Going-to-the-Sun Road Driving Tips

Going-to-the-Sun Road isn’t Glacier’s toughest drive by far, but being prepared with snacks and water is key, as is slowing down to respect the terrain and making sure ahead of time your route is clear and open. For Glacier novices and veterans both, the following are our best tips for conquering Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Four Signs of a Rookie Going-to-the-Sun Road Driver

  • A burning brake smell. Hint: Use second gear to slow your speed on descents rather than riding the brakes down the mountain.
  • A dangling extension mirror. Hint: Retract or remove those extension mirrors for fifth-wheels or trailers before driving the narrow west side below Logan Pass.
  • A center-line hugger. Hint: Stay in your own lane. You’re more apt to scrape another vehicle on the skinny road than drive off the cliff. Acrophobes should let someone else drive.
  • A traffic slug. Hint: Rather than holding up traffic by slowing to a stop in the road to take pictures, pull off into one of the many pullouts.
Trees cluster along the steep sides of Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun-Road.
Want to take photos of Going-to-the-Sun-Road? Use a pullout to avoid causing traffic delays. Photo © Philip Bird/123rf.

Other Tips for Driving Going-to-the-Sun Road

  • Follow posted speed limits, and turn on your headlights.
  • During high season (mid-July-mid-Aug.), the Logan Pass parking lot fills up by 10am, with long waits for parking spaces. Get an early start for touring Going-to-the-Sun Road.
  • Take lunch, snacks, and drinks. Between Lake McDonald Lodge and Rising Sun, no food or drinks are sold.
  • Watch for bicyclists. Although bicycle restrictions are in effect during July-August on Going-to-the-Sun Road’s west side, the narrow roadway, lack of shoulders, and curves squeeze cyclists. Show them courtesy by slowing down to ease around them.
  • Expect construction delays. Reconstruction work usually reduces traffic to a single lane controlled by construction personnel. When workers are not present, timed traffic lights control flow. Obey both, as the single lanes allow for no pullover room for passing.
  • Check for summer closures. Heavy rains, snowstorms, fires, and accidents may close portions of the road—even in July-August. Entrance and ranger stations as well as lodges have current updates of the road status available.
  • Be prepared for all types of weather. Sunny skies may prevail in the valleys while visitors at Logan Pass creep along slowly in a dense fog on icy pavement.
  • Passengers with a fear of heights should sit on the driver’s side of the car for ascending the west side and descending the east. This will put you farthest from the cliff edges.
  • Cell phones get little or no service on the Sun Road. Turn them off and enjoy the views.

For updates on Going-to-the-Sun Road status, call 406/888-7800 or check the park website.

Map of Going-to-the-Sun Road
Going-to-the-Sun Road

Becky Lomax

About the Author

As a professional travel writer, Andrew Hempstead spends as much time as possible on the road, traveling incognito, experiencing the many and varied delights of each destination just as his readers do. He looks forward to spending every second summer at home in the Canadian Rockies, traveling mountain highways and hiking trails, exploring new places, and updating old favorites.

Since the early 1990s, Andrew has authored and updated more than 60 guidebooks, and supplied content for regional and national clients like Expedia and KLM. His photography has appeared in a wide variety of media, ranging from international golf magazines to a Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum.
Andrew and his wife, Dianne, own Summerthought Publishing, a Canadian regional publisher of nonfiction books. He is a member of The Diners Club World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy. Andrew has also spoken on travel writing to a national audience and has contributed to a university-level travel writing textbook. He and his family live in Banff, Alberta.

Becky Lomax was three years old when her parents first took her to stay with friends who worked as rangers at Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park. During college, Becky worked two summers in the historic Glacier Park Lodge, an easy hop to Two Medicine. She spent her days off hiking, backpacking, and climbing throughout the park.

After teaching high school writing and speech outside Seattle, she and her husband moved to Whitefish for quick access to Glacier. She worked in the park for a decade as a hiking and backpacking guide, leading many first-time visitors to Gunsight Pass, Fifty Mountain, and Iceberg Lake. She also served on staff at Granite Park Chalet, spotting wolverines and bagging nearby peaks in her off time.

Today, Becky maintains her strong link with Glacier by using her full-time writing career as an excuse to keep hiking in the park. In magazine stories, she lauds the park’s trails, historic lodges, scenic drives, wildlife, and wildflowers. She tags along with biologists in the field to radio-collar bighorn sheep and grizzly bears. She also treks annually to Grinnell Glacier to write about how climate change is melting the park’s ice fields.

Becky serves as the western writer for On the Snow, a website that provides snow reports for ski resorts. She also writes stories for regional newspapers and national magazines such as Smithsonian and Backpacker, and is the author of the bestselling Moon USA National Parks.

Learn more about this author

Pin it for Later