Name: Rising Sun Motor Inn and Cabins - Inside the Park
Address: Going-to-the-Sun Road, Babb, Babb, Babb, 59434, United States of America
Rating: 8

Shopping on site

Smoke-free property

Ticket assistance

Gift shop

General

Breakfast

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Barbecue grill(s)

Picnic area

Barbeque

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Personal protection equipment for staff

Extra decontamination measures

Personal protection equipment for guests

Contactless check-in and/or check-out

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the mini-hotel

St. Mary Lake

Rising Sun Motor Inn and Cabins - Inside the Park

Babb

We stayed at a standard double in the same building as the general store. The room was small with 2 doubles, a small table, a nightstand and pretty much no space for anything else. There were two vertical windows and one of them won’t stay open.

The general store next door and the two dog flats restaurant across the parking lot made the location convenient.

All in all, a pretty standard National Park room but on the smaller side.

Small rooms, decent location

Neither as big, nor as busy as it's sister lodging at Lake MacDonald.  Rising Sun sits near the east exit or entrance to Glacier NP.  Only bookable thru Xanterra, it's usually required to book quite far ahead.
Most cabins as far as we could tell, were fairly similar.  Small bedroom bed en-suite.  Veranda outside with chairs and parking right outside.  The shop and restaurant were a short walk down the access road.  Shop was decently stocked.  Restaurant was fine, tables can be a bit of a wait sometimes.  Reception/restaurant is the only WIFI access spot.
We'd easily stay here again, particularly for access to St. Mary Lake. 

Fairly basic but it's the location...

Rising Sun is one of the quietest lodgings in Glacier Park (Swiftcurrent cabins being the other).  We stayed two nights in July, in a cabin: it was small and simple, but very clean and well maintained.  Located up on a hillside, not far from a rushing stream, with excellent views of mountains.  Close to hiking trails and to historic Going to the Sun Highway.  We saw a black bear not far away.  One evening, we strolled over to the nearby campground and attended a very informative ranger talk.  Also within walking distance are a camp store and a pleasant restaurant.   The vibe at Rising Sun is low key and nature-focused.  The folks staying in the cabins were mostly couples: either retired or young.   In the evening, we set folding chairs outside our cabin (we had brought the chairs with us from home) and read while soaking up the natural sounds and clean air.  We greatly enjoyed our stay.

Our bed was comfortable, and there was a desk and chair and sink in the main room.  There was also a very small bathroom with toilet and shower (both worked just fine).   The cabins are duplexes.

Walls are thin, so if your neighbor is noisy that might be a problem.  There is no wifi or phone (but who needs those in a national park?).   There is also no air conditioning.  When we were there, the daytime outside temperature hit 80, so when we got back to the cabin after a day on the trail, we opened each window and the door (they had screens) and turned on the big fan that is provided.   The cabin eventually cooled down nicely.  (Oh, and the evenings always cool down.  After getting into the 80s during the day, the low temperature that night dropped to 50, so we slept comfortably).  

We would much rather stay at Rising Sun than in any of the lodgings outside the park.  Rising Sun offers a much more pleasant and park-centered atmosphere and is so close to everything that Glacier Park offers.   It's a great place to slow down and enjoy the national park experience in Montana.

Comfortable cabin in authentic Montana national park atmosphere

Just left the park and we’re well pleased with our vintage NPS cabin! Great location. Didn’t hear too much besides slamming door from our duplex other half. Queen bed was comfortable, good sheets, plenty of pillows. Hot when we arrived, opened windows and door, put fab in window and were comfortable within minutes. Within a few hours we were freezing and turned on heat. Very snug. Repeated next night. Everything worked fine. Loved parking near our door.  Not a fan of the restaurant… see that review…  we would stdd add y there again, they do need better Wi-Fi in the office!!!!

Exactly what you expect from NOS lodging! We were pleased.

Small, close quarters, you can hear everything outside, no air conditioning so  you need to open the windows for air.

Too close for comfprt

Stayed in a  2- bed cabin- very small - comfortable for the two of us, but I imagine it would get very crowded very quickly with more people.  Bathroom very small.  Shower is opposite the toilet ( unseen on pic) and about the same size as the toilet. Coffee maker in the room - ice available at the restaurant where you check in. Obviously you stay here for the location and early access to Logan pass before those
On the other side of the park or outside the park can get there….

Stay here for early access to Logan pass…

I am sensitive to mold and within 5 minutes of arriving I knew I would rather sleep in my car if I had to rather than spend one more second inside of the this cabin.  The moldy smell was overpowering and I felt lightheaded right away.  Definitely avoid this place if you know you have an issue with mold or smells, but honestly this level of mold is bad for everyone.  I do NOT recommend these cabins.   Keep driving a few more minutes to St. Mary for a place to stay that won’t make you feel awful.  The cabins at Lake McDonald were fine-no issues for me.

Avoid due to mold

It's very characteristic and in the middle of nature. Each cabin is divided into two rooms in pure wooden style. Essential but certainly quiet and cozy. If it wasn't for the price not quite cheap, I would give it 4 stars.

Three and a half stars

We stayed in both sides of Cabin #2 at Rising Sun Motor Inn during a late July visit.  As location goes, this was an excellent area to stay, especially when construction on the west side was preventing early morning traffic there, while we had full access to the Sun Road 24/7.

The duplex cabin, as described in other reviews, is small inside, with one queen bed, two end tables, and a desk.  There is a closet for storage and hanging clothes with a few hangers furnished. There is no shelving for the very small sink located just outside the bathroom, but I made use of the furnished ironing board to serve as a shelf to hold many of my toiletries.  Hand soap and lotion are provided in a dispenser at the sink, and shower gel, shampoo, and condition are provided in a dispenser inside the shower stall.   There was a full roll of T. P. on the holder, and an extra roll on the toilet back when I arrived.

The  bathroom sink is very small and has very little storage space on it.  Be careful to not drop anything down the "open" drain as well.  

There were adequate towels in the room upon arrival, but since no housekeeping is done during your stay, you must retrieve fresh ones and take back the dirty ones to the front desk down the hill.  Since we were staying 7 nights, a lot of drop off and retrieval took place for swapping towels.

The shower stall is small and has only a  curtain which you have to make sure is tucked inside the very-low-step shower stall.  I don't take hot nor long showers at all, but the water pressure and temperature was adequate for me.  The toilet did get stopped up easily however, and twice I had to contact the front desk to have maintenance come plunge it for me; it just didn't seem to be flushing correctly nor adequately the entire stay.

For one person in the room, there was ample drawer space for storage between the two night stands and the desk, but more people in the room would've been more difficult for drawer space.  The bed was comfortable to me, but I'm used to sleeping on a "rock hard" mattress anyway, so it actually seemed soft to me.  There was a box fan in the room I made use of both for air circulation purposes and white noise, but some would likely consider it very noisy and loud.

There are two windows with screens on opposite sides of the cabin you may open to allow for cross ventilation (I had no problem raising the windows on my side of this cabin).  There is a window in the bathroom with a screen which can also be opened for ventilation in there.  There is a screen door you can also leave open to allow cooler air in, but as stated by others, no A/C.  Due to the heat, I slept each night with my windows fully open and the cabin door as well to allow for maximum air ventilation.   

The room also has a small wall heater if needed, but staying there in July meant there was no need for it.

Cell phone service was not available in the cabin by either of our providers (Verizon and Consumer Cellular), and wifi was only available in the lobby of the front desk area.  

You may obtain very small bags of ice from the front desk, or the camp store sells 10lb bags of ice for $4.  We needed a lot of ice for a shared cooler that was not the greatest in quality, so we spent a lot of $$ on ice for the week.

We each brought our own mini-fridges with us for the room, as we needed them for more cold storage than our shared cooler could provide.  These were very handy to have, but we did bring our own...they are not furnished by Rising Sun.

We ate several times at Two Dog Flats while staying at Rising Sun:  once for breakfast and the rest of the time at dinner.  Prices are high, but they are high everywhere in the area.  We didn't feel we had a bad meal while there, and a few items we tried were very good.  We were very thankful after 2 years, this restaurant was open for business during our stay this year.  

Front desk employees were always helpful and attentive to our needs & requests during their open hours, including prompt maintenance service on the toilet clogs I had twice.  They responded very quickly, but hours are limited and if you are in need late at night, you're probably out of luck until the next morning.

I also believe the "resident" black bear "Sunny" who hangs around the property paid me a visit one night while I slept, as his claw prints were impressed in my screen window the next morning.  

As stated, location is the main draw of this facility.  It is only about 2 miles to Wild Goose Island, 12 miles to Logan Pass, and 5 miles to St. Mary.  Staying here gets you unlimited access to the Sun Road without the need for road pass reservations.  Being on the east side of the park, it is also avoiding the construction closure of the Sun Road which is occurring each evening on the west side, giving full access 24/7 to the Sun Road.

As long as you can provide some of your own amenities, tolerate having no A/C in the summer months, and don't mind a bit of cramped, primitive accommodations, the cabins at Rising Sun Motor Inn should give you a nice stay in Glacier.  

This was my second stay here, and knowing what to expect and what to bring extra, I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again on future visits.

Rising Sun Motor Inn and Cabins - Inside the Park

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