Glacier National Park: Avalanche Lake (Blog Hike #710)

Trails: Trail of Cedars and Avalanche Lake Trail

Hike Location: Glacier National Park

Geographic Location: east of West Glacier, MT (48.68095, -113.81865)

Length: 4.8 miles

Difficulty: 6/10 (Moderate)

Date Hiked: August 2018

Overview: A creekside hike to scenic Avalanche Lake.

Park Information: https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm

Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=735094
Photo Highlight:

Directions to the trailhead: This hike starts at Glacier National Park’s Avalanche Creek Trailhead, which is located on the park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road 15.7 miles east of the park’s west entrance.  Ideally you can park at the trailhead’s roadside parking area, but because the lot fills quickly during the peak season you may need to park at the Apgar Visitor Center and ride the free park shuttle up to Avalanche Creek.

The hike: For my general comments on Glacier National Park, see the previous hike.  This hike, my final hike in Glacier National Park, takes you to popular and scenic Avalanche Lake, a medium-sized lake surrounded by towering bare-rock mountains.  This hike is popular with families because it is long and hard enough to give you a sense of accomplishment but not so hard that it becomes overly taxing.  I did this hike in the cool of the morning before the large crowds arrive, and I had a fantastic hike.

Start of Trail of Cedars

            Your journey to Avalanche Lake starts on the Trail of Cedars, which begins on the south shoulder of the Going-to-the-Sun Road as an unsigned boardwalk.  A 0.7 mile nearly flat loop, the Trail of Cedars is somewhat popular because it is the easiest trail in Glacier National Park.  As its name suggests, the Trail of Cedars passes through a dense creekside pine forest dominated by western red cedars, black cottonwood, and western hemlock. 

Where the boardwalk splits, stay left to remain on the northeast bank of Avalanche Creek.  The mountainside comes closer on the left as the trail stays in a narrow band of flat area between the mountain and the creek.  At 0.3 miles, the trail curves right to cross Avalanche Creek on a nice footbridge.  Looking to the left allows you to peer directly upstream through a tight sheer-walled rock gorge.  Avalanche Creek creates some powerful waterfalls in this gorge.

Small but rocky gorge on Avalanche Creek

Shortly after crossing the creek, you reach the signed Avalanche Lake Trailhead at an information board.  Turn left here and climb slightly to quickly reach the official Avalanche Lake Trail.  Turning right would take you downhill to the Avalanche Campground, so you want to turn left to head for Avalanche Lake.

The Avalanche Lake Trail starts as a rocky, rooty path that treads the rim of the sheer-walled gorge you peered into only moments ago.  Soon the creek mellows out, as does the trail.  For the rest of the journey to Avalanche Lake the grade is moderate and the footing good.  Some gentle well-engineered switchbacks help on both the steepness and footing fronts.

Hiking the Avalanche Lake Trail

At 1.3 miles, you reach a brief descent where a large number of trees have been knocked down.  The name “avalanche” seems to be on everything in this ravine, and for good reason: many avalanches thunder their way down this ravine.  These knocked down trees testify to the force tumbling snow exerts.  On the bright side, the gap in the trees gives a nice view up the side ravine that leads east to Hidden Lake, the destination of the previous hike.  No trails head up to Hidden Lake from this area, however.

Looking up side ravine toward Hidden Lake

The grade intensifies slightly past this side ravine.  Overall, this hike climbs about 600 vertical feet before reaching its highest point at 2 miles into the hike.  A slight descent then brings you to the shore of Avalanche Lake near its outlet.  As you would expect in Montana, the lake’s water is clear and shiny.  The lake is surrounded by dense pine forest, but the pines give way to bare rock higher up the surrounding mountains.  Small packs of snow remained on the higher elevations when I hiked here on the second day of August, and tall cascading waterfalls delivered water from the snowpacks to the lake.  Take some time to enjoy this classic Rocky Mountain scene.

Avalanche Lake

Avalanche Lake

The trail heading around the west side of Avalanche Lake provides access to some primitive campsites.  The only way to Avalanche Lake is the way you got here, so eventually you will need to turn around and head back down beside Avalanche Creek.  If you do this hike early in the morning like I did, the sun will be blocked by mountains while you are hiking up but high enough to illuminate the water in Avalanche Creek while you are hiking down.  When you get back to the Trail of Cedars, turn left to continue the Trail of Cedars.

The Trail of Cedars’ asphalt southwest arm stays very close to the Avalanche Lake Campground.  Picnic areas, parking lots, and restroom buildings can be seen to the left.  Just before the asphalt trail reaches the main campground parking area, turn right to return to the boardwalk just before it crosses Avalanche Creek.  This creek’s clear water and rocky bottom amazed me one last time here.  Quickly you close the Trail of Cedars’ loop, where a left turn returns you to the roadside parking area to complete the hike.