Top Trails: Glacier National Park: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone

by Jean Arthur

Overview

Glacier National Park's remote locale allows visitors to experience an intact ecosystem that hosts nearly all wildlife and bird species that were found a century ago when Congress designated the 1.2 million acres as America's 10th national park. Here at that Crown of the Continent, hikers use the guide to access a mountain pass where meltwater drains to three different oceans. Trail users retrace routes to some 200 sapphire blue or turquoise green lakes, following trails along some of the park's 1,557 miles of streams and rivers and discovering some of Glacier's 200 named waterfalls. The ever-changing landscape encourages trail users, photographers, and nature lovers to return to Glacier to explore glacial tarns as they melt, aspens as they quake golden in the fall, and even recovering landscapes from large wildfires a decade ago. This guide also reveals historically significant information about the park and the trails, culturally significant waypoints, Blackfeet Indian and other Native American traditional use, ongoing scientific research and sustainable practices in Glacier.

Top Trails: Glacier National Park by local author Jean Arthur leads visitors to secluded trails and unique settings while providing details of current and past human activity, wildlife movement, wildfire's importance, and geologic changes that altered the landscape and created America's 10th national park.

The unique approach of Top Trails: Glacier National Park reveals why certain trails wend alongside sensitive meadows or climb above crystalline lakes. The guide leads hikers to backcountry respites, unique to Glacier. The guide also traces outlaws, poachers, and mining ventures that occurred inside the current park boundary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780899977355
Publisher:	Wilderness Press
Publication date:	05/19/2014
Series:	Top Trails
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	56 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jean Arthur travels North America and Europe writing and photographing outdoor adventures for numerous ski, adventure-travel and general-interest magazines covering alpine and Nordic skiing, hiking, adventures, wildlife, history and sustainability. For 15 years, she lived and worked where she could see the sunrise over Glacier National Park's peaks and the Northern Rockies. For this guide, Jean hiked some 400 miles of Glacier's trails during 2012 and 2013, retracing routes she's been hiking for 30 years. She spent countless hours with park historians, Blackfeet Indian guides, and in libraries among historic collections of Glacier's photographic, memorabilia and other artifacts to provide the reader with a glimpse at the cultural significance of the park's 1.2-million acres.

Jean has written two award-winning ski-history books, a cross-country ski trails guidebook and contributed to four travel and adventure guidebooks for Fodor's and others.

Read an Excerpt

Sample Trail from Chapter 6 MANY GLACIER

Trail #35 Swiftcurrent Lake Nature Trail
Trail Use: Day hike, Child-friendly
Length: 2.4-mile loop, 2-3 hours
Vertical Feet: ±24'
Difficulty: Level 2
Trail Type: Loop
Surface Type: Dirt & gravel
Start & End Coordinates:
N 48.474932"
W 113.400616"

FEATURES
Native Plants
Secluded
Geological
Historic
Wildlife

FACILITIES
Phone
Ranger Station
Lodging
Restaurants
Stores
Gas
Interpretive Center
Picnic Area
Campgrounds
Hikers' Showers
Boat Dock & Rental Canoes
Tour Boat

BEST TIME
The trail opens with road access into Many Glacier Valley, usually May through October, although in early spring, snow and mud cover portions of the trail. Pay attention to trail closures and postings for grizzly bear activity.

FINDING THE TRAIL
From the Many Glacier Road/Glacier Rte. 3, at 0.40 miles west of the Many Glacier Hotel turn off, you will see the trailhead. Park here. Swiftcurrent Lake Trail begins on Grinnell Glacier Trail, on the southern-most point of the horseshoe-shaped picnic loop at a wide graveled area. (Many Glacier Hotel guests can enter the loop trail from the hotel beach.) This description is for a counter-clockwise loop hike.

TRAIL DESCRIPTION
Incredible views with every blink reward hikers on this route circumnavigating the aquamarine Swiftcurrent Lake. Aspen groves give way to evergreens, riparian areas, and a pebbled beach. While the Swiftcurrent Lake Nature Trail is a pleasant 2.4-mile loop, it is easy to add an additional 0.80 mile with a spur trail to Lake Josephine and significantly different views. The trails are well marked; however, pay close attention at each junction to be sure you don't miss a turn. National Park Service pamphlets are available at the trailhead for a small donation, and they provide useful and interesting details of the Many Glacier Valley.

As you cross the Swiftcurrent Creek footbridge, look upstream for views of Mount Wilbur and Bishop's Cap along the Continental Divide. The trail leads southward into the forest of lodgepole pine and subalpine fir. A look to the east across the lake provides exquisite views of Many Glacier Hotel. You might see the horse concession cowboys on the hill behind the hotel heading out on trailrides to Cracker Lake, another lovely Glacier route, but best via horseback because of the high traffic of outfitter's steeds. You can see 9,376-foot Allen Mountain to the south and 8,404-foot Mount Wynn directly east.

The trail paralleling Swiftcurrent Lake's west shore is relatively flat. You might see moose in or near the shallow water of the one-and-one-half-mile lake as a bull or cow and calf submerge for underwater sedges. Snowberry, serviceberry, thimbleberry, and huckleberry bushes fill the understory, as do lavender aster and queencup flowers.

As you round the southern end of the lake, the view changes from the lake and hotel backdrop of Atlyn Peak, to a vista of the lake and Lewis Range. The pyramid-shaped Grinnell Point is closest to the lake's west shore. Behind Grinnell Point are (as you look left to right) 8,851-foot Mount Gould, 9,321-foot Mount Wilbur, the Garden Wall, and 8,770-foot Mount Henkel.

The trail leads northward past a few hotel-employee cabins and the boathouse for Chief Two Guns tour boat before reaching the Many Glacier Hotel beach and boat dock.
The final stretch of the loop includes a "must stop" for ice cream at Heidi's Snack Shop and Espresso Stand, in Many Glacier Lodge's basement, before tackling the pebble beach walk and, momentarily, the shoulder of street as you cross over Swift Current Falls. The trail again hugs the shoreline heading westward and parallels Many Glacier Road to return to the trailhead. Look up northward to Altyn Peak's shoulder for wildlife, as bears and bighorn sheep often graze here.

MILESTONES
1. 00 Start from the picnic & day-parking area along Many Glacier Road/Glacier Rte. 3.
2. 0.20 Footbridge over Swiftcurrent Creek
3. 0.70 Boatdock & Lake Josephine spur trail
4. 0.85 Footbridge, then Lake Josephine Loop Trail junction; stay left, heading north.
5. 1.4 Boatdock & beach in front of Many Glacier Hotel
6. 1.79 Bridge over Swiftcurrent Falls
7. 2.4 Trailhead, parking & picnic area

PULL-OUTS
Moose munch underwater vegetation and willows, seemingly oblivious to humans; however, these mammals are unpredictable, can be dangerous, and are best observed from a distance or from the deck of the Many Glacier Hotel.

The Blackfeet called this area Waterfalls, or Ohpskunakaxi. The Blackfeet term for lots of ice or many glaciers is akokokutoi.

NOTICE
The chalet-style Many Glacier Hotel, built by the Great Northern Railway on the eastern shore of Swiftcurrent Lake, opened July 2, 1915. The hotel opens June-September each year.

Table of Contents

Glacier National Park Map
Glacier National Park Trails Table
Using Top Trails
Organization of Top Trails
Choosing a Trail
Introduction to Glacier National Park
Geography & Topography
Flora
Fauna
When to Go
Weather & Seasons
Trail Selection
Key Features
Multiple Uses
On the Trail
Have a Plan
Carry the Essentials
Useful-But-Less-Than-Essential Items
Trail Etiquette
CHAPTER 1
West Side Trails: Lake McDonald & The North Fork
1. Trail of the Cedars
2. Avalanche Lake Trail
3. Fish Lake Trail
4. Going To The Sun Cross-Country Ski & Snowshoe Trail
5. Gunsight Pass Trail to Sperry Chalet
6. Mount Brown Lookout Trail
7. Snyder Lake Trail
8. Fish Lake Trail
9. Huckleberry Mountain Lookout Trail
10. Apgar Lookout Trail
CHAPTER 2
The Greater North Fork
11. Akokala Lake Trail
12. Quartz Lake & Lower Quartz Lake Trail
13. Logging Lake Trail
14. Boulder Pass Trail to Hole-in-the-Wall
15. Brown Pass Trail to Waterton, Canada
CHAPTER 3
Logan Pass & St. Mary's
16. Hidden Lake
17. Highline Trail along the Garden Wall
18. Loop Trail to Granite Park Chalet
19. Siyeh Bend Trail to Jackson Glacier Overlook
20. Beaver Pond Trail
21. Otokomi Lake Trail
22. Siyeh Pass Trail
23. Piegan Pass
24. Sun Point to Reynolds Creek
25. St. Mary Falls Trail to Virginia Falls & Baring Falls
26. Gunsight Pass Trail to Gunsight Lake & Florence Falls
CHAPTER 4
South Side
27. Autumn Creek Trail
28. Firebrand Pass & Ole Lake
29. Scenic Point Trail
CHAPTER 5
Two Medicine
30. Running Eagle Falls Nature Trail
31. Upper Two Medicine Lake Trail & Twin Falls
32. Dawson Pass Trail & Pitamakin Pass
33. Two Medicine Pass Trail to Cobalt Lake
CHAPTER 6
Many Glacier
34. Appekunny Falls Trail
35. Swiftcurrent Lake Nature Trail
36. Grinnell Glacier & Grinnell Lake Trail
37. Iceberg Lake Trail
38. Ptarmigan Lake & Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail
CHAPTER 7
Canada: Waterton Lakes National Park
39. Bertha Lake Trail
40. Crypt Lake
41. Cameron Lake
Appendix 1: Top-Rated Trails
Appendix 2: Governing Agencies & Nonprofit Organizations
Appendix 3: Maps, Books, & Internet Resources
Appendix 4: Outdoor Gear, Supplies & Food
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"An unforgettable day in the park only takes a little planning and a little help, which is where former Whitefish resident Jean Arthur comes in."
—Brianna Loper, Whitefish Pilot

From the Publisher