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TravelBlog
Hike to Iceberg Lake
One of the most majestic experiences I have ever
had while driving and hiking through the National Parks in the United
States was the hike to Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park.
I have taken this hike twice; once in the early 1980s and again
in 2008 with Lucia. It is a
10 mile hike round trip and goes through the most spectacular scenery
imaginable. Other than its
length, it is not a hard hike, having an elevation gain of around 1000’
to 1200’. And except for a
few places it is not a white knuckle hike along a narrow trail with a
sheer drop of 1000’ like the hike up to Angels Landing in Zion National
Park. Part of the beauty of
the hike is that you hike midway along a mountain range so the mountains
rise a thousand feet or two above you and the bottom of the canyon is a
thousand feet below. It goes
through some Alpine meadowland reminiscent of the meadows in The Sound
of Music. It goes through
some forest areas, then through colorful foliage on the sides of the
trail, and then in wide, open country with magnificent vistas above and
below.
I had described the hike to Lucia many times and
she was anxious to take the hike.
It was an all day hike since I would stop frequently to take
photographs of the scenery. We had packed a picnic lunch so we could eat lunch at the Lake.
So after hours of walking we are coming close to Iceberg Lake and
we spotted a small body of water.
Lucia’s comment was “That’s it?
That’s all there is?
We hiked all this way just to see this?”
Since it had taken the hike 25 years before, my memory of the
hike was a bit hazy, but I knew that the little body of water couldn’t
be Iceberg Lake. I told
Lucia that I thought the lake was a bit further.
It was but there was a small rise that hid our view of the lake.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, we were treated to a turquoise
colored lake filled with chunks of ice and surrounded by a glacial
cirque that rises 3000' above the lake.
It was everything as I described it to Lucia.
We took our time and ate our lunch sitting on the rocks by the
shore.
After lunch we headed back. It was a bit easier since it was a gradual downhill hike. We got back to the trail head and drove back to the Many Glacier Hotel, where we were staying. The Many Glacier Hotel is a classic resort hotel that was built in 1915. It is constructed of wood and is huge. The rooms are a bit small, but this is typical of the hotels that were built during that time. While the rooms are a bit small, it has a huge lobby and a huge dining room. The hotel is a wonderful opportunity to turn the clock back nearly 100 years and experience the resort hotels of that era.
It turned out we didn’t bring enough water along for our hike to
Iceberg Lake and our mouths were parched when we got back to the hotel.
After going to our room we decided to go down to the snack shop
in the basement of the hotel and get a beer.
We went down and we each got ourselves a beer (I think I had a
Moose Drool) and went back up to our room.
We finished our beer in about 2 minutes flat and I can tell you,
I have never had a beer that tasted that good!
What a great way to finish off the hike and to soothe our tired
and weary bodies.
