Last year I was in Banff with my wife and this year I went to Glacier with my daughter.
I'm sort of conflicted about these parks.
While they have beautiful scenery, there something about them (Banff & Waterton) that makes me uncomfortable. I feel national parks should be about nature and not about tourist towns.
In Banff I saw bears, big horn sheep and elk but Banff Townsite with it's very touristy main street wasn't for me. The only good part is the many restaurant choices.
In Waterton Lakes I wanted to see the hotel and do Bear's Hump so we went to the town. Sort of same thing.
In the American parks the only one that really bothered me is Yosemite. The most commercial park in the U.S.
Everything seems to be set up to try and sell you something. Even the various shuttle buses and rides. There's no urgency to fix broken buses on a free ride.
This was my first visit to Glacier. My wife has no interest in these type of trips. So, I've gone either alone, with my daughter or a friend who lives in Toronto.
I took my daughter this time (last year I took her and her daughter -my granddaughter and two years ago we went to Utah for three days) but she's married with an almost 6 year old and didn't want to leave them for too long. We negotiated 4 days plus travel.
I never got to Two Medicine or the west side.
I've already booked lodging for next summer in Glacier and I'm going with my friend. More days and we might even add a day in Banff and another in Jasper as we'll fly into and out of Calgary.
If you'd like to see photos of my trip(s) you can go to
www.travelwalks.com
About Bear's Hump. I should have done this a lot younger. At 68 I can still go all day but those stairs were tough. Interesting that I also found Hidden Lake Overlook in Glacier tough as well. Iceberg Lake was fine.