Travel Guide to Glacier National Park with a Baby and Toddler
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Traveling to Glacier National Park with our toddler and baby.
Read more on visiting Glacier National Park with young kids, including the best trails with a toddler and a baby and other travel tips.
Traveling with Kids to Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park with out toddler and baby made for such good family memories! Our toddler especially had a blast hiking the trails, seeing wildlife, and exploring all the nature Glacier has to offer. Traveling to and within the park is definitely doable with young kids, with some proper planning and reasonable expectations. We went to Glacier in mid July and brought our 2.5 year old and 6 month old girls along for the adventure! We were away for 6 nights in total. With travel time we spent 4 full days exploring the park.
Best Places to Stay near Glacier National Park with Kids
If traveling with your kids, I recommend staying in a town just outside the park. We stayed in Columbia Falls, which is one of the closest towns you can get to the park and it still took us 40 mins to 2.5 hours to get to a trailhead or other destination within the park. It’s a lot of car time with kids so stay close and have some snack and activities available within the car to help pass the time.
You can either stay on the West side of Glacier National Park or the East side. The West side is definitely near a lot of popular landmarks within the park. The East side is much more remote but still has access to great destinations. I’d recommend researching what you want to do and see. The drive time between both sides of the park is 2-2.5 hours. You could even split your time between the East and West sides during your stay.
We stayed on the West side of Glacier National Park in Columbia Falls. Whitefish and Kalispell are also popular towns to stay in near Glacier National Park that are within reasonable distance to the West entrance of the park.
This is the Airbnb we stayed in. It was within short proximity to a grocery store, several restaurants, and coffee shops. The hosts were ever accommodating! We ended up having extremely hot out of the norm temperatures while we were there and the air conditioners wiring the house were struggling to keep up. When we told the owners that the house was pretty warm they immediately brought a brand new additional air conditioner to the house for us.
Avalanche Lake Trail was our favorite hike with kids!
The views along Avalanche Lake Trail are stunning and the hike is the perfect length with a toddler and a baby, about 5 miles roundtrip.
Things to Do in Glacier National Park with a Toddler and Baby
Below is the outline of the activities and trails we did each day we were in the park with our toddler and baby. We registered our vehicle prior to our trip but didn’t realize you had to have passes for certain roads and sections of the park until we got there. Most passes aren’t released until the night before the day you want to go so we had to plan a lot of our trip around access to a pass. Keep that in mind when traveling and just know you may have to flex your plans when you’re there. If possible I’d try to mix up your days with longer hikes to give yourself and your kids a break from the long walks.
Glacier Park Itinerary with Kids
Day 1: Arrival
We got to Columbia Falls in the evening so we went ahead to the store to stock up on some things including diapers, sunscreen, and shampoo/ body wash. We decided to forgo bringing these things on the plane to save some room and weight in our suitcase.
Day 2: Apgar Village, Lake McDonald, Trail of the Cedars
Visited Apgar village, which is along the shore of Lake McDonald. We had some really delicious Huckleberry ice cream at one of the shops there.
Brought our swimsuits and hung out at Lake McDonald. The lake is so calm. We walked down further from Apgar village so it was less crowded. Ada loved the pretty rocks. Bring life jackets for the kids! We packed a cooler lunch and ate white we hung out at the lake but you could also grab lunch in Apgar village.
Hikes Trail of the Cedars. This was a very short hike (0.57 miles) and considered one of the best hikes with kids. Most of it is boarded or a smooth flat dirt path. We baby wore but we definitely could have brought a stroller.
Day 3: Going to the Sun Road
Drove through Going to the Sun Road from the West side of the park to the East side of the park.
It’s a long day in the car.. 6-8 hours so pack lots of snack and activities for kids. I saved a couple of “surprises” for this day so we had new things to keep the little ones occupied.
About half way through is the visitor center at Logan’s pass, which you can stop at for souvenirs or food. We packed a cooler lunch and ate at one of the stops where we could use the restroom and I could feed the baby.
Day 4: Avalanche Lake Trail, Whitefish
We hiked Avalanche Lake Trail (~5 miles round trip). This is a very doable with young kids. There is some elevation but nothing too strenuous. Ada, our 2.5 year old, walked about 3 miles of it on her town. For the rest of the hike we used the backpack carrier for Ada and used the baby carrier for Bree, our 6 month old. The trail is open and has lots of pretty views along the way. The trail opens up to Avalanche Lake, which is definitely worth the trip!
We ate lunch at Eddie’s cafe in Apgar Village after the hike. The food was decent but very expensive. You could also eat right outside the park if finished for the day or pack a cooler lunch for this day.
That evening we played mini golf at Mini Mountain Mini golf and headed into Whitefish to explore and eat dinner at McKenzie Pizza Company.
Day 5: Grinnell Lake Trail in East Glacier
We headed into East Glacier and hiked the Grinnell Lake Trail (~7 miles round trip) on our last trip. This was…an experience…haha. We started at the Lodge there, which was a great place to feed the baby, change the children, and use restrooms. It took us 2.5 hours to get here from our Airbnb in Columbia Falls so put the kids in the car with their pajamas on. We definitely needed some time for the kids to stretch out.
Before we even got on the trail, we saw a Mama black bear and her two cubs walk by the lodge. We also saw several moose on our trail, including one that was right in our path with its baby.
The trail was pretty easy in terms of terrain. It was fairly level but there was a spot we had to cross over a drawstring bridge over a creek so keep that in mind with the kids and take your time. The path however was very narrow with lots of foliage and the bugs were insane for the entire trail. Like, insane. I was definitely channeling my inner Meredith Blake from the Parent Trap. We even put on bug spray before and mid trip and it did no good to fend the bugs off. The trail opened up to Grinnell Lake and a large waterfall, which was beautiful but still did not give a break to the bugs constantly swarming.
A lot of people hit The Grennel Glacier Trail from the same starting point at the lodge. That’s a very popular trail but also has mixed reviews with small kids. We decided against that one and that’s why we decided to do the Grennel Lake Trail. I honestly don’t know that I’d do this trail again. The bugs were miserable and there was a lot of wildlife. Awesome but a little intimidating with small kids.
Everywhere you look is stunning! Our toddler thoroughly enjoyed throwing rocks into Lake McDonald and other bodies of water wherever we went in Glacier National Park.
What to Pack for Glacier National Park for a Toddler and Baby
I packed for our entire family including myself, my husband, our 2.5 year old, and our 6 month old baby in one big suitcase. We also had a diaper bag backpack, a double umbrella stroller, a hiking backpack, and my baby’s infant car seat. We rented a car seat for our toddler through the same local car rental company we rented our car for the week. This was totally the move! The car seat was clean and worked perfectly.
I used these hanging packing cubes to keep our things organized and nicely folded (for this trip I used the XL size for my husband and my clothes, and the L size for my two kids clothes). It’s so easy for a big suitcase to get clustered, especially with four persons' clothes all in the same bag so I love using packing cubes to make it easier to find everyone’s things. We bought these packing cubes for our three week vacation in Europe when Ada, our oldest, was four months old. I’ve consistently used them for our other trips over the past couple of years and definitely think they’re worth the investment. For Glacier National Park, I packed four days worth of clothes for each of us and did one load of laundry about half way through the trip. I chose to forgo bringing shower items and purchased those at our destination, along with sunscreen and diapers. Our Airbnb provided bear spray and bug spray. You can also rent bear spray at various locations within the park to bring on your hikes.
We also brought a hiking backpack, which worked perfectly to carry both our toddler and our baby. Truly could not have done the hikes we did without this thing. My husband carried our toddler who is close to 35 pounds in the hiking backpack for the entire 7 mile hike in East Glacier, while I carried our 18 pound baby in the baby carrier. In addition we brought our toddler’s life jacket and infant’s life jacket for swimming in the lakes. Although you can’t use a stroller much in the park, I’d recommend bringing a lightweight umbrella double stroller for the airport. We had a long layover both directions and it was worth bringing so our arms and back could have a break and the kids could sleep in the stroller as needed.
For our baby, I brought a my hand pump and a bottle but didn’t end up using them. I just nursed her wherever we were. I also brought a sterilizing bag for pacifiers that were dropped in the airport and along trails. I brought our own wipes from home but you could buy an extra pack at the grocery store when you arrive along with diapers. I have a full packing checklist for your baby and toddler, which will make packing much more efficient. Grab a copy of my baby packing checklist here.
Tips for Traveling with a Toddler and Baby
As I’ve mentioned throughout this post, you’ll want to have some planned activities for your toddler and baby throughout the travel. Unless you are traveling directly to the Glacier airport, it can be quite a long travel time on the airplane and in the car. These are my favorite airplane activities for kids to help pass the time.
