Hiking to Stunning Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park

On our first day in Glacier National Park I thought we might be able to hike up to Avalanche Lake. However, the day passed quickly, and we didn’t have time for it. It’s probably for the best that we didn’t even try because it was a bit more challenging than I anticipated it would be. I had searched online for family hikes, and a number of people had suggested this hike. On our second day in the park it was time to hike up.

We decided to arrive a little later than we did the first day. I knew the biggest challenge would be finding a place to park as Avalanche Lake is a popular hike. We originally drove by and didn’t see any spots. I turned around and headed into a picnic area. We saw two ladies who looked like they might be getting ready to leave so we followed them in our car, and sure enough they left. We had our spot. I had said to Silvette it was all a matter of timing and luck. We got lucky this day.

At the base of the Avalanche Lake Trail is another trail called the Trail of the Cedars. It’s an easy 1 mile walk among the trees at the base of the mountain as well as along Avalanche Creek. One needs to walk at least part of that trail before getting to the trailhead for Avalanche Lake.

The beginning of the trail to Avalanche Lake is a fairly steep up hill section. Fortunately there are handrails along the way. Up above the steep incline, the trail initially follows Avalanche Creek. The creek created quite a deep channel at the beginning, but farther up the trail we were level with it. Eventually the trail moves away from the creek.

This is definitely an uphill trail. Sometimes the uphill is a bit steep, but overall it’s not too bad. The biggest challenges are the rocks and tree roots which seem to crop up way too often, but that’s true of a lot of trails. The trail goes through mostly forest land. What I found unique was that the trees had few lower branches. Looking through the trees one just sees tree trunks. The good news is the trees provide a nice shady trail to hike on.

About half was up the trail the trees open up, and hikers have an open view of the nearby rock mountain peaks. It is pretty amazing. However, the best is yet to come.

With about a quarter mile left for the hike, the park provides a pit toilet near the trail. That can be a helpful and often needed necessity for hikers.

Arriving at the lake one has to take in the amazing view in front of you. The lake water is clear with a green cast to it. However, what is amazing is that the lake is surrounded by tall mountains. Waterfalls come down from some areas of the mountains. We saw one waterfall, but someone said there were four at times. Since it was September, I’m sure some of the water has dried up.

The beach where we entered was quite crowded. We decided to walk farther around the lake. The sun was bright and created haze. I wanted to see if a different angle would help. A narrow trail continued around the lake up above the lake. We started hiking it, and it seemed to go on forever. We asked two people if there was access to the beach. Both said there was, but we couldn’t seem to find it. Finally we came to a short trail down to the lake.

A number of people were in this area and seemed to be watching the water quite intensely. I didn’t think too much of it, but then a man with three boys told us they were watching a bear swimming in the water. We had seen warning notices about bears in the area so we weren’t surprised. Initially neither Silvette nor I could see the bear. Finally we spotted him. He was on the other side of the lake. Sadly my camera couldn’t pick him up. However, it dawned on me that I did have a telephoto lens so I quickly put it on my camera and got a few shots of the bear as it was getting out of the water and disappearing back into the forest. It was pretty amazing.

After the excitement over the bear, we had some lunch and just enjoyed being at the lake and the amazing scenery. The man with the boys ended up swimming in the cold water with his wife. I’m not sure how cold the water was, but I think it was pretty cold. His boys were reluctant at first, but eventually manged to dunk themselves in the water as well..

We walked along the shoreline to return to the trail. The water was so clear and old trees and stumps created some rather interesting lines in the water. It was quite unique.

The hike back down was fairly uneventful. I was happy that I had my hiking poles with me as they helped keep me from falling on a number of occasions. I did notice that a lot more people were using hiking poles, especially the older hikers although some younger ones were using them as well. This has definitely been a new trend over the last ten years or so.

Back at the base of the trail we continued around the rest of the Trail of the Cedars. This part was all on a boardwalk so it was quite easy to walk. This is a great opportunity for those with mobility issues to still be able to get out and enjoy nature. We saw one family with a toddler who had his own walking sticks. It’s good to start them young.

Back in our car, it was getting late, but there were three stops I wanted to make as we headed towards the park entrance. The first location we visited was Sacred Dancing Cascades. This is on McDonald Creek. There is a short walk down to the creek. A bridge crosses the creek and provides a place to view the cascading water. The rock formations around it reminded me somewhat of Kootenai Falls which we had seen on our trip earlier. These falls were interesting, but not as exciting as Kootenai.

The next stop was also on McDonald Creek, and it was called McDonald Falls. The view here was only from up above, and trees blocked parts of the view except in one specific spot. The falls were OK. Below the falls the creek entered into a fairly deep canyon before flowing into McDonald Lake.

McDonald Lake was my third stop. It is a large lake much like St. Mary which we had seen yesterday. The sun was shining brightly over the lake so I wasn’t sure I was going to get a very good photo. However, I stopped, walked down to the shoreline, looked east, and was rewarded with some awesome views which included reflections in the water. The water itself was clear, and the bottom was covered in small rocks which spilled over from the shore. On the shore the rocks were uninteresting, but in the water the colors shone through, and it was quite beautiful. The number of different colors of the rocks surprised me.

With this final stop and the great views, we said goodby to Glacier National Park. We had enjoyed our two day visit. We have visited so many national parks now, and they are all so unique in their own way. Glacier has spectacular mountains and clear water lakes that do impress. It should be on everyone’s bucket list of places to visit. Do you have a favorite national park in the US? There are still more national parks for us to see so we will continue to share with you our experiences as we travel around.