Board one of Glacier National Park’s fleet of 33 soft-top tour buses introduced in the 1930s to shuttle sightseers over the Continental Divide. The original red buses built by White Motor Company were restored as a gift by Ford Motor Company, which fitted them with stronger chassis and clean burning propane engines.

The historic (1936 -1939) Red Buses are both a symbol of Glacier National Park and a reminder of a time when adventurous travel was done with style and grace. The 25-foot-long touring coaches were originally built of oak and covered with a aluminum and metal skin. Safety inspections in 1999 revealed signs of metal fatigue in some of the buses' frames. This forced the withdrawal from service of the red buses. In 2002, thanks to the Ford Motor Company, the entire fleet of 33, touring coaches was completely renovated at a cost of $250,000 each.

Today, the buses serve as Glacier National Park's transportation and touring system, allowing you to travel from one side of the park to the other along the spectacular Going-to-the-Sun Road and up north to Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park. They also link all of the historic lodges and inns in the park.

Glacier's fleet of touring coaches is thought to be the largest and oldest continually operating fleet of remaining White touring coaches. In the 1930s, the White Company built 500 of these buses for Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion , Bryce, Mt Rainier and Rocky Mountain National Parks. That was a fairly large production run of a unique vehicle and most of the buses in other parks were retired from service in the 1950s.

Glacier Park, Inc.

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17 passengers