The most underrated national park

As a lover of our country’s wonderful inventory of National Parks, I, like most of you reading this, have my own opinions on which parks deserve to be considered among the top tier of parks in our country’s incredible collection. I think about the national parks as much as the puppies; I never put a single one that I didn’t like, but I still have preferences and favorites.

While most place places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon among a small group at the top, one that is often left out is Glacier National Park (NP). This writer believes that this park is fully serving as a member of this little fraternity of the greatest of our cherished parks.

For starters, there are very few parks where you are almost certain to see grizzly bears. There are only a couple where you can count on seeing an endangered glacier. Glacier NP may be the only (certainly the best) place to see both.

Also, one of my favorite experiences when visiting one of our great western national parks is spending the night, or at least enjoying a meal, in a grand, historic lodge. These often massive and always historic lodges are one of the lucky attributes and selling points for a select few parks. A national park is lucky if it has one, Grand Canyon NP has two (one on each rim which is, in many ways, like two different parks), but Glacier NP has four, five if you include the Prince of Wales Hotel in adjacent Waterton from Canada. International Peace Park. Together, the two parks function as the Waterton – Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site. The grand lodges at Glacier NP are for the most part incredibly large, built with hundreds of lodging rooms, designed around central common areas with high vaulted ceilings, and sit beside deep, clear mountain lakes.

These immaculately tidy, continuously renovated and great dining and overnight options have retained the charm that has been lost in modern architecture and the reality of today’s high construction costs. They were all built nearly a century ago (1920 – 1927) and were, for the most part, the brainchild of the great railroads to boost their business by giving vacationers an excuse and convenient way to experience the great parks of the west.

Glacier NP offers unparalleled hiking, large, clear, very cold mountain lakes, and memorable wildlife encounters. A word of warning here. This is not a park to just take off and walk alone and without any planning. There is a large population of brown bears in this park. I have hiked in almost every national park in the west, and have seen black and grizzly bears in numerous parks, but there is no park where their numbers are so abundant. In fact, where many parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Kings Canyon (among others) will tell you via brochures and park rangers that you are in bear country, Glacier NP is the only park where I have seen big red signs indicating that you it’s in BEAR COUNTRY at every trailhead. The smart plan is to ask a park ranger for advice on how to react if you encounter a bear, wear a “bear bell” and make a lot of noise while walking, and NEVER walk alone or with small children. If you follow this advice, you can experience some of the most memorable hikes of your life without a problem.

Glacier NP offers a combination you won’t find in any other national park: bear, bighorn sheep, gray wolf, elk, great refuges, alpine lakes, high mountain peaks, increasingly threatened glaciers, one of the most spectacular drives in all. U.S. Highway to the Sun, and the Continental Divide runs right through the heart of the park. I defy anyone to deny this park its rightful place among the few elite parks that comprise the best that our fabulous national park system has to offer.