Most of what we planned to do in Glacier National Park was to hike. So the first full day the whole group was present, we decided to hike to Iceberg Lake. The trail head was only about quarter of a mile from our campsite, so we started the trail there. This made the hike about 10.5 miles long. And the elevation change is 1200 feet with only a very short first section seemingly at all steep. So it is easy, beautiful and has the potential for seeing wildlife, making it a five star trail in my book.
I think this trail is one of the very prettiest trails I've ever been on. The occasional sumacs were turning red in the yellow fields of shrubs. We saw both bighorn sheep and mountain goats along the trail. Julie and I lucked out in that we met another hiker and hiked with him a while while he explained some of the geology and flora of the park. He told us we were looking at sedimentary rocks pushed up from an ocean bottom before there were fossils. And when we asked him about the beautiful blue and red rocks we were seeing, he told us they contain the exact same minerals but one of them is made in the presence of oxygen and the other under anaerobic circumstances. He even told us their names, but of course, I remembered almost nothing.
This hike is supposed to be more dramatic in the early summer when there are lots of ice floes in the lake. I thought it was even prettier than the Grinnell Glacier hike, which I missed because I wanted to hike the Highland Trail. But I did that hike earlier in the year and you can read about it here.
I'm putting this out a day early since I'm getting my Wi-Fi fix at my favorite coffee/bookshop/cafe in Gardner, the Tumbleweed Cafe and Bookstore.
I think this trail is one of the very prettiest trails I've ever been on. The occasional sumacs were turning red in the yellow fields of shrubs. We saw both bighorn sheep and mountain goats along the trail. Julie and I lucked out in that we met another hiker and hiked with him a while while he explained some of the geology and flora of the park. He told us we were looking at sedimentary rocks pushed up from an ocean bottom before there were fossils. And when we asked him about the beautiful blue and red rocks we were seeing, he told us they contain the exact same minerals but one of them is made in the presence of oxygen and the other under anaerobic circumstances. He even told us their names, but of course, I remembered almost nothing.
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| Tracy hamming it up with Julie and Carol at the trailhead |
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| Getting underway |
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| I took pictures of adult big-horned sheep and then found these guys in my pictures |
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| Just another view along the trail |
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| Julie tasting the tiny mountain stream that crossed our trail |
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| Tracy and Dutch on a bridge over a larger stream at the top of a long waterfall |
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| Julie on the trail - see how flat and easy it is? |
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| A patch of read on the gray rocks and Julie |
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| Julie looks like she is cross country skiing |
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| A very long view of a group of mountain goats above Iceberg Lake |
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| Our first view of the lake |
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| A closeup of the ice across the lake from us |
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| We had our lunch at the side of the lake |
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| This little guy was begging for food at Iceberg Lake |
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| The day was turning cloudy - and we had light rain on the way home - but it just made the reds and yellows prettier |
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| I loved watching the clouds come back down |
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| This was at the bridge but was too bright to be pretty on the way out |
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| The fantastic mix of stones we found in the washes |
This hike is supposed to be more dramatic in the early summer when there are lots of ice floes in the lake. I thought it was even prettier than the Grinnell Glacier hike, which I missed because I wanted to hike the Highland Trail. But I did that hike earlier in the year and you can read about it here.
I'm putting this out a day early since I'm getting my Wi-Fi fix at my favorite coffee/bookshop/cafe in Gardner, the Tumbleweed Cafe and Bookstore.
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