Learn about wildest nature, meet great people, and have fun in Glacier National Park.

Since 1983, The Glacier Institute, a private nonprofit, has been providing hands-on, field-based educational adventures to people from all over the world in nature’s wildest places, Glacier National Park and the Flathead National Forest, located within the Crown of the Continent ecosystem. The Institute is an equal opportunity provider of education.

The Glacier Institute operates field camps near Apgar in Glacier National Park and at Big Creek on the North Fork Road in the Flathead National Forest.

The Big Creek Outdoor Education Center, a historic Flathead National Forest Ranger Station, is located along the Wild and Scenic North Fork of the Flathead River adjacent to Glacier National Park, a twenty minute drive from West Glacier. The Big Creek campus includes two bunkhouses with bathrooms, a main dining hall (which can accommodate up to forty people), a meeting room, a large classroom, a twenty foot tepee and additional teaching space. Big Creek runs on a generator for electricity and has no public phone service, although a phone is available for emergency calls.

Big Creek is staffed by Beau Servo, Big Creek Program Director and experienced educators whose backgrounds are in environmental education and the sciences. Since 1988, Big Creek has been home to Youth Science Adventure Camps, Discovery School and numerous adult field courses which operates under a special use permit with the Flathead National Forest.

The Glacier Park Field Camp and/or Big Creek Outdoor Education Center can be rented for custom programs, small conferences, trainings and retreats. For more information, please contact register@glacierinstitute.org or our Main Office at (406) 755-1211.

This camp holds classes for school groups and other educational classes.

Glacier Park Field Camp

The Glacier Park Field Camp, a National Park Service facility operated by the Glacier Institute, is located just inside the West Glacier entrance of Glacier National Park. On a bluff overlooking the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, Field Camp is home to five, comfortable hostel-style cabins that can be reserved by students for $30 per bed per night. Field Camp has a community kitchen where students can store and cook food, an energy efficient bathhouse with hot showers, a classroom and the Morris Brown Myerowitz Memorial Library, which contains a diversity of books and audiovisual materials relevant to Glacier National Park and the surrounding areas.

Field Camp is staffed by Paul Rappaport, Field Camp Program Director and experienced naturalists, who brings added expertise to each course. Since 1983, Field Camp has been home for many of our adult field courses, family and custom programs. The facility is open from April to October.

NOTE: If you plan to arrive at Field Camp after 9:00 p.m., please notify the Field Camp at (406) 888-5215.

Tent and RV camping and pets are allowed at established campgrounds adjacent to both campuses.

Glacier Institute

Cabin