Glacier National Park: Exploring the park
Driving the fifty-mile Going-to-the-Sun road from west to east (which can take several hours, even when summer restrictions on vehicle size - aimed primarily at banning RVs - are in force) creates the illusion that you'll be climbing forever. After a stealthy ascent of the foothills, when the road appears to be heading straight into the huge bare mountain that fills the entire windscreen, each successive hairpin confronts you with a new colossus. At the east end of ten-mile Lake McDonald , the road starts to climb in earnest. Snowmelt from waterfalls gushes across the road, spilling over the sheer drops on the other side. The winding route nudges over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass (6680ft) - a bewildering area where the peaks that looked so unscaleable from the valley floor are now mere hillocks of ice. Four miles on, there's an overlook at Jackson Glacier , one of the few glaciers visible from the roadside. Once you get down to the east gate, continue about five miles southeast on US-89 for a stunning view of the start of the Great Plains, which stretch 1600 miles east to Chicago.Glacier National Park is a hiker's paradise, with exceptionally beautiful views at every turn. Good short trails start from Avalanche Creek on the west flank of the Divide. The mile-long Trail of the Cedars loop leads through dark forest to a wall of contoured vivid red sandstone, from where a four-mile path continues gently uphill, past several waterfalls, to glacier-fed Avalanche Lake . The most popular trail in the park - it can be teeming at weekends and holidays - begins at Logan Pass, following a boardwalk for a mile and a half across beautiful wild flower alpine meadows framed by extraordinary craggy peaks en route to serene Hidden Lake .
At Swiftcurrent Lake , north of the east entrance and reached by the minor Many Glacier entrance, an easy two-mile loop trail runs along the lakeshore, and an exciting nine-mile trail heads to Iceberg Lake , so called for the blocks of ice that float on its surface even in midsummer.
From St Mary Lake , you can weave a mile and a half up through fir forest to the crashing, frothing St Mary Falls and on to the taller Virginia Falls ; combined with an early-morning boat trip from the Rising Sun launch to the trailhead, this can be an experience verging on the sublime.
Down in the quiet southeastern end of the park, the two-mile Aster Park trail gives access to some of Glacier's most astounding scenery. Starting at Two Medicine Lake, framed by the ever-receding massifs, it leads through spruce forest into flower-filled meadows, passing a couple of beaver ponds before ascending steeply through the forest to a small outcrop. From here there are fantastic views of the mighty Sinopah and Rising Wolf mountains, and the calm lakes below.
Tour boats explore all of the large lakes, charging $8-10 for one-hour trips, including sunset cruises on Lake McDonald and St Mary Lake. You can also rent canoes, rowboats and outboards. The lakes, teeming with cutthroat trout, are excellent for fishing ; regulations are outlined in a free pamphlet available from visitor centers.
Both Glacier Raft Co. (tel 406/888-5454 or 1-800/235-6781) and Wild River Adventures (tel 1-800/700-7056), based outside the west gate, offer half-day (around $30) and full-day (around $70) float trips down the middle fork of the Flathead River, which runs along the park boundary.
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