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What is the best route from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park?

My partner and I are huge national park geeks and we’re planning on hitting Yellowstone and Glacier this summer. We’re going to be renting a car to drive between the two of them. What’s the best way to get from Yellowstone to Glacier, though?

avatar
Shannon Fitzgerald · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
Hitting two national parks with one drive sounds like an excellent plan for a
Wyoming
to
Montana
road trip!
Here’s the best route from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park if you want to get there quickly:
  • Take US-20 W out of Yellowstone and into Montana (and a small part of
    Idaho
    )
  • Use US-87 N to get back up into Montana and hook up to US-287 N
  • Take US-287 N into
    Helena
    , then get onto I-15 N
  • Hop to US-287 N in Wolf Creek, then US-89 N in Choteau
  • Continue on US-89 N until
    Browning
    , then get onto US-2 W
  • Take US-2 W into Glacier Village, then use MT-49 N to drive into the park
Optionally, in the summer months you can continue heading north via US-89 N until St. Mary to take the scenic “Going to the Sun Road” within the park.
A second (but longer) route alternative will take a slightly different path once you hit Harrison:
  • Instead of continuing on US-287 N, use MT-359 to get onto I-90 W in Cardwell
  • In
    Butte
    , use I-15 N to continue onto I-90 N
You’ll have two choices once you hit a fork in the road in Garrison, then. You can either go east via US-12 E to eventually connect to MT-83 N through more of the mountain, or you can continue on I-90 N toward
Missoula
and pass along Flathead Lake via US-93 N to get into West Glacier.
Your total drive between the two parks will take around 9 hours depending on traffic—ideally you’d want to break this up into at least two or three days. Before you head out, you’ll also want to check the weather patterns along your route and prepare to pay any tolls, especially on the US routes.
Protecting yourselves and your rental with
rental insurance
is an equally important part of prepping for a National Park trip—and
Jerry
, the car insurance
super app
, can help!
The app is free to use and instantly compares quotes from over 55 top insurers to determine the best rates available for the coverage you need. The average user ends up saving more than $800 a year on
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