Of all the beautiful parks we have visited, Glacier National Park in Montana is the most beautiful of all. The mountains, glaciers, aqua-colored glacial lakes, wildflowers and wildlife together create a dazzling visual display for the nature lover.
When I close my eyes and imagine Montana, this is what I see: a beautiful glacial lake surrounded by a wall of magnificent mountains. I see Bowman Lake.
The long, steep hike to Grinnell Glacier provides fantastic views of Grinnell Lake below. The milky aquamarine color of Grinnell Lake is common to glacial lakes in the park. The abrasive action of Grinnell Glacier far above grinds the earth into a fine dust which travels down waterfalls into the glacial lake below. These fine particles become suspended in the lake where they absorb all but the brilliant blue color which is refracted back to our eyes.
The hike to Iceberg Lake along the open ridge of Mount Henkel offers incredible views the entire way. Mount Wilbur is to the left, with the 9,145-foot Iceberg Peak rising behind. Glacier NP has 54 mountain peaks above the 9,000-foot level.
Wow. What more can you say?
Lake McDonald is the largest lake in the park, 10 miles long and 472 feet deep. A massive glacier over a mile thick filled and carved this U-shaped valley.
Here we see Lake McDonald from Apgar Lookout. Lake McDonald sits at the west entrance to the park, and there is a nice lodge with cabins on its shore. The lodge is about a mile from the far end of the lake in this photo, on the right side. On the left you can see where the 2003 fire burned Howe Ridge. 2003 was a historic fire year for Glacier NP when 145,000 acres or 10% of the park burned.
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