GLACIER NATIONAL PARK — Backpacker’s Ferry is an Indigenous-owned tourism company and unique transportation service that aims to offer visitors an unparalleled experience in Glacier National Park.
Owned and operated by Blackfeet members, Backpacker’s Ferry says it provides an "authentic and culturally significant" way to explore the park.
Wyett Wippert, a co-owner, said that the start of the idea of the business happened organically.
“After COVID, we saw a need and wanted to show our perspective of the land while helping people get a ride through. There’s the red buses and shuttles but capacity gets filled pretty quickly now-a-days. We are bringing who we are to our business and we're Blackfeet and we're proud of it. And we bring a lot of our own ideals and our own teachings and a lot of these things to our ride.”
In addition to ferrying passengers to trailheads and scenic spots, the goal is to expand and to eventually offer guided tours outside of the park on the Blackfeet Reservation to provide visitors with a deeper appreciation of the park’s flora, fauna, and medicines.
“The Blackfeet did everything throughout these mountains here, we ceremony here. We had our stories from here. We shelter here. We got all of our resources from here, all of our plant medicines,” explained co-owner Christen Falcon. “We want to include something that would showcase who we are as a people, what we do as a people for this land.”
Visitors to Glacier National Park can book services with Backpacker’s Ferry online. For more information, click here to visit the website.
