I live about 20 minutes away from Glacier.
Anything i can do to help, or questions I can answer, just ask!
Going to the Sun never opens till June, and as some posters have said, last year it was July! We have a LOT of snow again this year, so I think at least late June will be a certainty again this year.
The Going to the Sun road does freak me out. I am afraid of heights as well, and there is no way I could drive it. My DH usually drives, and I spend most of the trip intently examining the dashboard of the van. If you can make yourself look, it is a gorgeous view. We don't do it that often. It has been under some pretty intense construction the last few years, sometimes completely closing one side or the other. If that happens, you can drive to the top on the side that is open, but then you have to turn around at the Visitor's Center at the top and go back down the way you came.
Usually the park is only VERY crowded around holidays. 4th of July, Labor Day, etc. It can be difficult to get a lodge reservation, and the campgrounds can fill up on July/August weekends, but a lot of that is locals! The towns of Columbia Falls, Whitefish, and Kalispell are all within half an hour drive from the West entrance, and all have very reasonable accomodations, if you don't mind staying outside the park.
Be aware that all bodies of water inside the park are galcier-fed or snow-melt fed, and stay VERY cold. They are NOT waters that you can swim in recreationally. We usually go into the parks a couple of times during the summer and have a picnic at Lake McDonald. The kids always wear their bathing suits and go splashing into the lake. They always come splashing RIGHT back out and spend the rest of the afternoon wading, catching minnows, skipping rocks and NOT swimming. Just too darn cold. Literally any part of your body submerged in the water starts to
hurt after just a few minutes of immersion. The lakes are very beautiful though, crystal clear.
One thing my family loves, that I haven't seen mentioned yet, is the Trail of the Cedars boardwalk, located near Apgar and Lake McDonald. This is a short, easy walk through some spectacular scenery. I will post a few pictures for you.
Finally, in NW Montana, summer season is also fire season. We tend to get rather bad wildfires in the mountains, and sometimes spend up to a month at a time in a nasty smoky haze. Last year wasn't bad at all, and this year probably won't be either - we have had lots of snow. But if our summers are hot and dry, fires usually start. The western parts of the park suffered from fires rather badly in previous years, and you can still see fire damage around lake McDonald and in the "back gate" area of the park, by the NorthFork river and Polebridge (north of Columbia Falls).
Feel free to ask, if you need any more help or info! Here's some pictures.
(Disclaimer: some of these pictures were taken by me, some by friends, some were "found" on the internet. Apologies to anyone whose pictures I may have used inadvertantly.)
Going to the Sun road
Trail of the Cedars boardwalk
(Not very good) picture of the Avalanche Gorge waterfall on the Trail of the Cedars - SPECTACULAR in real life!
Picture along Lake McDonald in late 2007 - note haze from wildfires
Lake McDonald - no fires
