Montana’s Glacier National Park has long enjoyed its status as a crown jewel in the National Park System. This mountainous paradise has also been dubbed the Crown of the Continent, as it’s influence on the waters of North America is astoundingly significant.
Guide to Glacier
Glacier National Park
An early adoptee into the park system in 1910, Glacier holds more than 1 million acres and is home to more than 25 active glaciers as of 2017. While impressive, this number pales in comparison to the number of these rivers of ice that were active in 1850, when the area held more than 150 such bodies of frozen water.
Glacier stands as the headwaters for streams that reach not only the Pacific Ocean, but also the Gulf of Mexico and unbelievably, the Hudson Bay in Northeastern Canada.
The park was not necessarily named for the alpine ice fields that curious travelers see today, but for evidence of the massive scale of Ice Age glacial activity responsible for the beautifully rugged landscape witnessed in this famous area.
A must for anyone visiting this natural masterpiece is an across-the-park auto tour on the breathtaking Going-to the-Sun Road, an impressive engineering marvel in its own right. This 50-mile passage-way runs east-to-west, under waterfalls, across gorgeous delicately placed bridges and over steep mountain passes on its path across the park. This drive offers scenic vistas and pull-outs providing views that simply cannot be adequately described in text.
Visitors here may explore over 750 miles of trails that weave through lush meadows and under jagged mountain peaks or beside gushing streams flowing from glaciers situated high above, while some will delight in a chilly dip in one of the many glacial lakes that adorn the park’s high country.
For those looking to enjoy views from the water, guided boat tours are available in Two Medicine Valley, in the southeastern section of the park, as well as Many Glacier, MacDonald Lake and Rising Sun on St Mary Lake.
Backpackers have options of camping in the solitude of Glacier’s endless wilderness, or staying in a backcountry chalet, which may offer weary hikers a welcome relief from tent life after a long trek through the rugged backcountry.
Despite its isolated location, first visits to Glacier National Park are commonly followed by lifetimes of return trips to this majestic land by those who just can’t get enough. Go to Glacier. We’ll bet you’ll be back.
See ya there…
Guide to Glacier
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