Glacier National Park [Montana]United States. Department of the Interior
History
Glacier National Park [Montana]
United States. Department of the Interior
Glacier National Park (Mont.)
Though there are no overnight stopping places on the pass, its
accessibility by automobile makes it a starting place for several
delightful walks, chiefly to Hidden Lake, which occupies a basin only
recently evacuated by ice, and tiny Clements Glacier, which sends its
water to both the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, and which has been termed
"Museum Glacier" because it encompasses in its few hundred acres of
surficial area all of the principal features of a major glacier.
Ranger-naturalist services, including short field trips, are available
daily throughout summer on the pass.
AVALANCHE CAMP
Avalanche auto camp is located in a grove of cedars and cottonwoods on
a picturesque flat at the mouth of Avalanche Creek. It is equipped with
modern toilets, showers, and laundry, but has no stores or gasoline
station. A Government ranger naturalist and a camp tender serve the
camp, which is on Going-to-the-Sun Highway.
Near the upper end of the camp, Avalanche Creek has cut a deep, narrow
gorge through brilliant red argillite. It is filled with potholes
scoured out by stones swirled in the foaming torrent. Drooping
hemlocks, festooned with goatsbeard lichen, keep the spot in cool,
somber gloom even on the hottest midday. This gorge is the home of the
water ouzel, which is often seen flying back and forth in the spray.
From the gorge, a self-guiding trail leads 2 miles to Avalanche Basin,
a semicircular amphitheater with walls over 2,000 feet high over which
plunge a half dozen snowy waterfalls. A dense forest and calm lake
repose on the floor of the cirque. Fishing is good in the lake. The
narrow canyon through which the trail leads from the camp offers fine
views of Heaven's Peak, Mount Cannon, Bearhat Mountain, Gunsight
Mountain with the cirque bearing Sperry Glacier, and the canyon in
which Hidden Lake reposes. In the early season the walls of the basin
and canyon are draped with countless waterfalls. The sides of Cannon
and Bearhat offer one of the most opportune places for seeing mountain
goats. In late season huckleberries are abundant.
A ranger naturalist conducts an entertainment every evening in the
campfire circle in the auto camp.
LAKE MCDONALD
Lake McDonald is the largest lake in the park, being 10 miles long and
a mile wide. Its shores are heavily forested with cedar, hemlock,
white pine, and larch. At its head, impressive, rocky summits rise to
elevations 6,000 feet above its waters. The Going-to-the-Sun Highway
runs along its southeastern shore. Its outlet is 2 miles above Belton
station.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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