Part 0: Prologue

Strategies for Glacier National Park

“People love Glacier. They love it to death.” -Marcy, Park Ranger. 

I usually don’t write guides, but after dealing with the supreme cluster-fuck that is the Glacier backcountry permit system, I’m going to lay out some strategies for dealing with Glacier as a thru-hiker. These strategies will no doubt be more useful to SOBOs, since that has been my experience, but NOBOs may benefit too, especially if backcountry sites are still in high demand when NOBOs arrive in the park.

Glacier National Park receives 3 million visitors annually. Of these, fewer than 500 are CDT thru-hikers. This is the only thing you really need to know. The park is not tailored for thru-hikers. We show up and want to follow that magical red line, but in most cases, we can’t. The backcountry campsites are booked, either by weekenders or else by thru-hikers who booked them before we did.

Looking Glass Base camp is a great fallback point, but as of August 2025 it is closed. It may reopen, it may not, which means that an affordable and hiker-friendly fallback point in East Glacier cannot be counted on. Therefore, I will not include it in the following options. I will also not include Option 0, which is to show up at the permit office and be one of the lucky few who get exactly the hike they want.

Before we get started, there are a few bits of useful information to know. First, permits allow up to four people, so make some friends. This saves space, since GNP does not differentiate between a permit with one person and a permit with four. Once a campsite is taken, it’s taken.

Secondly, permits cost (as of summer 2025) $90 per permit and $10 per additional person, meaning that getting four people on a permit saves a ton of money.

Third, if bad weather rolls in and fucks up your plan, you may have to buy another permit and redo your route. Depending on the ranger, this may not always be the case, but prepare for it. It’s far better to pick a route with daily mileage well within your ability than to choose sites at distances at the far end of your comfort range. Do fifteens, enjoy the park, get your money’s worth.

Finally, you have to get permits in person. Once again, this park isn’t tailored for thru hikers and other car-less folk.

There are options for getting permits early in the spring, but I did not avail myself of these, and neither did most hikers that I met. If you see an opportunity to do so using one of the following options, I would. Otherwise, you can either hitch to a permit office (Two Medicine is the most common one) or hike there from East Glacier, get permitted, camp overnight at Two Medicine, hike or hitch to your starting point, finish your route, then hitch back to East Glacier.

This might feel a little unclear now, but read the following and it will begin to make more sense. 

Alright, moving on to the strategies.

Option 1: Go around Glacier.

You’re on the CDT, and the CDT is freedom from the redline. Only red-blooded loyalists will follow the redline with any consistency on this trail, and even for them, they may be forced to divert due to fires, weather, or other issues. Thankfully, Canada and the U.S. share a long border, and there are walkable options both to the east and to the west of the park. I won’t lay out exactly where—you’ll have to get used to using Gaia or another similar app alongside FarOut anyway, so you can make your own routes as practice.

Option 2: Imagine that all of Glacier is the redline, and that direction doesn’t matter.

Your ability to book backcountry sites will be greatly eased if you don’t try to compete with every other hiker vying for campsites during peak season. Select any continuous, 80-100-mile-long series of backcountry sites and treat it as the redline. All of Glacier is gorgeous and you can’t go wrong. When you’ve finished the route, make your way to a highway and hitchhike to East Glacier to rejoin the redline.

Option 3: Platinum Blaze.

Rent a car, van, whatever. Use it to drive to the most desirable locations and day-hike all day in loops back to your vehicle until you’ve done 80-100 miles’ worth of trail. Each night, leave the park and sleep in the car, campground, or hotel of your choice. Once done, return the rental and start thru-hiking from East Glacier.

Option 4: Start hiking at East Glacier.

Obviously, this is going to be an unsavory choice for many, but there may be a few who would pick this option. Glacier is best suited for vacationers, and you might want to save it for a vacation.

If time is an issue for any reason, save Glacier for later and just get off your Amtrak in East Glacier and begin the redline. It’s right there. Very easy, very convenient. It’s not the most inspiring terminus there is, but it would save time and money.

If you really want to see a bit of the park and get most of the same benefits that option 4 provides, then you can do a small yo-yo from East Glacier to Two Medicine campground and back. You’ll see sweeping mountain vistas, have an opportunity for a short blue blaze to the summit of Mt. Henry, and probably see a ton of cute bighorn sheep. It’s about ten miles from East Glacier to Two Medicine, so make sure to book a site at Two Medicine if you want to stay overnight.

But what about my terminus photos?

Yeah, sadly, if you want that photo, you’ll have to get a ride or hitch to a specific place on the border, walk through the friendly Canadian patrol post, get the shots and then…Well, then you’ve got to either go back to where you want to start or else have a permit that allows you to start in the primo location and direction. 

Ultimately, its up to you whether or not you need to visit the micro-obelisk that is the “monument.” If it were up to me, and were I to do this again, I’d get a photo of the place I started and call it the terminus. Not everyone’s style, to be sure, but if you want that photo, you’ve going to either have to be lucky or do a lot of work to get it.

If you’re a Spirit of the Law type rather than a Word of the Law type, you can start from anywhere within reason of the terminus and call it good. Remember, most CDT thru hikers don’t hike 3100 miles that make up the redline anyway. Enjoy the freedom of the Wild West and focus on your adventure.

So there we have it. Realistic options for thru-hikers for Glacier National Park. For those coming from the AT, these may seem unhappy compromises, even sinful, but the CDT isn’t the AT, and there is nowhere on any trail that I know with systems that are so inconvenient to thru-hikers. To hike in or around Glacier you’ll have to compromise something. Time, direction, money, or even the park itself. 

Good luck, happy trails, and above all, hike your own hike.

Part 1 will continue with the usual story telling. I look forward to seeing you there.