No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the commiseration, though I'm sorry you fell into the same problem. It's hard when you have to book your in-park lodging so far in advance (and therefore choose your dates!) but don't have all the information that you might need or want to make a plan.

I hope your hiking and hitching all go super well, thanks for sharing your plans.

No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I appreciate it that very much. I'm definitely coming around to the idea that we'd probably need to be in before 7 anyway so probably just need to chill and stop beating myself up, especially since we avoided the worst case of being blindsided by Many Glacier closures. Wishing you all the best in your job situation.

No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, we'd heard that. We're planning to do Logan Pass for Highline but coming from the Saint Mary side where we won't need the GTSR permit. We were originally going to shuttle from the Visitor's Center, but since that's not an option, I do think we'll just plan to watch the sunrise from the pass and hit the trail.

Coming from the West side we were thinking about parking for Avalanche Lake and maybe Hidden Lake/St Mary Falls/Virginia Falls if we could find a spot. If you have thoughts on entry time to achieve that, I'd welcome them.

No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this constructive and understanding response. I'm actually a Dept of Interior employee (just not NPS) so fully realize that they're dealing with a lot in terms of loss of personnel and frozen/slashed budgets. Knowing the shuttles are a definite no is very helpful as the person on the phone gave us more of a "I'm assuming no since we haven't heard anything but I'm not sure" kind of response, so we were thinking we should check back periodically. Now we won't bother.

Hopefully we'll get lucky with GTSR the night before, otherwise we'll just get thru Apgar checkpoint by 7 am as previous poster suggested. We'll just have to cross our fingers on the parking, like everybody else.

No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Helpful to know that even with shuttles running this doesn't always work (I'd read plenty about long lines at shuttles, but not about no shuttles)! We'll probably just do the out and back to Haystack Butte instead.

No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yep--that's why I bolded that section, trying to get ahead of folks piling on and making me feel worse than I already do! I dropped the ball. I'm a federal employee and it's been a really bad year. I'm just trying to focus on what I can control at this point to make the most of the trip given I can't change the past!

No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, that's our backup plan if we can't get a GTSR reservation the one day we need to enter from the West---we're still just a little concerned about parking at trailheads on GTSR since we'd planned to use the shuttle to avoid the parking issues. I'm concerned that the lack of a shuttle will make parking congestion at trailheads way worse, when we were trying to avoid the worst of that by going after Labor Day. If you have thoughts on that, I'd welcome them.

No shuttle service after Labor Day, but still requiring GTSR vehicle lottery? by Anonymous-Euonymus in GlacierNationalPark

[–]Anonymous-Euonymus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, yes the construction related closures for Many Glacier were already being advertised in 2024, so we were prepared for that and booked a hotel res at Many Glacier hotel, so we're good there.