Going-To-The-Sun-Rd Glacier National Park height?

Park service says over 10 ft in height may have trouble heading west around the loop due to rock overhangs. But the Westy angles in somewhat. Anyone do this road? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Wasaabi said:

Park service says over 10 ft in height may have trouble heading west around the loop due to rock overhangs. But the Westy angles in somewhat. Anyone do this road? Any suggestions? Thanks.

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I think you will be able to come in only so far from the east. That will get you to the visitor center up on the top, but you'll have to turn around and go back.... long drive. We saw a guy try to take a B+ motorhome up the steep curvy part of the road. He was hitting the rock wall, knocking rocks off the wall and banging his vehicle badly. He probably got cited for bring too big a vehicle up there and endangering the oncoming traffic, and even causing destruction to the Park. We took our RAV4 up there and were 10 cars back and saw the entire thing. What a horror. His rig was new too.

Nice to be up there when nobody else is (road closed to vehicles). Nice video. When we were there, unfortunately it was lines of traffic both coming up and going down. We did see mountain goats near the visitor center.

We drove the road in our Sprinter Westy a couple years ago. We went from South to North on the road as part of a trek from Tetons to Banff. Was tight in a couple places, but we had no problems. I asked a ranger before we started, and he said we would be fine. Happily, we were.��

I did it in my Westy about 8 yrs ago. Several overhangs made it tight enough that crossing over the double yellow line made it more relaxing. Like the previous poster. a Ranger said I wouldn't have problems.

Thank you for the input. That’s a scary story. We intend to leave from Lake McDonald and head out and back, so we would be along the rocks, and with busy July park traffic, crossing the double yellow may be complex. We might just decide to join the rat race and take the shuttles. Kind of hard to leave our “home” behind.

May be worthwhile just to be a passenger on a shuttle rather than spending all your time watching the road.

Years ago at the park's campground, I saw this deer hanging around a fence near the campground. An hour later, it was still there so I took a closer look. It had just given birth to two fawns.

The campground also had signs warning dog owners that deer would attack your dogs!

I drove my Westy about 10 years ago west to east. Left a CG at 6 AM and did not meet a single vehicle till after the halfway visitor center where I spent time hiking around. No problems from there on to Many Glaciers CG.

They have restrictions because of height and length for very practical reasons and to eliminate most RVs that are too wide as a consequence. Crossing over the yellow line especially on the hairpin turns by being too long or wide is one. Going east to west you have a chance of hitting the rock overhangs. I don't think going west to east is a problem in that regard and I don't think a van has a problem as I did it in my extended body (24 ft.) Sprinter. They have an arbitrary length cutoff I think to simply eliminate Class Cs, Class As, trailers, etc. that are mostly too long, tall and wide. It is somewhat hit or miss depending on the gate attendant on duty knowing RVs and familiar with Sprinters. When I crossed, he just asked me if I was comfortable in crossing. The parks own touring passenger coaches are 24 foot long Sprinters.

Otherwise going around the perimeter of the park is about three times as long. Going west to east on the Going to the Sun road to the visitor center about half-way is not a problem.

The last time I was at Glacier NP, they were more than very strict about the 21’ length restriction with my 22’6” Class B motorhome. It was late September when most of the Park was already closed (no shuttle busses or Red Jammers), and the absolutely humorless ranger at the St. Mary's entrance station to Going to the Sun Road was extremely direct and pointed in telling me that I was limited to going no farther than the Rising Sun Boat Ramp. As I drove the 15 minutes there, I found an NPS police car driving right behind me; somehow I had the feeling the ranger at the entrance station sent this officer to make sure I didn’t drive my motorhome over Logan's Pass.

It was quite frustrating to me, especially since I know the NPS Sprinter shuttles the exact same size as mine go over Logan's Pass several times per day during the busy season. My guess is that they don’t want longer vehicles competing for the limited and shorter parking spaces along the roadway, and I guess they have to draw the line somewhere. However, I do resent the lack of seasonal discretion this ranger seemed to exercise.

Rock Doc
2014 Pleasureway Plateau TS in 2013 Sprinter 3500

We played it safe and took the shuttle as well when we were there.

We can't believe our eyes many times in our travels when we see what some people drive. We continually ask why would they want to take a house with them on holiday? Another way of looking at it is like in boating: the boat/RV size is inversely proportional to the IQ.


AL

We ended up with the shuttles and despite some crowds it was more than worthwhile to avoid the drive. A bonus was that the shuttles are mostly T1N Sprinters with some sort of custom roof AC (which runs in 12v). Impressive to see 13+ year old Sprinters in a mountain shuttle service still running strong.