Customer Reviews

Moon Glacier National Park (Moon Handbooks)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Moon Handbooks guide for Glacier National Parks was one of just a few books I could find when searching for help planning a recent trip there. While there may not be many options, it turns out that none were needed because everything I needed was right here. The book begins by briefly introducing the geographic areas of the park, and then offers a few sample itineraries. Once the preliminaries are out of the way, the author proceeds to get down to the real detail of exploring each geographic region in detail. A guide to exploring the sights, recreation options, accommodations, and food are included for each region. The book closes with some more basic information like the best ways to get to Glacier and some history of the area.

I found the information in the guide to be helpful, accurate, and fairly complete. It's description of the two hotels I stayed in were spot on for both the positives and negatives. We didn't spend a lot of time in restaurants on the trip but from what I saw this part was also accurate. About the only flaw with the book is that it is printed and obviously can't be constantly updated. When I arrived at Glacier, I learned that a large section of Going-to-the-sun road was closed for the next several weeks and this included the Logan Pass area. I say this not to blame the guide but to encourage people to check with the park rangers in advance to see if there are any road closures that might affect your desire to go.

This book is a definite keeper for those planning a trip to Glacier National Park. It also contains information on Waterton for those interested in making the drive up to the Canadian side (and I would encourage readers to do it if at all possible). It's writing is concise and clear, and the information is complete and accurate.

This book is an excellent choice for anyone planning a trip to Glacier National Park. The sections of the book correspond well to geographic sections of the park; which makes it helful when trying to find a place to stay or eat or to look up attractions, hikes, etc. Though not necessarily geared to families with kids, like ours, the material in the book is very useful in planning activities with kids such as distance and difficulty of hikes. The information on lodging and eating establishments is very current. The text is well written. Get a copy of this book and plan your trip today for an experience you and your family will never forget.

The Moon series of guides my wife and I have used are accurate, organized and very helpful. The Canadian rocky mountain park guide was particularly good and matched our experience in all the national and provincial parks. Although published this year, the glacier guide was not so reliable. Its description of the park layout was confusing but somewhat justified by the fact that the park layout consists partly of separate sections with separate entrances accessed by dead-end roads. Accommodations were not always described accurately which lead to some embarrassment. For example, the guide stated that it was alright to bring alcohol into the St. Mary's Cafe. Our waiter denied it and was offended by the thought that anyone would ever be allowed to do so. We stayed at the Johnson cabins there partly because the guide stated that they rented for $75-$100/night. They were $159/night minimum and the owner was annoyed when showed the book citation. He said the price hadn't been that low since he built the cabins. Our experience hiking the trails did not always fit our expectations based upon reading the guide which was not always clear or correct regarding location of trail heads and trail details. For example, the scenic trail lookout point in Two Medicine was described as lying below the main trail while in fact it is above it. Nevertheless, most of the information was useful and we were glad to have the book to help us organize our stay.

This was a great guide for my trip to Glacier. It proved to be invaluable. It detailed hikes, routes, accommodation, dining and wildlife in the park very accurately.Pretty much everything could be taken as fact, such as the overcrowding at Logan's Pass and the side of the car you should sit on if you're nervous of heights whilst on the Going-to-the-Sun road.
In fact, at Glacier it was the ONLY guide book I could find on the park (although I'd bought mine on Amazon!).
If your planning on visiting Glacier get this book in advance. It's really interesting as it tells you histories related to the park and lets you in on events that happen throughout the year, as well as good tips as to view the wildlife.

This book was the only book we could find that was a comprehensive travel guide to Glacier National Park. It was very user friendly and had the sections of the park easily organized. The restaurants and attractions that were given a "moon" or a must see rating, were spot on. We found the information succinct and helpful and it helped us plan both our days and nights. Almost everything we needed to know was in this book. However, it did lack information on some of the smaller hikes which we were able to find in the park paper, and it had almost no information or pictures of the flora and fauna in the area, which made it frustrating when we saw something and didn't have a way to know what it was. The park papers didn't have that either! This book was invaluable to a first time traveller to the area and I highly recommend it.

I found this guide to be well written and very informative. It is nice to have such a good base of usable information contained in one source. The author did a great job in pointing out the highlights of the park.

As all vacations, my next one at Glacier is not long enough. I found the book extremely helpful in designing a unique camping experience for my self and family, including, hiking, rafting, kayaking, wildlife and landscape photography. I especially liked the details on every trail (length, degree of difficulty etc) river (easy flowing or class V rapids etc) or lake (winds, places to put in) on the accommodations and of course dining (formal and Informal) all of which helped me with the planning. Easy reading and well organized information - tons of useful information.

This book saved me so much time and money. The author really knows all about Glacier and it's surrounding area. She directed to me to wonderful accommodations and activities I normally wouldn't have checked out. The author even pointed out a close airport that saved me 1 whole day of travel time.The information is very well organized by area, organized by most popular, and even by 'see it in 1 day'. If there is one draw back, there is very little about Browning and the Blackfeet Nation. But for all else, you can't go wrong with this book-highly recommended.

Bought this book as I was planning a trip to Glacier National Park with my wife and seven year old daughter. It was our first vacation west of the Mississippi and reading the book felt like I had already been there and it was easy to find my way around. We spent seven days in Glacier and, while we did not get to everything I had hoped, the book was indispensable. Ms. Lomax' spot-on descriptions of campgrounds, restaurants and camp stores as well as trails and sights helped us prepare better to enjoy the trip.

It's a very good guide, telling you how to plan your visit and almost list every useful information. However, I notice that she said st. mary visitor center opens at 8, and another place she said open at 7. So I'm not sure which one is right.

Some information is a little out of date, for example, hotel rates. But it is reasonable because hotels increase rates every year.