Day 18 Glacier National Park

Yesterday we drove from Big Sky Montana to Columbia Falls, Montana and Glacier National Park our final destination on our out West adventure.  On May 11, 1910, Glacier National Park was designated as our nation’s 10^th national park.  Known for its glacier-carved jagged peaks, turquoise and emerald lakes.  Glacier is comprised of 1,600 square miles, with lowest elevation of 3,150 feet and the highest elevation at 10,466 at the summit of Mount Cleveland. 

Today we hiked the Avalanche Lake Trail it begins from the Trail of the Cedars trail head, located 5.5 miles east of the McDonald Lodge via the Going to the Sun Road.  

The Scenery on this trail was beautiful; the humidity in the valley allows cedars to grow to heights of 100 feet, and diameters of 4 to 7 feet. Some of the trees in this area are more than 500 years old and the waterfall cascades along the Avalanche creek were awesome.

The trail, a total of 4.6 miles, was a stiff climb in some places toward the lake and it was raining most of the time but it was beautiful and I was able to take a few pictures in between the rain drops. The self-timed pictures aren’t pretty but wanted to show everyone that we were prepared with our rain gear and bear spray…..

Lake Avalanche sits at the base of 8694-foot Bearhat Mountain, which rises almost 4800 feet above the lake towards the northeast. The mountain dominating the view towards the south is 7886-foot Little Matterhorn. If you look closely at the cliffs and mountains that surround the lake you’ll notice several long waterfalls cascading hundreds of feet as they make their way towards the lake. 

Lake Avalanche