The Big Outside Ultimate Guide to

Glacier’s Northern Loop Glacier National Park

© 2018 Michael Lanza

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Hiking and backpacking is a personal choice and requires that YOU understand that you are personally responsible for any actions you may take based on the information in this e-guide. Using any information in this e-guide is your own personal responsibility. Hiking and associated trail activities can be dangerous and can result in injury and/or death. Hiking exposes you to risks, especially in the wilderness, including but not limited to: • Weather conditions such as flash floods, wind, rain, snow and lightning; • Hazardous plants or wild animals; • Your own physical condition, or your own acts or omissions; • Conditions of roads, trails, or terrain; • Accidents and injuries occurring while traveling to or from the hiking areas; • The remoteness of the hiking areas, which may delay rescue and medical treatment; • The distance of the hiking areas from emergency medical facilities and law enforcement personnel.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER MICHAEL LANZA NOR THE BIG OUTSIDE, THEIR AFFILIATES, FAMILY AND FORMER AND CURRENT EMPLOYERS, NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DELIVERING THIS E-GUIDE IS LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF A USER’S ACCESS TO, OR USE OF THIS E-GUIDE.

Cover photo: Backpackers descending the Piegan Pass Trail below the Garden Wall in Glacier National Park. Frontispiece photo: A backpacker on the Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail in Glacier.

Dear Reader,

Congratulations, you have just downloaded my guide to backpacking Glacier National Park’s classic Northern Loop. When I did it, I customized the trip to hit some of Glacier’s best scenery, including the entire Highline Trail, the Many Glacier area, Piegan Pass and Stoney Indian Pass, the Ptarmigan Wall and Tunnel, and some of the park’s finest lakes and most-remote wilderness. (This photo of me with a Glacier local was taken on this visit.)

If you’re looking for the ultimate, long backpacking trip in Glacier, this is arguably the single best one to take.

In responding to innumerable questions from readers planning a trip they read about at my blog—and, of course, through many years of planning my own trips—I’ve acquired a strong sense of what information people like you are looking for. I believe you simply want to know what a trip is like, and how to pull it off successfully and safely in a way that allows you to customize the trip to suit your party’s style of backcountry travel. Whether a family outing or a group of friends, complete beginners or hard-core experts, this e-guide will clarify what you must do to properly prepare for this trip.

CLICK HERE NOW for a full menu of my e-guides at The Big Outside.

In the pages that follow, I will describe this trip’s character and highlights, and provide details on its total distance and elevation gain and loss, difficulty, and the degree of solitude you can expect to find along it during the peak season. I will give you extensive advice in Section 1 on how to plan this trip, including tips about seasons, getting a permit, travel logistics, gear, and what you need to know regarding safety and other issues specific to this trip. And finally, in Section 2, I give you my expert guidance on how to execute this trip, including primary and alternative hiking itineraries.

A few points: • I don’t rate trips for quality or scenery. Instead of a dry, numerical rating, this e- guide will describe for you the trip’s unique character. Plus, every trip that I’ve created an e-guide for is excellent and highly recommendable, period. • I don’t provide GPS waypoints or tell you precisely where to take photos or pitch your tent every night, because I believe that excessive hand-holding sucks the mystery out of the wilderness and robs you of the joy of discovery. Instead, this e- guide suggests itineraries and, in general, the best camping areas and other highlights, with enough specific tips on how to maximize enjoyment and safety. • I’m a big believer that much of the success of any outdoor adventure is determined before you leave home, so you’ll find abundant information in Section 1: Planning the Trip. • Please be aware of and always follow low-impact backpacking guidelines; learn about them at lnt.org. They ensure that we all have as pristine a wilderness experience as possible. Also, respect park regulations, they exist for good reasons. • Hold down your keyboard’s Control key when clicking on hyperlinks in this e- guide, and the link will open in a new window. If you don’t hold down the Control key, any link will open in the same window. (You could then click the back arrow in the upper left to return to the e-guide.) Alternatively, open this e- guide twice, to have one copy constantly open while clicking on hyperlinks in the second copy to view them, and using the browser’s back arrow to return to this e- guide and open other links in the second window. • If you find any inaccuracies or typos in this e-guide, I hope you will email me at [email protected] to point it out to me so that I can correct it. • Lastly, you have purchased one electronic copy of this e-guide for your personal use only. I retain all rights to its content, and I ask you to respect my legal rights and not distribute it by any means or for any purpose, including for profit.

Thanks again for purchasing this e-guide. I hope it helps make your backpacking trip on Glacier’s Northern Loop very special. If you would like personalized trip- planning help, or you have questions about how to safely and successfully pull off any trip, I would be happy to talk to you on the phone or communicate via email about this or any trip I’ve written about at my blog. See my blog’s Ask Me page for more details.

Please be sure to follow my stories about my adventures at The Big Outside.

Have fun and be safe out there,

Michael Lanza Creator of The Big Outside

A backpacker descending into the Belly River Valley in Glacier.

Glacier National Park’s Northern Loop

Location: North of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana

Primary Route: 65.1 miles/104.8 km

Approximate Cumulative Elevation Gain and Loss (primary route): 20,150 feet/6,142 meters

Difficulty for the primary route, on a scale of 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest)

3—With generally well-graded and well-maintained trails, most of the hiking is moderately strenuous, with a few sections that are strenuous. There’s a possibility of severe weather like thunderstorms and snowfall and temperatures dropping below freezing even in summer, as well as encounters with potentially dangerous wildlife like grizzly bears. But this trip poses no extraordinary navigational or other challenges. Good fitness and intermediate-level backpacking skills and experience recommended, including knowledge in staying safe in bear country. See the Need to Know section below for specific details.

Overview For backpackers, Glacier National Park embodies our highest aspirations. The peaks here possess a character unlike elsewhere in the Rocky Mountains or even in the country. Jagged, vertiginous walls of rock slash like meat cleavers into the sky, high above deep, green valleys carved in perfect half-pipe symmetry by ancient ice. Waterfalls plunge over cliffs and tumble down endless cascades. Blankets of crack-riddled ice plaster mountainsides. But even more unique than the breathtaking scenery, Glacier comprises raw, primal wilderness, where a range of wildlife long gone from most of the continent thrives in shocking abundance. Backpacking here—and especially along this route—you are likely to encounter mountain goats, bighorn sheep, possibly moose, and maybe even some black or grizzly bears. At the least, you will come upon signs of large wildlife, like piles of steaming, recently deposited scat, a reminder that those big critters often lurk nearby, aware of our presence even if we remain unaware of them. Knowing you are walking through a park that wild, which sprawls over more than one million acres, sets the tone for an adventure quite unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else in the contiguous United States. Two friends and I were blown away by this 65-mile, five- to six-day hike north of Glacier’s Going-to-the-Sun Road from the moment we reached Piegan Pass on day one until we walked the last steps up to Logan Pass on this hike’s final day. It isn’t actually a complete loop. It begins at Siyeh Bend, minutes east of Logan Pass via the park’s free shuttle bus, both to avoid backtracking any sections of trail, and to launch the trip with the hike over mind-blowing Piegan Pass and the descent below the Garden Wall into the Cataract Creek Valley and the Many Glacier area. The trip appropriately concludes following the iconic Highline Trail to Logan Pass—where your only disappointment will be that it is over. Read my blog’s full story about this trip, “Descending the Food Chain: Backpacking Glacier National Park’s Northern Loop,” which has many more photos, and see all of my blog’s stories about Glacier National Park in this menu or by scrolling down to Glacier on The Big Outside’s All National Park Trips page.

Solitude Logan Pass, the Highline Trail, and Many Glacier—these are three of the most popular areas in Glacier National Park, so you can expect to see many dayhikers and tourists as well as other backpackers in these spots. But like all popular national parks, Glacier regulates the number of backpackers in the backcountry through its permit system (see more on that below). While you will see other backpackers in backcountry campgrounds and in passing along trails, you will also probably spend much of each day with only your own companions—perhaps more solitude, at times, than you might expect. That’s especially true on the stretches of this hike that lie farthest from any trailhead: when hiking counter-clockwise, that’s roughly from the Ptarmigan Wall area (beyond the junction for popular Iceberg Lake), through the Belly River and Mokowanis River valleys, over Stoney Indian Pass, and along the Highline Trail until you reach busy Granite Park and the Highline Trail south of there.

A backpacker on the Highline Trail below the Garden Wall in Glacier.

Section 1: Planning the Trip

Season The peak summer backpacking season in Glacier generally begins in early or mid- July, when higher elevations and passes become largely free of snow, and it extends into September. Streams and rivers run higher in early summer, and this route has a few stream fords without bridges in the valleys of the Belly River and Mokowanis River. Ask backcountry rangers about the levels of those crossings before your trip. By mid-summer, those are usually low enough to ford easily. July and August are the driest months, with temperatures averaging from the 70s Fahrenheit during the days to the 40s at night—often perfect weather. September grows cooler by about 10 degrees on average, day and night, and there’s a greater possibility of an early-season snowfall. Still, it can offer excellent weather. But watch the forecast. As in most mountain ranges, mosquitoes are most abundant around lakes and other standing water in early summer and dissipate by later in August. Summer is also wildfire season, and climate change has brought measurably larger wildfires more frequently across the West. A large wildfire can cause the park to close areas; and even when trails remain open, smoke from distant wildfires can greatly obscure views and compromise your experience. No one can predict wildfires in advance, of course. The website airnow.gov reports air quality across the country in real time; it’s a useful resource if you need to change your backpacking plans at the last minute and are looking for a destination not enveloped in wildfire smoke.

Insider Tip Summer days in Glacier are often sunny and dry with pleasant temperatures for hiking. August can be glorious, and good weather may extend into September. But after noon thunderstorms are common. And these are northern mountains, where storms occasionally bring significant rain, colder temperatures, and possibly even fresh snow—even in summer. While in other U.S. mountain ranges, you can safely assume you’ll have good weather for several days if the forecast promises it, in Glacier, be prepared for any weather on a multi-day backcountry trip.

Permit A permit is required for camping in the backcountry of Glacier National Park, and most of that camping is in designated campgrounds, usually with multiple individual campsites separated from the cooking and eating area and the food-hanging area. Given the popularity of backpacking in Glacier, it’s smart to reserve a backcountry permit in advance as early as possible. Under the park’s online reservation system, backcountry sites can be reserved in advance starting March 15 for groups of one to eight people and March 1 for groups of nine to 12. There is a $10 processing fee and a $30 application fee for each reservation request submitted; the $30 gets refunded if your application is unsuccessful. The camping fee of $7 per person per night is paid when you pick up your permit. Backcountry permits can also be obtained on a first-come or walk-in basis no more than one day before a trip start date. Half of all sites in backcountry campgrounds are set aside for walk-in campers—but some walk-in sites may be claimed more than a day in advance by other backpackers on multi-day trips. Arrive at one of the park’s permitting locations (listed at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/backcountry.htm) an hour or two before it opens on the day before you want to start a trip to get a spot at the front of the line of people hoping to get walk-in permits. No reservation fees are charged for walk-in permits, only the $7 per person nightly camping fee. The park will not issue walk-in a permit after 3:30 p.m. Find out more at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/backcountry.htm, and read my “10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit” and my blog story “How to Get a Last-Minute, National Park Backcountry Permit.”

Insider Tip When applying for a backcountry permit reservation, improve your chances by including alternate starting dates, in case you don’t get your first choice. This hike doesn’t really offer many alternate routes, but there are numerous backcountry campgrounds along it, allowing you to vary the number of days as well as the starting date. You can also hike this route in either direction.

A tarn reflecting peaks along the trail to Stoney Indian Pass in Glacier.

Management This hike lies within federal wilderness in Glacier National Park, nps.gov/glac. Check on trail conditions at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/trailstatusreports.htm, and see Glacier’s useful backcountry blog at nps.gov/glac/blogs/bcblog.htm.

Getting There West Glacier is about a 3.5-hour drive north of the nearest major airport in Missoula, MT; driving through the popular Flathead Lake area can be slow in summer. West Glacier and East Glacier are both serviced by Amtrak. The park’s free shuttle runs regularly between the Apgar Transit Center and St. Mary Visitor Center and makes numerous stops along the Going-to-the-Sun Road, including Logan Pass and Siyeh Bend, from early July through early September; see nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm for details. The parking lot at Logan Pass often fills up by late morning in summer, so leaving your car at Apgar or St. Mary and taking the shuttle to and from this hike’s start and finish trailheads adds the convenience of not having to worry about parking. Find more information about getting around Glacier at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gettingaround.htm.

A backpacker on the remote northern section of Glacier’s Highline Trail.

Map Trails Illustrated Glacier map no. 215, $11.95, natgeomaps.com. Digital maps can be obtained from various online sources, including: caltopo.com mytopo.com/maps natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/pdf-quads nationalmap.gov/ustopo

While planning this trip and reading through this e-guide, consult the interactive online map of backcountry campsites throughout Glacier National Park at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/upload/Backcountry-Map-Web.pdf. It’s not a topographical map, but it includes distances of trail segments between major trail junctions, which is helpful when viewed alongside a topo map.

Services The nearest services, including gas stations (there are none inside the park), lodging, grocery stores, and restaurants, are found in the towns of West Glacier and East Glacier, both immediately outside the park. There’s no cell phone service throughout most of the park. Concessionaire companies operate lodging within the park, and there are a few services, including small stores, at Apgar, St. Mary, and Two Medicine. Find more information at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/goodsandservices.htm. Need to Know • The elevations along this hike remain under 8,000 feet; most people acclimate to these elevations easily, experiencing no symptoms more severe than some shortness of breath hiking uphill. • Afternoon thunderstorms are common in summer; and storms can bring a sudden, large drop in temperature, cold rain, and snowfall even in summer. Prepare for any conditions. • Water sources are generally frequent along this route, although more scarce on higher trails, like some sections of the Highline Trail. You can often carry just a liter, and probably don’t need to carry more than two liters at any time on this trip. • As mentioned above, streams and rivers run higher in early summer, and this route has a few stream fords without bridges in the valleys of the Belly River and Mokowanis River. Ask backcountry rangers about the levels of those crossings before your trip. By mid-summer, those are usually low enough to cross easily. • Grizzly and black bears are numerous in Glacier. Every responsible person in a backpacking party should carry bear spray and know how to deploy it. Don’t hike in the dark or at dusk; bears are more active then. • Remain constantly vigilant about not leaving food unattended unless it’s properly stored. Backcountry campgrounds have high wires for hanging food, so you don’t have to carry a bear canister. • The park requires that all backpackers watch a 15-minute instructional video on hiking in bear country prior to any trip; it’s available at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/backcountry.htm#CP_JUMP_851144. • Find more useful advice in my blog post “Ask Me: Should I Hike or Backpack Solo in Bear Country?” • Other large animals, including moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats, may seem docile, but can get aggressive. Never approach any animal and maintain distance from them. • Do not leave your pack behind for one of the short side hikes on this trip; besides the danger of bears tearing it apart, goats and marmots may chew up pack straps for the salt you’ve sweated into them. Similarly, don’t leave clothing hanging outside unattended; it could get chewed up.

Glenns Lake in the Mokowanis River Valley of Glacier National Park.

Gear Bring clothing layers, boots, and a tent that can handle more severe, colder weather than you might encounter in summer in mountain ranges farther south, like the High Sierra. Plan for strong wind, rain, snow, and temperatures ranging from the 70s and 80s Fahrenheit to below freezing. Otherwise, no specialized gear is needed for this trip. Bring a higher-quality rain jacket with an adjustable hood that provides full coverage, and supportive, waterproof-breathable boots that will keep your feet warm and dry in cold, wet conditions. Backcountry campgrounds are somewhat protected, so you don’t need a mountaineering tent; but bring a three-season tent that’s built for strong winds and heavy rain or wet snow. See my Gear Reviews page at The Big Outside and these reviews for my top recommendations: “Gear Review: The 10 Best Backpacking Packs” “The Best Ultralight/Thru-Hiking Packs” “Gear Review: The 5 Best Backpacking Tents” “Review: Essential Backpacking Gear Accessories” “The 5 Best Rain Jackets for the Backcountry” “Review: The 10 Best Down Jackets” All of my reviews of backpacking boots and hiking shoes.

The view from the Sue Lake Overlook in Glacier National Park.

Section 2: The Hike

The Primary Route: Glacier’s Northern Loop, Siyeh Bend to Logan Pass

This 65-mile, five- to six-day route from Siyeh Bend north to Many Glacier, Ptarmigan Tunnel, Elizabeth Lake, Stoney Indian Pass, and then swinging back south to Logan Pass can be done in either direction. The only major difference in difficulty between the two directions is that, going counter-clockwise (as described in the primary route), you ascend the steep, roughly three-mile stretch at the northern end of the Highline Trail rather than descending it. But while hiking clockwise would allow you to descend that hard section, you would then face a long ascent to Stoney Indian Pass. Backpackers could debate at length over which direction is harder. I think that tradeoff is a wash, and prefer the aesthetics of hiking over Piegan Pass on day one and finishing on the Highline Trail. Plus, if you want to take the side hike to Grinnell Glacier Overlook (see more on that in the bulleted list of three side hikes below), it will be much easier on the trip’s last day, when your pack weight has lost about 10 pounds of food weight, than on day one, when your pack load is at its maximum. One advantage (I think) of this route is that, when hiking counter-clockwise, you camp your first night in the front-country campground at Many Glacier (you can reserve that campsite on your backpacking permit); across the road, the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn has a casual restaurant with the sort of hearty breakfast, lunch, and dinner fare found in many American restaurants, from pizza and pasta to trout and pork chops. Not only is the food more appealing than backpacking food, but taking advantage of the restaurant eliminates one breakfast and dinner from your pack. A separate building near the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn offers token-operated showers. The trip’s total distance of 65.1 miles, with 20,150 vertical feet of cumulative elevation gain and loss, does not include three highly recommended side hikes—two of which are fairly short, the third longer and more strenuous. They are: • The 0.4-mile (one-way), 300-vertical-foot spur trail to the Sue Lake Overlook at just over 7,700 feet, along the Highline Trail just east of Fifty Mountain campground. The panorama includes Sue Lake and an arc of mountains along the Continental Divide. • The 0.4-mile (one-way), 400-vertical-foot spur trail to 7,100-foot Ahern Pass, along the Highline Trail between Fifty Mountain campground and Granite Park. The pass, between the cliffs of the Ptarmigan Wall and 8,749-foot Ahern Peak, overlooks the spectacular cirque encompassing Helen Lake 2,000 feet below. Scramble about 10 minutes (a short distance) up the ridge toward Ahern Peak for an even better view of the cirque. • The 0.9-mile (one-way), 900-vertical-foot Garden Wall Trail to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, at 7,500 feet along the Highline Trail south of Granite Park. Relentlessly steep, this spur trail is probably the toughest mile on this trip, compounded by the fact that you’re carrying a backpack. But the trail reaches a notch in the Garden Wall, with a long, sheer drop over the other side to Grinnell Glacier and the valley you hiked down on day one—one of this trip’s best views.

Those three side trips combined add a total of 3.4 miles round-trip and 1,600 vertical feet up and down to the trip. All three are gorgeous; I urge you to take at least one of them, and all three if you have the gas for them. (Grinnell Glacier Overlook is significantly harder.) All three are noted in the primary itinerary below. The daily mileages in the recommended itineraries below indicate distances between named places and/or trail junctions; your daily mileages will depend on your choice of campsites. Bear in mind that trail mileages can vary between different maps, guidebooks, and other sources, including trail signs.

Day one: Siyeh Bend to Many Glacier Campground 12.9 miles, 1,850 feet uphill, 2,700 feet downhill

This trek wastes no time getting into amazing terrain. From Siyeh Bend at around 5,800 feet, you’ll climb steadily but at a moderate grade on a section of the Continental Divide Trail through forest at first, then across wildflower meadows to stunning Piegan Pass at nearly 7,600 feet, at the foot of the long, soaring cliff known as the Garden Wall. On this trek’s final day, you will pass below that massive rampart on its other side— neatly bookending this trip. Descend past beautiful Morning Eagle Falls and along the shore of Lake Josephine. At the road, turn left and walk 15 or 20 minutes to Many Glacier Campground, at 4,900 feet.

Day two: Many Glacier to Elizabeth Lake 10.5 miles, 2,300 feet uphill, 2,300 feet downhill

From Many Glacier, follow the Iceberg Lake/Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail north (it begins beyond the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn). Again, the great views begin immediately, with Mounts Wilbur and Grinnell jutting rock walls into the stratosphere. This area is prime bear habitat—watch for them, especially in early morning, and make noise. Continue past the spur trail to Iceberg Lake—a very pretty spot, where the lake nestles in a horseshoe of cliffs, and where I once watched a grizzly (from a distance) sit at the base of a cliff waiting to see whether a mountain goat would clamber down off it. (It didn’t.) The hike grows much quieter beyond that for the steady ascent to the Ptarmigan Tunnel at 7,200 feet. In the 1930s, The Civilian Conservation Corps dynamited through the Ptarmigan Wall, creating a 250-foot-long tunnel tall and wide enough to lead horses through. Passing through it, you emerge on the wall’s north side to a new vista of mountains and lakes. Descending a trail constructed on the face of a cliff, you drop more than 2,000 feet to the shore of Elizabeth Lake in the Belly River Valley. The backcountry campsite at the north end of Elizabeth Lake, at 4,892 feet, is 10.5 miles from Many Glacier. Lower Elizabeth campsite sits another 1.6 miles around the lake (one-way), and continuing on to secluded Helen Lake, in the spectacular cirque on the east side of 8,749-foot Ahern Peak, below the Ahern Glacier, requires hiking another 2.7 miles one-way from Lower Elizabeth campsite. Camping at either Lower Elizabeth or Helen Lake means backtracking those miles the next morning.

Alternative day two: Many Glacier to Glenns Lake 15.7 miles, 2,300 feet uphill, 2,300 feet downhill

The campsite at the north end of Glenns Lake is 15.7 miles from Many Glacier; but the additional 5.2 miles from Elizabeth Lake involves nearly flat valley hiking on good trails, so it’s relatively easy and entails basically the same elevation gain and loss as stopping for the night at Elizabeth Lake. Strong hikers would cover that distance in two to two-and-a-half hours. If you want to complete this trip in five days instead of six—which is feasible for strong hikers—today and tomorrow are the best days to cover extra ground. Reaching Glenns Lake today sets you up for reaching the Fifty Mountain campground on day three. Get an early start both days, but don’t hike in the dark in bear country.

Day three: Elizabeth Lake to Stoney Indian Pass 14 miles, 2,000 feet uphill

Today initially involves easy, flat hiking along rivers and lakes, passing several waterfalls, like Dawn Mist Falls. At the upper end of the Mokowanis River Valley, at 5,200 feet, you begin climbing steadily—though never steeply—along the Mokowanis Cascade, which tumbles for 300 feet or more over innumerable ledges, through two hanging valleys spliced by more waterfalls, to 6,908-foot Stoney Indian Pass. The campsite beyond Stoney Indian Pass is 14 miles from the foot of Elizabeth Lake. This stretch includes several miles of hiking through forest where you might bump into a moose; be careful, they seem docile but can be aggressive and dangerous, especially during the September rutting season.

Alternative day three: Glenns Lake to Fifty Mountain Campground 17 miles, 4,300 feet uphill, 2,400 feet downhill

If you chose to camp at lower Glenns Lake on night two, you can reach Fifty Mountain campground on a long day three. As described above, the initial miles of easy valley hiking becomes a steady ascent to Stoney Indian Pass, and then a steady descent of 2,400 feet to the Waterton Valley, at 4,500 feet. Then follows probably the hardest slog on this route (not including the optional side hike to Grinnell Glacier Overlook), gaining about 2,300 vertical feet in just three miles. That west-facing slope can be a very hot climb on a sunny afternoon, making it feel that much harder. Upon reaching the plateau, the spectacular and remote northern section of the Highline Trail flattens out while crossing wildflowers meadows with wide-open views of the Livingston Range to the west, tall cliffs to the northeast, and a grand panorama of distant peaks straight ahead to the south. Perched on this plateau, the Fifty Mountain campground, at 6,800 feet, has some trees offering a bit of protection from the wind.

Day four: Stoney Indian Pass to Fifty Mountain Campground 8.2 miles, 2,300 feet uphill, 2,400 feet downhill

Backpackers who don’t see themselves cranking out 17 miles with a cumulative 6,700 vertical feet as described in the alternative day three, the primary route follows the latter stretch of that day, offering a significantly easier day. With a reasonably early start from the campground beyond Stoney Indian Pass, you can make the steep climb out of the Waterton Valley before the highest temperatures of afternoon set in (if it’s a sunny, warm day), making that section much more tolerable.

Day five/Alternative day four: Fifty Mountain Campground to Granite Park 11.9 miles, approximately 1,100 feet uphill, approximately 1,200 feet downhill

Today’s 11.9 miles does not include two short side trails described in more detail at the top of Section 2 (above)—the out-and-back spur trails leading 0.4-mile (one-way) and 400 feet uphill to the Sue Lake Overlook at 7,700 feet, and the 0.4-mile (one-way) and 400 feet uphill to 7,100-foot Ahern Pass. Considering the small amount of effort required to reach them and the large payoff of both—plus the relatively easy, rolling terrain of the Highline Trail today—I highly recommend doing both of them.

Day six/Alternative day five: Granite Park to Logan Pass 7.6 miles, approximately 1,000 feet uphill and 1,000 feet downhill

This trip concludes with its easiest and one of its most-scenic days—although, by now, you’ve probably concluded that every day of this hike has been special. Still, very few trails in the country compare to hiking below the sheer cliffs of the Garden Wall for miles, and the long views you get from the Highline Trail. The earlier you depart camp at Granite Park, the more solitude you’ll enjoy along this popular section of trail, and the better your chances of seeing bighorn sheep and mountain goats before the steady stream of dayhikers coming from Logan Pass sends wildlife scattering away from the trail. I described at the top of Section 2 (above) the side hike up the Garden Wall Trail, which climbs a steep 900 feet in under a mile to a notch in the Garden Wall known as the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, at 7,500 feet, where you’ll get a breathtaking view from high above the Grinnell Glacier. Even adding this side hike, today stays under 10 miles—with your pack at its lightest. About a half-mile before finishing this trip at 6,646-foot Logan Pass, the Highline Trail traverses a ledge across a cliff face for more than a quarter-mile, with a sheer drop- off to one side. While hikers with a fear of heights have been known to balk at walking this section, it is generally several feet wide and perfectly safe for any adult and older child (and a young child who’s being closely monitored), with a hand cable installed in the wall and plenty of space to get around hikers going in the opposite direction. See what it looks like in the back cover photo (scroll down to the bottom of this e-guide).

Alternative Itinerary no. 1: Add Helen Lake to the primary itinerary

The backcountry campground at Helen Lake, in the magnificent cirque below Ahern Peak (which you view from above at Ahern Pass), is one of the most remote and picturesque spots to camp in the park. Build an extra day into the primary route by adding the 8.6 round-trip miles from Elizabeth Lake to Helen Lake; you’ll ascend only about 200 feet hiking to Helen Lake. It provides the added benefit of a relatively easy day mid-trip.

Alternative Itinerary no. 2: Logan Pass to Siyeh Bend the easy way

A cursory look at a trail map of Glacier shows a near-loop hike between Logan Pass and Siyeh Bend that’s much shorter than the primary route described above—28.1 miles via Swiftcurrent Pass. Start at Logan Pass, hike 7.6 miles to Granite Park on day one, then 7.6 miles over Swiftcurrent Pass and down the Swiftcurrent Creek Valley—its headwaters cirque features huge cliffs and waterfalls—to Many Glacier on day two. Finish on day three with the 12.9 miles over Piegan Pass to Siyeh Bend, where you take the park shuttle back to Logan Pass (or wherever you plan to spend that night). Start at Logan Pass and finish at Siyeh Bend for more downhill than uphill overall, and to have a lighter pack for the longest day. You can even do that variation carrying a lighter pack and sleeping indoors. Spend night one at the Granite Park Chalet (reserve spaces months in advance at graniteparkchalet.com) and night two in Many Glacier at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn (glaciernationalparklodges.com/lodging/swiftcurrent-motor-inn-cabins) or the Many Glacier Lodge (glaciernationalparklodges.com/lodging/many-glacier-hotel).

Thanks again for purchasing this e-guide. I hope it helps you pull off an unforgettable trip.

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The Highline Trail’s ledge traverse just north of Logan Pass in Glacier.