Customer Reviews

Glacier Day Hikes, revised edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Glacier Day Hikes was one of two guides I purchased prior to a recent trip to Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes (the sister park in Canada). There are 34 hikes listed here broken down by geographic regions inside Glacier. At the beginning of each hike listing, there is some basic information such as length in miles, level of difficulty, and best time of year to complete the hike. The maps and detailed descriptions are clear and relatively easy to use.

Overall, this is a good guide and if it was the only one I had purchased, I probably would have been pretty happy with it. Since I had the opportunity to compare it to another book, however, certain flaws became rather apparent. First, this book is too large to fit in a pocket so you can't easily bring it on the trail. Second, the elevation change (or amount of climbing) during the hike is not given either in the summary or the detailed description. This is a huge factor in determining the difficulty of a hike and should be included. Their difficulty rating is nice, but I prefer to gauge some aspects of the hike myself. Another quirk in the book is that the geographic categories don't make a lot of sense. Glacier National Park has several areas that lend themselves to this kind of distinction but in some cases the book made up its own boundaries instead and I found this very confusing to use. Finally, the book includes no hikes from Waterton, so if you go to the Canadian side, you will get no guidance here.

Comparing Glacier Day Hikes to the Best Easy Day Hikes Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks, 2nd (Best Easy Day Hikes Series) it's pretty easy for me to say that the Falcon Guide was more helpful. It had none of the flaws that Glacier Day Hikes did and was the one that I carried with me during the whole trip including the hikes themselves. This book does list more hikes within Glacier, but they are all longer hikes that many people won't want to try anyway. This is certainly not a bad book; it has a lot of useful information. But it is not as helpful as "Best Easy Day Hikes" so I can't recommend it.

I read this book and picked out short, day hikes for my wife and I before going to Glacier National Park. It gives length of hike, elevation change, rates the difficulty, gives a map, and describes the scenery and landmarks along the way. I used it on the hike to help find the way, because the park trails are not always marked very well.

Glacier Day Hikes, was a very useful & helful book on a recent trip to Glacier National Park. The guide is filled with tips, like the best time to hike, items of interest along the trail and distance & duration. I recommed hiking St. Mary and Virginia Falls, Hidden Lake and Appekunny Falls. Especially if you enjoy viewing snowmelt waterfalls! Get out of your car when visiting Glacier National Park; over 700 miles of trails exist for you to explore.

If you are interested in plants, an excellent companion book is Wildflowers of Glacier National Park and Surrounding Areas by Shannon Fitzpatrick Kimball and Peter Lesica (Trillium Press). This book is very user friendly and is more than just a refernce book of wildflowers. Glacier National Park is a horticulturist's paradise.

When you drive a great distance to visit a National Park like Glacier, you want to maximize your time. This guide helps you do exactly that.

Glacier National Park cannot truly be appreciated from a car. Sure, the Going To the Sun Highway is a wonder in itself, but Glacier National Park is about the trails. And if you are physically able, one has to get out and see the true beauty of the park on foot. There are hundreds of miles of trails that criss-cross the park, and some are better than others. This guide tells you so much about the trails themselves, such as how long they are, what you are seeing, the elevation gain, difficulty level, etc. One can plan a trip to Glacier by using this guide, deciding which trails to hike, which lakes have fish to catch, which "must-see" sights to explore, and what animals you can expect to see.

I have been to Glacier National Park nearly a dozen times over the past 25 years, and have walked virtually all the trails. This guide helped me prioritize my hiking experience and made my many trips to Glacier so much more enjoyable.

Highly Recommended.

Jim "Konedog" Konedog

Glacier Day Hikes is a great book for anybody who wants to get out and enjoy the splendor of Glacier National Park. The guides and information for the trails are accurate and informative and the photos are spectacular. I highly recomend this book.

If you are looking for a book to help you plan your shorter day hikes, this is the one.I bought 3 books on hiking in Glacier but "Glacier Day Hikes" was the best. This book gave me the information I needed to determine which hikes would get me to the best shots in Glacier in a relatively short period of time.

This one seemed like the friendliest and easiest to use, but it ended up being the most inaccurate, the worst organized, and the most incomplete. For example, one famous trail was described as "easy" and "7.5 miles round trip." In fact, it was 15 miles round trip; and describing 15 miles in any terrain, much less an alpine one, as 'easy' is a curious choice, and one I found myself grumbling about several times around miles 11 and 12.

Erik Molvar's book proved to be far more trustworthy.

This book describes the many day hikes available at Glacier National Park in Montana. It provides very descriptive information about the hikes and gives a total distance as well as fitness level guidance for those who love to hike. I am glad I purchased this book as we will have some time to hike and don't want to miss out on any of the wonders that Glacier National Park has to offer. It is only a hiking book and does not offer any insights as to lodging, or restaurants but it is what I was seeking.

I have read the book through, but haven't had the opportunity to test it out. It has been 7 years since I have been to the park and from my personal past reference, I believe I will enjoy using this book on my next trip.

If you don't already have a book for day hikes, I would highly recommend this book just by reading it.

This book is great for helping in planning what hikes you want to take. The only down side is that they don't show pictures of all the trails. I really wish they did so you can get a sample of what you would see. However, I don't know of any other books that offers both the pictures and the detailed descriptions. Like I said, it does offer good descriptions along with mileage and tips. This is a must have if you are going to Glacier National Park.