Places to railfan in Glacier National Park?

If your trip timing permits, plan to spend a night in Havre, MT in the Best Western, requesting a room on the back side of the hotel.  You will practically be standing in the BNSF Diesel Maintenance facility when you open your room curtains.  My wife and I stayed in Havre as our end of day destination the night before entering the Glacier National Park area, and I was so surprised and excited when we saw this.  You can watch all the yard operations and every eastbound/westbound train right from your hotel room window.  There is more to see there and we will be going back some day.  If you are planning to drive out on route 2 across Montana, you will see trains all the way across the state.  When you get to the park area, there will be all the train action you want.  Some good places are West Glacier station and Issac Walton Inn, but there will be great railfaning everywhere.  Have a great time!  It's really something to see .  Bill

Watch for grizzly bears if out alone.

Kent in SD

Both East and West Glacier, (Apgar), have railroad at the park entrance.  There is a lot of train traffic, that can be heard if you over night at the Apgar camping site.   Here is a link to last summers visit to Glacier National Park.

East Glacier Station.

Glacier slideshow.  Click on the link.

Hike on Highline Trail to Granite Park Chalet.   Granite Park Chalet and the Sperry Chalet were/are part of the original Great Northern Railroad experience.  Both mountain top locations, are hike in only, bring your own accommodations, food, and drink.  Check with the park service for over night reservations. 

The critters, including the bears do use the trails.  Note the bear scat.  Early morning/evening hiking, beware and use cautions.

Fire in upstate Montana is also a concern, I could not access the St. Mary's side of the mountains. Shuttle buses were running from West Glacier to Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun Road, but was restricted down the other side. 

Also note that snow and ice can restrict hiking trails and in some cases the roads until well into July.  Our visits have been late July.  This is a picture from Logan Pass/Hidden Lake about 5 years ago.  

Note that Glacier and Yellowstone have some of the orginal White buses still in use.

Yellowstone

Glacier several years ago.

Whitefish MT has a nice depot there Amtrak stops their great town to see worth a look. It was part of the Great Northern RR.

The railroad is not actually in the Park.  I do suggest, if you have a car and have proper insurance for Canada, that you head north into Alberta from the east end of Glacier Park and visit the Waterton Lakes Peace Park there.  Very scenic. 

Having been to Glacier at both start and end of season, I recommend going as soon as the Going to the Sun Road is opened in the Spring.

Dude!!!!! You HAVE to go to the Izaak Walton Inn! They have a three-track mainline right outside the hotel, cabooses you can stay in, and even A RESTORED F40 THAT YOU CAN WATCH TRAINS FROM AND SLEEP IN!!!!!!! Best vacation of my life, period!

RJR posted:

The railroad is not actually in the Park.  I do suggest, if you have a car and have proper insurance for Canada, that you head north into Alberta from the east end of Glacier Park and visit the Waterton Lakes Peace Park there.  Very scenic. 

Having been to Glacier at both start and end of season, I recommend going as soon as the Going to the Sun Road is opened in the Spring.

Note:  Waterton is Canada.  Passport is required.  You can access Waterton from the St. Mary side of the park.  There are Red Bus tours that go to Waterton.  Note that there is no railroad, but the roads to Waterton were built by the railroad.  Glacier was to be James J. Hill (Great Northern Railroad)'s Grand Canyon, the ultimate vacation destination. Trouble was the short summer season.  

Look up the Izaak Walton Inn at Glacier Park. The track run right in front of it and you can stay overnight in the "Diesel" or many other cars, as well as the Inn. Enjoy - it is a spectacular trip to Glacier!!!!!!

There is a beautiful walkway/bridge over the tracks to watch from as well.

Oh, yes !!   Izaak Walton Inn, for sure. The Marias Pass helper engines tie up in the yard outside the Inn, between shoves, and the crews frequently come in for breakfast, lunch, etc. The hotel was built by the Great Northern Ry. Whitefish is a must, too. Crew change point, believe the roundhouse is still partially extant, great Swiss-chalet-like station and a magnificent and extremely rare Great Northern NW3 diesel road switcher is on display. If you could get a hold of some of the photos taken on Marias Pass and Whitefish by the Rail Photo Service (Ben Cutler, Jack Pontin, etc.) in their epic visit in October 1945, it would add greater depth to the experience. Alas their photos have been published widely, so are pretty much dispersed. A book titled "American Steam" by Robert LeMassena has a good representation, if you can lay hands on a copy.

It is relatively easy to follow trains over the Pass, east of Essex/IW Inn, so lots of photo opportunities.

While looking at Google Maps, I noticed that my route to Whitefish would take me over a set of tracks in Kalispell. Who owns these tracks? Are they BNSF, or a shortline that I vaguely remember reading about in Trains a few years ago? 

The line from Columbia Falls to Kalispell is operated by Mission Mountain Railroad, since 2004 when they took it over from BNSF.  It was originally part of the St. Paul & Manitoba (GN) main line before 1904. 

My favorite railfanning places near Glacier Park are Essex (Issac Walton Inn) and Whitefish. The depot at Whitefish has a small but very nice museum inside operated by the Stumptown Historical Society. As mentioned in earlier posts, East Glacier and West Glacier are also good spots.  The Camp Disappointment Monument northeast of Browning (off of US2) has a good view (with favorable lighting most of the day) of the BNSF main line there.

We had done this thread 2014 on Glacier.   Click on the link. 

If you are in the neighborhood of Havre, be sure to see GN S2 4-8-4 #2584 on display by the depot.

There is a rugged canyon just west of Columbia Falls, where the GN/BNSF right of way was blasted out of the canyon wall. Well worth a visit and photo shoot, if possible. You would find a Ron Nixon photo in the downstairs Izaak Walton Inn bar of a GN R2 2-8-8-2 traversing the canyon, taken in the '30's.