Many Glacier Valley sleeps. The real sound of silence.

Origin June/July 2026

Come on. I can’t say Sound of Silence and not start off with a Simon and Garf!

Ah, yes, the Many Glacier Valley. Ask any of the millions of visitors that flock to Glacier National Park each year what they remember the most, and 99% will give you one of two places.

The first is Logan Pass up on the spine of the Continental Divide, which is truly breathtaking if you can push down the stress and frustration of finding a parking spot. And the second is always the Many Glacier Valley, with its incredible, iconic hotel that shares the same name.

This place just screams the Gilded Age and the deep pockets of the Great Northern Railway (no expense was spared). Almost as a side note, it is also home to some of the best hiking in the park.

Easy access, short miles, manageable gain, and lots and lots of wildlife. Including the highly sought-after sightings of moose and grizzly bear.

The main hotel was built at the turn of the century in 1914. The Swiftcurrent campground and cabins were built in the 1930s. They added the Swiftcurrent motel (and other units originally designated for employee housing) in the 1950s.

But this year access would prove very very different as nothing has been built (or upgraded) for a very long time. All of that infrastructure to support all of that lodging, especially during the post-war boom under Mission 66, has remained the same for over 75 years.

A single water well for the entire valley, hidden cisterns for pressure, machinery for treatment, fields for waste management, and the very plumbing required to make everything work. Unbeknownst to the gawking tourist on the terra firma above, it was all just plain worn out.

Patched up here and there, with the needed upgrades deferred to maintenance. But you can’t polish a turd forever. This has been a long time coming, and the NPS plan to address before stuff hit the literal fan only germinated in the last few years.

The plan: a total shutdown of everything beyond the Many Glacier Hotel. Barred for an entire summer (plus a little in the shoulder seasons). No ranger station. No campground. No Swiftcurrent cabins, motel, restaurant, or campstore.

No parking, for the thousands of tourists who hike those valley trails every day. By some calculations, turning away potentially 200,000 would-be visitors to the GNP.

And if you were lucky enough to get a $300 a night room at the MGH with a view of the parking lot, there were more restrictions: no personal boats, canoes, or kayaks on the lakes.

And although the trails in the SWC valley were open, they were rerouted to avoid construction zones, which added maybe a mile and a half (each way) to your destination. Ouch.

Is Redrock Falls really that spectacular when it’s now an eight-mile round trip day with a bunch of kids?? Hmmmm. To each their own.

Almost at the last minute, the NPS tried to accommodate the throngs of hikers by putting together a one-season-only reservation shuttle system. And it was a mess. Only about a hundred cars could get in a day, and they would have to park along Lake Sherburne, in the dirt and dust of the unpaved sections.

They did something new at the Many Glacier entrance to the park this year. This entrance has always been a financial pain point. It’s almost never manned (except when closing for valley congestion) due to a lack of staffing.

You could routinely enter for free. This made it tricky for a Red Bus driver with MGH guests on tour. They had to show their park pass when we went thru other entrances. And every time a MGH guest/family had to buy one begrudgingly, it was with the driver’s would-have-been tip.

So they installed a couple of very expensive drop-arm gates last spring. With a PIN pad to enter codes. And a camera that captures your vehicle and your face. Seems like a LOT of money to spend on an entrance that doesn’t make any money. This is clearly not for just the one-season MGV closure. This is about automating out the human element and saving $$$.

But I did manage to make it into the MGV a couple of times this summer, despite the lockdown. Employees must abide by the same access rule as park guests, but how many times have I called my employee ID the Key to the Forbidden City?

Maybe, just maybe, the code to that brand new gate should have been kept more secure. Maybe no one is around at 5am. Maybe they didn’t check the camera and see a Japanese van with a reflective website sticker on the side. Maybe.

But what price can you put on hiking out to Iceberg Lake, the crown jewel and must-hike of the entire valley, and not see another soul crowding the shoreline? Even on a marginal day there would be 200 people here.

The trails were deserted. The only people who could hike are the guests. And the thing I have found is that the more someone pays for a room, the less likely they are to get up early and hike. After all, it’s a VACATION. Sleep in. Get a coffee. Sit by the fireplace in the lobby.

Sometimes I took my own advice and slept in on a marginal weather day. Sip my own coffee and take a spin in the Delica. And maybe drive by the MGV entry station. And maybe my badge was hanging from the mirror. You CANNOT say I slipped in unnoticed in the oh so inconspicuous GoatBoy Deli.

But the real surprise was being in the hotel during the summer of persona non grata. I never realized that all those people crowding the lobby at Many Glacier Hotel were not guests per se, but just day-trippers and hikers. How do I know this?

Because I packed my laptop to do some creative writing and notebooks for journaling. And could sit for several hours in the middle of the day (between AM check-out and PM check-in). I would not only have a table completely to myself, but a massive lobby was all MINE.

So the MGV got a breather for the first time since WWII (well, and the Pandemic). I never knew how much peace this valley and this hotel had to give until now. But maybe I’ll find it again one of these winters. Maybe.

GoatBoy out!

And Patrick sucks. And probably couldn’t even ride a Big Wheel with those stork legs and double-jointed knees.