”
Read my story “Descending the Food Chain: Backpacking Glacier National Park’s Northern Loop,” about that 90-mile hike, including more photos, and my story about a shorter and easier, family backpacking trip on the Gunsight Pass Trail. Most stories about trips at The Big Outside require a paid subscription to read in full.
Want to take this trip? Check out my expert e-guide “The Best Backpacking Trip in Glacier National Park,” which tells you everything you need to know to plan and successfully pull off that 65-mile hike of a lifetime. And see a menu of all of my e-guides.
Get full access to my Glacier stories and ALL stories at The Big Outside, plus get a FREE e-guide. Join now!
Backpack the CDT Through Glacier
If you’ve already backpacked in the areas of Glacier described above, or you’re just looking for a different route that delivers a similar, full Glacier experience, see the photo gallery below, which includes some of the dozens of images in my story “Wildness All Around You: Backpacking the CDT Through Glacier,” about a 94-mile traverse of Glacier that follows a customized variation of the Continental Divide Trail through the park. In fact, both trips are equally spectacular, but the CDT traverse requires a longer and more complicated shuttle between trailheads.
My e-guide “Backpacking the Continental Divide Trail Through Glacier National Park” provides all the necessary details, plus my expert tips for pulling off that customized CDT traverse of the park, including shorter variations on the route.
See “5 Reasons You Must Backpack in Glacier National Park.”
Act now if you want to backpack in Glacier this summer: The park begins accepting applications for backcountry permits on March 15 for groups of up to eight people, and most sites available for advance reservations get booked within days or hours for summer dates. See my “10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.”
Get my expert e-guides to backpacking Glacier’s Northern Loop and the CDT through Glacier.
One of America’s flagship national parks, Glacier is a must-do destination for backpackers because of mountain scenery unlike anywhere else, remoteness, and a rare variety of wildlife. That’s why I consider it one of “America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips.”
Want my expert help planning your trip in Glacier or any trip you’ve read about at this blog? See my Custom Trip Planning page for details.
See several outstanding long dayhikes in Glacier and all stories about national park adventures at The Big Outside.
