Driving and eating in Glacier & Yellowstone National Parks

It looks like we will be driving through Montana and Wyoming this spring to visit Glacier, Grand Teton and Yellowstone. I am not looking for high end places, but rather local joints. I suspect that these areas have some good breweries as well. All advice is appreciated.


Cheers!
Marshall

I stayed an evening at the Lake Hotel, Yellowstone Lake, back in June 2015. The dinner was very nice. Had a bison tenderloin, cooked rare.

Jackson likely now has a number of very good restaurants, but whenever I am up in Grand Teton National Park (about every June) I always eat fresh-caught Lake Trout, filleted and cooked in cast iron, at camp.

Snake River Brewery, in Jackson, makes a very good IPA called Pako’s, but I’ve never visited nor eaten at the brewery. Jackson is very much a “touristy” place.

The restaurant at Colter Bay, GTNP, is not very good. But, again, fresh-caught Lake Trout out of the lake next door can be very good . . . .

Bozeman and Missoula both have excellent little breakfast joints. PM me if you are interested in either place.

As neat a drive as it is from Livingston, MT, into the north entrance to Yellowstone (running upstream, against the Yellowstone River in a very “proud” state of flow), if you have the time give serious consideration to traveling the Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge down into Yellowstone via the northeast entrance to the Park. It’s a drive you will never, ever, forget.

Enjoy, regardless, as that all if very special country!!

Thanks Terry: I will check the map for roads and routes. I will have a fishing rod with me but do not know if I will have time to fish. We are staying a few days in Kalispell so I might get a chance while there.

Cheers!
Marshall

“Hey Boo Boo, let’s go get us a pic-a-nic basket”

EL Bumpo! Any more ideas for Glacier, Yellowstone and Jackson? All advice is welcome.

Cheers!
Marshall

I lived in Whitefish for 5 years when I was a ski bum a decade ago, so I don’t have any current local dining recommendations but I wanted to let you know that Kalispel is a very utilitarian hub for the area without any charm. If your looking just somewhere to park for the night its certainly fine, but if you want a bit more local flavor I would look at whitefish or maybe Bigfork.
If you have already seen flathead lake during your trip, I would take route 83 south from there, it’s much more scenic (besides the lake, which is beautiful) and basically has no traffic in comparison to 93.

I’ve been to both and would say if you’re spending a lot of time in the parks, bring a Coleman stove and a cooler. Yellowstone is the size of Rhode Island and I didn’t find a lot to eat there. Plenty of places to pull off, fire up the stove and make food though.

When we visited, we camped (first time I got snowed on while camping in June). We’d get up early, eat at our site and leave for the entire day. Usually get back around dark. There is just so much to see and do. I’m not sure if it was the altitude or the amount of hiking we were doing, but I was so hungry one morning that I ate six eggs and an entire package of Brown n Serve sausages. Oh and don’t forget to bring a french press for coffee if you need a caffeine fix.

Glacier is also very large but I don’t think quite as big as Yellowstone. Lots of stuff to eat on the east side of the park as I recall. Had to wait forever to get a table at one place – wasn’t even close to worth it. Hopefully I’ll get to go back to both places, but it won’t be for the food…

We went to Glacier Park a few years ago as part of a train trip across country. We ate dinner at the Glacier Lodge, where we stayed. The Lodge was beautiful, the restaurant was very mediocre, at best.

Thanks guys…I am not expecting much in the way of “fine dining.” We are not camping so hopefully, we can find places with local beer and a decent burger. Any other suggestions are certainly appreciated!


Cheers!
Marshall

Marshall - Good restaurants can be found in the cities. I know Livingston and Bozeman have good places to eat & drink. If you head north out of Gardiner to Pray, you can eat (and stay) at Chico Hot Springs and old sentimental favorite.

A couple of places that I like close to the NE entrance of Yellowstone are the Log Cabin Café in Silvergate and the Beartooth Café in Cooke City.

Kind of random, but the co-op grocery store in Bozeman is quite good.

I haven’t eaten at the Yellowstone Valley Lodge in incredibly beautiful Paradise Valley, but I heard very good things about it when I visited the area last June. Someone in the wine biz even raved about the sashimi there.

The problem I found, and the reason I always had food in the car, is that it can take forever to get from point A to point B. 25 MPH on a lot of the roads then stoppages for Bison, Bears, Elk, Moose, tourists, etc. Could take a few hours to get back to a place to eat. The worst place I ever experienced that was in the Badlands. There’s almost no food in that entire area. At least having some cold cuts for sandwiches might be a good plan.

That looks nice. I think I will look into what, if any, availability they might have around early September . . . even if it is 2017 or 2018, and whether fishing on the river is any good walking distance from the property. I’ve only been on that stretch of pavement once (well twice, considering it was a round trip) when I rendezvoused with my daughter and her law school buddy in Livingston - they had started that morning in Great Falls; me, in Dubois, WY - and swapped rigs, with my daughter and me taking her vehicle back to Colter Bay for a few days of fishing Jackson Lake, back in September 2013. The season’s first huge snow-dump chased us out of Colter Bay and back home a couple of days early that year. But, that drive along the Yellowstone River, from the Park to Livingston, was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. The river looked very fishable.

Terry: I will have a light spinning rod & reel with me. I am not a fly fisherman. Spinning gear and small lures work on these waters?

Thanks again
Marshall

Log Cabin Cafe is always a favorite for us when we’ve stayed in Cooke City. Love the “old school” breakfasts after a chilly early morning of wolf watching out in the Lamar Valley. At dinner time, have to try their trout specialty (and that’s coming from someone who is generally not a fresh-water fish guy).