Glacier National Park
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Glacier National Park
Northwest Montana on the Canadian border
Glacier started a new series of interactive programs and activities in 2007 that will help draw more visitors and teach more natural history and facts. There are 3-d animal tracts, pod casts, posted quotes at interval stops on the new shuttle system and much more. Check with the visitor stations to help plan your trip. The park is fully open each year from May through October. So, start planning now.
Glacier National Park is a wonderful place for your next family vacation! You will find plenty of outdoor adventure in this spectacular national park that holds some of the rarest form of rock layers in the world. There is also fishing, swimming, backpacking, day hiking, horseback riding, mule riding, cross-country skiing, glaciers and a generous variety of wildlife. Check below for great Glacier National Park information.
Uniqueness
Glacier National Park preserves over 1,000,000 acres of forests, alpine meadows, and lakes. Its diverse habitats are home to over 70 species of mammals and over 260 species of birds. The spectacular glaciated landscape is a hiker’s paradise containing 700 miles of maintained trails that lead deep into one of the largest intact ecosystems in the lower 48 states. The park contains over 350 structures listed on the National Register of Historic Sites and six National Historic Landmarks. President Taft signed the bill establishing Glacier as the country’s 10th national park in 1910.
In 1932 Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Park, in Canada, were designated Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park-a world first. This designation celebrates the longstanding peace and friendship between our two nations. Glacier and Waterton Lakes have both been designated as Biosphere Reserves and together were recognized, in 1995, as a World Heritage Site.
Several of the sedimentary rock layers found in Waterton/Glacier, contain fossils called stromatolites. They were colonial organisms of blue-green algae that lived in warm shallow seas marginal to ancient lands. Six species representing three genera of stromatolites are preserved in the ancient sediments of the park. Because of the high degree of preservation of the rocks in which these fossils occur, the stromatolites of Waterton/Glacier contain such detail as to make them unique. Paleontologists from around the world come to Waterton/Glacier to study these fossils because of their preservation, diversity, and antiquity. These fossils are a major source of information concerning the physical and chemical conditions on the Earth for a time period of about 800 million years, at a time over a billion years ago.
While much has changed since the first visitors came to Glacier, it is possible to relive some of Glacier’s early history. You can take a horseback ride like an early visitor. Miles of hiking trails follow routes first used by trappers in the early 1800′s. Several hotels and chalets, built by the Great Northern Railway in the early 1900′s, house summer guests to the park. A visit to Glacier National Park is still a great adventure! There are numerous outdoor adventure options for your family vacation. In Glacier, bicycles are restricted to roadways, bike routes, or parking areas and are not allowed on trails, but Waterton Lakes National Park allows bicycling on some trails. Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park provides a wonderful opportunity to view animals in their natural setting. There’s also backpacking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, camping, and fishing.
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