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Hiking from Kintla Lake to Waterton

Canton of Valais...
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37 posts
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Hiking from Kintla Lake to Waterton
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Hi,

My girlfriend and I will spend the last two weeks of September in GNP. We would like to hike from Kintla Lake to Waterton via Goat Haunt around September 24. However, we are struggling a bit with transportation. Any advice on how to get from Kalispell to the Kintla Lake trailhead, and then from Waterton back to Kalispell? We are willing to use taxis, if appropriate.

Also, are those hikes recommended at this later time of the year?

Thanks.

Greg

Kalispell, Montana
Destination Expert
for Glacier National Park, Santa Fe, Sedona
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1. Re: Hiking from Kintla Lake to Waterton
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The time of year you have chosen for hiking is great but all the park concessions, free shuttles and hotels etc will be closed by then. It is not easy to find the public transportation you would need to do what you want, even if you were to come in the main tourist season. It just does not exist so far. You cannot drive a rental car (even a 4WD without a special $$ waiver from the rental car company) on either the Bowman and especially the horrible Kintla Lake road. You would also be off grid, far away from towing help and out of cell range. In late September there is also a chance of early snow on higher trails.

I would for sure rent a car or I believe you will become frustrated up here. Try booking through the following, it usually ends up that the rates are lower than booking direct:

Rental Car Low Price Finder at Costco Travel

https://www.costcotravel.comRental-Cars

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Do you have hotel reservations in one or more of the bedroom communities for then? The park concessions etc will be closed but September is still a very popular time for avid hikers, locals and retirees.

You probably don't want to commute from Kalispell to GNP every day...depending on where your hotel is located it can take an hour in each direction just to arrive at Glacier's western gate. There are smaller bedroom communities with cabins and motels much closer to the park on both sides which will still be open for business.

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Two weeks is more time up here than you may need given the limitations. You would probably like being nearer the east side than the west since most of the more famous hiking originates from the east side of the park. At that time of year, many visitors combine Glacier/Waterton with Banff/Jasper as a nice circle tour from either Glacier or Calgary airports. We could discuss that if you like.

You cannot rent a car in one country and drop it off in the other...but you can drive it freely between countries as long as you return it to country of origin.

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You may have more questions...please ask. Check out the following link as well, it will help you choose trails to take.

Your Guide to Glacier National Park

https://www.hike734.com

Welcome to Hike 734 where you'll find trail and trip info for every mile of trail in Glacier National Park in description and beautiful ad-free, narrated video form!

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Let me know and I can attach a list of possible places to stay nearer to Glacier on both sides of the park.

Edited: 6 years ago
USA
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2. Re: Hiking from Kintla Lake to Waterton
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Do you have an advanced permit for this trip, or will you be trying for a walkup permit?

Here's a link to GNP's backcountry camping page, in case you haven't seen it yet: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/backcountry.htm

Transportation for a one-way hike on this route is VERY difficult. I don't believe shuttles are permitted in the Northfork - your best bet might be hitchhiking from Polebridge. Also, the Glacier Park Inc. east side shuttle no longer offers rides north of St. Mary (to/from the border crossing). I think there might be a shuttle from Waterton to the border, but that doesn't help unless you have a ride on the other side.

Great Falls, Montana
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570 posts
3. Re: Hiking from Kintla Lake to Waterton
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As Al mentioned, this is the most difficult trip in the park logistically. I'm not sure if you already have your permits, but one thing to consider may be tweaking your itenerary to do a partial loop from Kintla back down to Bowman. The spectacular portion of the hike is between upper kintla campground and brown pass as you travel through the boulder pass/hole-in-the-wall area. If you do a partial loop you still hit the entirety of this area and it'll make transportation significantly easier.

It definitely makes a difficult trip even more difficult now that GPI doesn't offer shuttle service from waterton as Al mentioned. However, if you still decide on the kintla-waterton through hike I think your options are really:

Take the tamarack outfitter shuttle from waterton townsite. And then you're likely looking at trying to hitch hike from customs back to st. mary, then hitch hiking to apgar, then hitch hiking back up to polebridge and then subsequently hitch hike up to Kintla if you dropped off a car. As late in the year as that is, there is going to be pretty sparse traffic and it'll likely be quite difficult to pick up rides. It might not be too difficult to get from st. mary to apgar, but all the other legs are going to be frustrating I would imagine. I would probably allocate at least 2-days to get all that done. It might be easiest to leave your rental car at polebridge and hitch hike the morning of your backpacking trip up to Kintla. That way you're catching the traffic into kintla early in the morning. If you try and do that on your return you'll likely find even less traffic into kintla later in the day and it'll be tougher. You could also pick up your permit a day early and hitch hike to Kintla campground and stay at the front country campground the night before your trip.

Long story short, there are options, but I don't know that any are good options unless you can somehow manage to arrange a friend to do the shuttling for you. I'd definitely encourage you to consider a tweak in your itinerary and end at bowman lake instead of waterton.

Edited: 6 years ago
4. Re: Hiking from Kintla Lake to Waterton

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