VI
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
Lakes—splendid intermountain lakes—are an unrivaled attraction in the Glacier National Park. Here, too, are other striking features—glaciers, peaks precipitous and stupendous, forests, and streams. The rugged Alplike mountains are of first magnitude. The forests that crowd the lower elevations of the park are primeval and grand. The vigorous streams are set in magnificent scenery. But I feel that the lakes are entitled to first rank among the scenic attractions in this park.
There are two hundred and fifty of these, of different sizes, each of individual outline and with an original alpine setting. Some repose in the depths of the forest. Others have a shore-line half forest and half the abrupt wall of a towering peak. Still other lakes have a wild shore of snow-fields, glaciers, forests, meadows, and mountains. Waterfalls out of the mountain sky drop into many; cascading streams rush from the outlets of others.
Many of the lakes are strikingly long for their narrow width. Lake McDonald is about ten miles long and one mile wide. Waterton Lake is about twelve miles long, with an average width of perhaps half a mile. Bowman Lake is about six miles long by half a mile wide. Avalanche Lake, which lies in Avalanche Basin, is hemmed in on all sides, except at the outlet, by precipitous mountains. It is a beautiful ellipse about one mile long. Iceberg Lake is on the north side of Wilbur Mountain, which towers three thousand feet above the surface of the water. The Blackfeet name for this is "Fly-around-in." McDermott and Altyn Lakes are beauty spots. The outlet of McDermott is a series of spectacular cascades. Its shore is open, and around it one moves about easily. Altyn Lake is only a quarter of a mile distant from McDermott. These lakes lie between Grinnell Mountain and Allen Mountain and are a part of one of the grandest scenes in the Park.
McDERMOTT FALLS AND GRINNELL MOUNTAIN
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
Grinnell Lake lies one mile above Altyn Lake, at the foot of the tremendous cliffs of Gould Mountain. The lower end of the lake is open and parklike, while at the upper end cliffs rise about four thousand feet. This lake receives the waters from Grinnell Glacier. These pour over high cliffs at the upper end of the lake and form a beautiful spectacle. The scenes which unite around Grinnell Lake are unsurpassed in the park.
These lakes are glacier lakes. That is, the basin of each was gouged or eroded by the movement of glacial ice. There are a few exceptions where the lake is due chiefly to a morainal dam, or a dam that was formed by a landslide.
The highest peak in the Park is Cleveland Mountain, 10,438 feet above sea-level. Several others rise more than ten thousand feet, and a great number more than nine thousand feet. Many of these peaks are connected with sharp pinnacled ridges, and most of them rise steeply into the sky. Precipices, nearly vertical, that measure between two thousand and four thousand feet are common. Thus it will be seen that these two hundred and fifty lakes have a mountainous setting. Distribute these lakes on terraces among the peaks and fit in about one hundred glaciers, have the forests everywhere in the lower altitudes, cut these with clear streams, and we have the scenic make-up of the Glacier National Park. Considered as a whole, it is unexcelled mountain architecture.
The Blackfeet Glacier on the Continental Divide is the largest in the Park. Mount Jackson towers red above it. It has an area of about three square miles and lies between the altitudes of six thousand and seven thousand feet. The much-visited Sperry Glacier, which is easily reached from Lake McDonald, has a little more than one square mile of ice-area. Grinnell Glacier is about the size of the Sperry.