Glacier National Park

The park's lakes are some of the clearest anywhere, but they are fed by snowmelt and stay cold through the summer. Lake McDonald's coloured pebble shore at Apgar is lovely for a paddle on a hot July afternoon, and a quick dip is a bracing ritual rather than a swim. Two Medicine, Bowman and the Many Glacier lakes are colder still.

For proper lake swimming, families drive out of the park to Whitefish Lake, with a town beach and a lively summer scene, or to Flathead Lake, whose surface warms to around 20°C in August and which has state park beaches along its shores. The swimming season is short, roughly July to early September.

Inside the park, eating means lodge dining rooms, cafeterias and camp stoves, serviceable rather than memorable. The regional flavour is huckleberry, which turns up in pie, ice cream, jam and cocktails at every stop, along with Montana beef, bison burgers and trout.

The better meals are in the gateway towns. Whitefish has the widest choice, with a handful of thoughtful restaurants, craft breweries and a summer farmers' market, and Kalispell and Columbia Falls add more casual options. Roadside cherry stands along Flathead Lake are a summer pleasure. It is a place to eat well enough after a long hike, not a reason to come.

The built heritage here is tied to the landscape. The Going-to-the-Sun Road, engineered into the cliffs over Logan Pass in the 1920s and 1930s, is itself a landmark, and the great timber lodges built by the Great Northern Railway, at East Glacier, Many Glacier and Lake McDonald, are handsome examples of Swiss-chalet rustic architecture with vast log lobbies.

On the east side, the Blackfeet Reservation borders the park, and the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning holds a fine collection of Northern Plains clothing and craft. Kalispell has a Victorian mansion museum and a small historic centre. Visitors who want museums will find little more than that.

Evenings in the park end with sunset over the lake, a drink in a lodge lounge and an early night before a dawn start on the trails. Whitefish is the only place with any going out, a short main street of old-fashioned saloons and brewery taprooms that fills up on summer weekends and with skiers in winter. There are no clubs to speak of.

This is mountain wilderness of the first order: sharp, glacier-carved peaks along the Continental Divide, more than 700 lakes in shades of turquoise, hanging valleys with waterfalls, cedar rainforest on the west side and prairie meeting the mountains on the east. Grizzly and black bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep and moose are seen regularly, and the wildlife is as much a reason to come as the scenery.

Many Glacier is the best base for hikers, with trails to Grinnell Glacier, Iceberg Lake and Ptarmigan Tunnel, while the Highline Trail from Logan Pass traverses the Garden Wall high above the valleys. Two Medicine is quieter, the North Fork remote. Kayaking, rafting on the Middle Fork of the Flathead and cycling the Sun Road before it opens to cars add more. The high country is generally snow-free only from July to September.

Most days here are spent in the park itself, but a few outings make a change. Across the Canadian border, the small resort town of Waterton sits beneath its grand old railway hotel on a windy lake, and is an easy day from the east side. On the west side, Whitefish makes a relaxed afternoon, and the drive down Flathead Lake leads to the arts village of Bigfork and the lakeshore cherry orchards.

Further south, the historic St Ignatius Mission and the towns of the Flathead Reservation are a longer day. Beyond that, the distances in Montana grow quickly, and there are no heritage sites of real weight within easy reach.

A national park vacation works well with children who like being outdoors. Easy walks such as the Trail of the Cedars boardwalk, Running Eagle Falls and the short path to Hidden Lake give real rewards, the historic boat tours on Many Glacier and Two Medicine lakes save little legs, and spotting mountain goats or a bear from a safe distance is unforgettable. The Junior Ranger programme and evening ranger talks are well done.

There is nothing else made for children, though: no attractions, long drives on narrow mountain roads, crowded car parks and basic lodge rooms. Bear spray and constant care around water and cliffs are part of every day. It suits families with school-age children far better than toddlers.

A car is all but essential. The Going-to-the-Sun Road is the spine of the park, a slow, narrow, cliff-edge drive across Logan Pass that is open only in summer, and the valleys on the east side, Many Glacier and Two Medicine, are reached from outside the park on long roads. Car parks at trailheads fill early in July and August.

There are alternatives for the patient. The cross-country train stops at West Glacier and East Glacier, the park runs a free shuttle along the Sun Road in summer, and the classic red open-top buses give guided tours. Glacier Park International Airport near Kalispell is about half an hour from the west entrance.

Shopping is mostly lodge gift shops, outdoor gear and jars of huckleberry jam. Whitefish has a pleasant main street of galleries, Western-wear and outdoor clothing shops, and Kalispell has the everyday chains. Beadwork and other crafts from Blackfeet artists, found around Browning and in a few galleries, are the most meaningful thing to take home.

Glacier is an expensive place in its short summer season. Rooms in the historic park lodges and in Whitefish are pricey and book out far ahead, restaurant meals carry resort mark-ups, and a hire car is close to unavoidable. The cheaper way to do it is camping in the park's campgrounds or staying in the motels of Kalispell and Columbia Falls and driving in, which brings costs down considerably. The hiking itself, once inside, costs nothing.

Performing arts are small-town and seasonal. Bigfork, on Flathead Lake, has a long-established summer playhouse staging Broadway musicals in repertory, and the Flathead Valley supports a regional symphony orchestra and community theatre in Whitefish. Inside the park, the evening entertainment is ranger talks around the campfire and Blackfeet speakers sharing their history and culture. For anything more, Montana's cities are many hours away.

There are no hot springs or bathing traditions near the park, and spa treatments are limited to a few resort hotels around Whitefish. What the area does offer is quiet: lakeside lodges with no televisions, evenings on a porch watching the light fade on the peaks, and a rhythm set by daylight. That suits visitors who unwind by switching off, but anyone hoping for soaking and pampering will find little.