Of the 250 lakes of the park about 50 are large enough to command more or less attention. Lake McDonald is perhaps best known. Its lower end is but a short distance from the Belton entrance to the park. Saint Mary Lake (upper) is the first park point touched by travelers from the Glacier Park (station) entrance. Three lakes with name Two Medi cine retain that Indian name. Hidden Lake lies high in the almost inaccessible mountains. Grinnell and Gunsight lakes lie at the foot of mountains of the same name. Waterton is partly in the park, partly in Canada on the north. Iceberg Lake, visited without difficulty, lies at the foot of a 3,000-foot cliff on the north side of Mount Wilbur. Kintla lakes are in the northwestern part, as yet rarely visited by the tourist or traveler. Avalanche Lake lies below the shoulder on which is Sperry Glacier. Bowman, Quarts, Logging and Trout lakes, all of elongated form, are on the western slope between high ridges. The many smaller un named lakes in various parts of the park, and some that formerly had names, have been given names of women, as Sue, Helen, Janot, Isabel, Lena, etc.
The depths of a number of the lakes have been determined. They are usually deepest at the tipper end. Although formerly supposed to be they are not as deep as reports would indicate, as seen from the following: Lake McDonald, 387 feet; Avalanche, 63 feet; Bowman, lower end, 90 feet; Waterton, 317 feet; Haunted Lake (Janot Lake), 10 feet; Dixon (Francis Lake), 75 feet; McDermott, 36 feet; Iceberg, 149 feet; Saint Mary (upper), 200 feet; Gunsight, 63 feet; Louise (Ellen Wil son Lake), 244 feet; Peary, at upper end of Sperry trial, 32 feet; upper Two-Medicine, 65 feet; Red Eagle, 58 feet.
Many of the lakes are without fish, due to high falls below the lakes. Gunsight and upper Two-Medicine were stocked by David Ross of Kalispell in 1915, and in 1916 he also stocked McDermott, Josephine, Grinnell and Ellen Wil.. son. The larger lakes are accessible for fish and are well stocked. The glaciers are but remnants of the larger ice masses which in former ages extended far into or over the valley on the east and down the stream and river valleys on the western slopes. Of the number previously mentioned only a few are of special importance. Sperry is easiest to reach. In a day from Lake McDonald one may reach the glacier, spend a couple of hours on the ice and return. Sperry is probably three-quarters
of a mile long and over a half-mile wide, much crevassed toward the lower edge. Black feet Glacier is the largest. Blackfeet and Red Eagle on the north or Hudson Bay side, and Harrison and Pompelly on the south or Pacific side of the Continental Divide, are really one continuous mass of ice. They extend along the Divide for more than three and a half miles, and cover a surface of between 5 and 10 square miles with solid ice of unknown depth. Black feet Glacier is easily reached from Gunsight Lake. The most imposing glacier and the one most difficult to reach is Harrison. It seems to barely hang on the steep side of Mount Jackson. Grinnell Glacier covers less than a square mile. It rests on a steep shelf at the foot of the Garden Wall and between Grin nell and Gould Mountains, both of which are magnificent park features. This glacier is one of the beautiful natural objects of the park. It is reached either from Grinnell Lake or from Granite Park, and without special trouble. Chaney Glacier lies high on the Divide, Hudson Bay side, but can be reached quite readily from the main trail over Flattop Mountain. It is not large, perhaps a half mile in extent in any direc tion, and flanks the precipitous walls of Mount Merritt. The trail over Swift Current Pass gives a fine view of the small but wonderfully beautiful Swift Current Glacier. Kintla and Agassiz glaciers, on Kintla and Kinnerty peaks, are high up and difficult to reach, and are also in a portion of the park seldom visited, the high mountains near the northern boundary. Rain bow and Vulture glaciers are of considerable size but rarely visited. The original trails in the park were made by hunters, surveyors, prospectors and Indians, and were in many cases the poorest kind of passageways. They were steep, boggy, narrow and dangerous at times and in places. Since the establishment of the section as a park the trails have been vastly improVed. They are now easily traversed, are wide, have low grade and are well walled and bridged. New trails arc being built annually.
Glacier Park is a wonderland of mountain crags, dizzy cliffs, dashing waterfalls, clear lakes, eternal snow and ice, primwval forests, wild game, blue sky and brilliant sunshine. Here the works of Nature have not been marred by the hand of man.