One of the most beautiful settings for a national park stay is Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park. Set on the shores of Swift Current Lake with a view of the craggy Rockies in all directions, the lodge is one of the venerable old souls of the National Park System's lodging fraternity. But, sadly, it's well-worn and shabby in places. To remedy that, there's a renovation plan under way.

A $10,000 grant from the Glacier National Park Fund will enable biologists to learn more about the bighorn sheep that inhabit Glacier National Park along the park's boundary with the Blackfeet Reservation.

The calendar and Mother Nature are in agreement at Glacier National Park in Montana: the winter season has officially begun, and most roads in the park are closed to vehicles and open for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.

For most, a national park vacation entails booking a room in a lodge or reserving a spot in a campground, arriving at the park and checking in, and then spending a number of days hiking, paddling, or traveling the park to view various sites, whether they focus on waterfalls, geysers, deep forests, museums, or cultural focal points. Here are some alternatives to that approach, some pricey, some not so.