Glacier National Park Shopping

Glacier Outdoor Center has all the gear for outdoor enthusiasts. There is cheap camping gear, cold weather clothing, water wear, all the fishing gear you could think of and fun t-shirts. Eveyone in the shop also know a ton about the area and can help plan a trip!

What to buy: Outdoor gear to keep you prepared

This little shop attached to the Swift Current Motor Inn & Cabins is a handy all purpose shop. The people who work there are very friendly and helpful. There is a big porch out front with chairs to sit on in case you want to eat/drink what you just bought and enjoy the great views. It is conveniently attached to the lobby of the Swift Current Motor Inn which comes in handy when it's raining and cold out. We would routinely go into the shop, pick up a few beers and a snack to enjoy in the lobby. It seemed a bit strange at first but we we not the only ones doing it.

Local beers we tried: 1) Big Hole Mythical White (Big Hole Brewing, Belgrade MT)-Lightly filtered golden ale w/ fluffy white head & coriander nose. Lightly spiced & fruity, this may lack the dryness of a true Belgian Grand Cru but at 7% it's certainly not overly sweet and is quite a thirst quencher. 2) Moose Drool Brown Ale (Big Sky Brewing, Missoula, MT)-Light bodied & fairly thin on flavor. Easy to drink but not overly tasty. 3) Scape Goat Pale Ale (Big Sky Brewing)-A lighter Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. Not overly tasty but not bad either.

What to buy: We came with pretty much everything we needed but not everyone is so prepared and they have main food stuffs and all camping supplies. Of course, even the well-prepared can't have everything like ice cream (doesn't hold up well in the cooler) and of course, some local beers. Tokens for the shower are also sold here.

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The General Store at Lake McDonald is spacious and sells groceries, t-shirts, souvenirs, film and other handy items you might need in your park visit. What caught my eye was a small fire extinguisher filled with bear strength pepper spray. I asked the cashier about it and she said it really works and is much stronger than regular pepper spray .

By far, the most useful store we found in the Glacier National Park area was the Exxon Park Grocery, located in St. Mary where the Going-to-the-Sun Road meets State Highway 89 running along the eastern edge of the park.

What to buy: Our first stop there was to get a full tank of gas before heading over the continental divide and, while we were at it, we discovered their nice separate block of toilets around the far end of the store. We did more business here after our disatisfaction with the St. Mary's Supermarket and discovered that they also had 3 internet hookups at much more reasonable rates than Brownie's in East Glacier Park.

Their small convenience store also supplied us with bottled water, cheese, crackers, ice cream and wine when we spent our final night nearby in our cottage at the Rising Sun Motor Inn.

The Blackfeet Indian reservation on the eastern side of Glacier NP has a big resort, The Resort at Glacier, and associated supermarket in St. Mary, at the eastern entrance to the Park. It looked like a modern place so we went in to do some shopping for bread, cheese, crackers, peanut butter, wine and water to have with us both in our hotel rooms and for lunches during any hikes we might be taking.

We found what we wanted, including a 6-pack of water bottles that had a big sign saying they were on a 'Special' deal. However, when we reached the lone teller, she pulled out a long sheet of paper that had various items on it, including the water bottles. She said the special was no longer valid and they were actually double the price. We were not to impressed with this and mentioned to her that they store should remove the sign if that was the case. It was not a large amount of money so we paid up and went on our way.

The following day, we passed the store again as we moved to our next accommodations stop, so we headed in again for re-supplies. We were surprised to see, when we passed the water bottles again, that the sign was still there (we did not buy any this time). At the till, I mentioned to the same teller as before that this was false advertising and they should get their signs sorted out. Her reply was that it was not her job, the Manager was supposed to do that.

What to buy: After that, we shopped next door at the Exxon Park Grocery.

Located next door to the Whistle Stop Restaurant on the outskirts of the little town of East Glacier Park, Brownie's was just about as quirky as the restaurant was. In addition to being a bakery and delicatessen, it was also a convenience store and had two computers in a corner of the room beside the shelves of groceries. When we asked the owner about internet access, he said it was no problem and would cost $1.75 for 15 minutes - any port in a storm! I mentioned that both computers were in use, but he said they were just employees and he would kick them off! We wondered why they were both speaking what sounded like Russian, until we later learned that over 50 employees of tourist facilities in town were on work contracts from Eastern European countries. Later I noticed a long and very plain looking 2-story attachment at the back of the store, which turned out to be a hostel where many of these workers stayed.

What to buy: We got our little fix checking for messages and a quick peek at the VT site, before returning to our room at Glacier Park Lodge. There was very little in the way of internet access in Waterton National Park and none at all in any of the four lodges we stayed at in Glacier NP.

After taking more than our share of photos and videos in Waterton Lakes NP, Alberta we realized that we did not have enough blank video DVDs to last for the 4-day duration of our Glacier NP trip. We would have had to back-track quite a way in Alberta to find a sizeable community likely to have a store that could meet our needs, so we decided to head south anyway to see what the story was in Montana. After crossing the border, we managed to obtain a map of the State, showing that this part of Montana is also sparsely populated by large communities. Our best bet appeared to be on the other side of the Rocky Mountains in the city of Kalispell or maybe one of the small communities between there and the western entrance to Glacier NP.

What to buy: Our first night's accommodation was booked for the southeastern part of Glacier, so while on our way down the east side of the Park, we veered off onto the Going-to-the-Sun Road for a detour over to the west side through the middle of the Park. Over an hour later, we were in luck as we emerged from the Park into the small community of West Glacier - there on the side of the street was a small photographic store! They had what we needed for DVDs and I also had them burn a disc of photos that I had previously taken, to free up space on my camera memory card - total cost US$30.