Okay, let me preface this post by saying that it was not my intention to be traveling in this area with only a motorhome- let’s just say we were experiencing some technical difficulties.
Because of this last minute change, we really hadn’t set ourselves up for success with our camping locations. Since we anticipated having a car, our campsites were not exactly walking distance to the parks and their shuttles. That meant that we had to pack up our camper every single day to drive it to the visitor center. It’s as annoying as it sounds.
So let’s talk shuttles.
Once you get to the visitor center, the shuttle system tends to be fairly extensive along Going-To-The-Sun-Road; the heart line of the park. With 13 stops serviced from 8am-7pm, seven days a week throughout the park, you can get pretty much everywhere you want to go (except for the Many Glacier area- we’ll get to that later).
Just make sure you are at the shuttle stop before the last service of the day- it can be as early as 4pm at Logan Pass!
From the Apgar Visitor Center, the first shuttle at 7am is an express shuttle that takes you straight to Logan Pass- the midpoint of the park and the farthest the shuttles will travel from either side of the park.
Not every shuttle goes all the way from the Visitor Center to Logan Pass, and several require you to transfer to a different shuttle at either Avalanche Creek or Sun Point, depending on what side of the park you start on. You’ll of course have to transfer at the Logan Pass midpoint to travel to the other side of the park regardless of your shuttle.
In my days in the park, I never noticed a way to accurately predict what shuttle would be nonstop and which would have you transfer. I learned to be pleasantly surprised when the shuttle took me all the way to my destination with no changes.
We never quite managed to make that 7am shuttle, but arriving to the Apgar Visitor Center around 8am in July basically guaranteed an hour long wait before successfully boarding a shuttle so make sure to budget that time into your schedule.
All of the shuttle drivers communicate throughout their shifts and they do their best not to leave anyone waiting for too long, but it’s difficult with the large crowds and limited number of drivers.
The West side of the park seemed to struggle with this more than the East, but in their defense, the East side stops are much more spread out from each other: anticipate a 30-45. Minute ride from the Apgar Visitor Center to Avalanche Creek, and about the same again from Avalanche Creek to Logan Pass.
With that being said, I only experience one big waiting period for a shuttle while out and about in the park- and that was because the sudden rain drove everyone back to the shuttles at once!
For those departing from the Apgar Visitor Center, you may notice that large vehicles are allowed up until the Avalanche Creek stop. I would not recommend doing this as parking is virtually impossible for a motorhome. Definitely don’t try to sneak past this point either- I promise you won’t be able to make it through.
Apparently it takes about 6 hours to travel from one end of the park to the other. It may be a fun way to spend a day if you’re not interested in hiking, but those who actually want to spend time on both sides of the park should instead drive their RV around the outside of the park and book a campsite on either side.
The West Side stops are much closer together which allows shuttle service to arrive more frequently. These stops also generally have shorter hikes, which means that people are rotating in and out more quickly rather than everyone trying to get in to the hike as early as possible and finishing up at approximately the same time.
Now, speaking of long hikes, many of the most popular in the park are located around Many Glacier Lodge. Unfortunately there is no shuttle service to this area.
Another downside is that there is a 2.5 mile stretch of unpaved gravel road that you‘ll have to drive on to get to and from the area.
Apparently it cannot be paved because the shifting glacier nearby would destroy the pavement within a year.
As it is, its not the end of the world- just drive slowly and carefully and make sure everything inside the vehicle is secure before you make your attempt.
It was a little frustrating to have such a popular area of the park inaccessible by shuttle, but I suspect the decision was made as part of an effort to limit over tourism in a such a gorgeous area, and also to limit the wear and tear on park owned vehicles.
What I will say is that there is a sense of community amongst shuttle riders the way Ive never noticed before as someone who typically drives. We’re all creatures of habit after all and when you find yourself waiting on line for a shuttle with approximately the same group of people every day, you tend to become more friendly then you would have otherwise.
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