Many years ago, three friends and I embarked upon a three-week Canadian Rockies adventure in which we camped our way through Glacier, up into Waterton Lakes, Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, and finally over to Vancouver before heading back home.
It was on this trip that I hiked to Iceberg Lake for the first time, and it was an eventful hike right from the beginning.
After parking at the main lot in Many Glacier and grabbing our gear, we set off on foot up the road toward the Iceberg-Ptarmigan Trailhead. We were about 100 feet (30 m) away when my friend stopped, pointed just right of the trailhead, and said, “Guys, what’s that?”
Well, that was a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs, hanging out approximately 25 feet (7.5 m) from some unobservant individuals who were just getting out of their car. After turning around and seeing everyone pointing in their general direction, they spotted the bears and promptly got back into their car.
As more people joined us, the bears eventually ran off into the woods somewhat in the direction of the trail.
Meanwhile, we turned around and headed back to the ranger station, both to report the bear sighting (which is standard protocol in Glacier) and decide what to do. Their advice was to wait about 20 minutes to give the bears time to wander off and then just stick together and make lots of noise. So we headed back to the trailhead, fell in line behind a group of ten people, and played a loud game of Harry Potter trivia for the entire hike.
We didn’t end up seeing those bears or any others, but we did make it to Iceberg Lake. It had been a particularly snowy winter and it looked a whole lot more like early June than mid-July in the park. The last section of trail was still covered in snow, and Iceberg Lake was living up to its name – emphasis on the “ice” part, but not so much on the “lake” part. Even so, I have great memories of that hike.
Fast forward to this past summer, and I was headed off to Iceberg Lake once more. We had spent the night at Many Glacier Hotel – which, by the way, is a splurge I highly recommend – and only had about a 5 minute drive to the parking lot.
As we walked to the trailhead, I regaled my husband with the story of my previous hike and pointed out the exact spot. This time, it was bear-free. We were hoping for a grizzly sighting at some point, but we were more than okay with it not being right next to the trailhead. So off we went, up the Iceberg-Ptarmigan Trail toward Iceberg Lake.
The trail begins in the trees but soon reaches a clearing. In fact, much of this hike is in wide open terrain. It’s part of the reason I love it so much; views, views everywhere!
We weren’t more than a mile up the trail when a man from the group of hikers a short distance in front of us turned to catch our attention and then pointed up the hill to our right.
“Bear?” I asked, as quietly as I could.
He nodded.
“Are we okay to keep going?”
“Yes,” he assured me.
Gingerly, we crept forward, eyes flicking back and forth in search of the bear. Soon, we saw it: a light brown, rather fluffy grizzly happily munching away. He was a decent distance from us and couldn’t have cared less about our presence, but I think he was still a little closer than the recommended 100 yard minimum. After a brief debate, we named him Griswold (though I should clarify, we had no clue whether the bear was male or female).
Years ago, on a trip to Denali, my husband saw a brown splotch through some binoculars, which was technically his first grizzly sighting. But he never really felt like he’d actually seen a grizzly.
Now he definitely had.
We didn’t linger too long, though, wanting to give Griswold his space. But it was so much fun to watch him doing his own thing. And it’s always nice to see a bear from a safe distance.
After a few minutes we continued on, following the trail across the hillside and around to the north. We could now see where we were headed, back into the deep basin formed by the sheer rock faces of Mount Wilbur and the Ptarmigan Wall.
At around the 2 mile (3.2 km) mark the trail re-enters the trees for a short distance, weaving up and down and around and eventually dumping us out at Ptarmigan Falls at about mile 2.5 (4 km). I managed to get a photo of the falls many years ago, but the foliage has grown enough that it’s now difficult to see the waterfall, let alone photograph it.
There’s a nice flat area at the brink of the falls that’s a popular snack spot, and also a turnaround point for those looking for a shorter hike. We, however, pressed on, across Ptarmigan Creek and back into the trees for just a little while longer. Soon we reached a fork; the Ptarmigan Trail heads right – and we returned to hike this trail a couple days later, so stay tuned for that post – while Iceberg Trail continues left.
Shortly, we found ourselves out in the open once more, and this would continue for the remainder of the hike. The Iceberg Lake Basin was much closer now, and the views were just getting better and better.
On the final approach to the lake, we crossed Iceberg Creek and caught our first glimpse of a small body of water off to the right that I’ve dubbed Mini Iceberg Lake.
It was also here that we caught up with the group who’d pointed out the bear. We got to talking and quickly learned that one was a volunteer ranger and the other was CEO of the Glacier Park Conservancy, the main nonprofit agency that supports the park.
Well, funny story: on our drive up to Glacier, we started listening to Glacier National Park’s official podcast, and in every episode of season 1, the hosts call the CEO of Glacier Park Conservancy and ask him to weigh in on certain topics. Now here he was, standing right in front of us. It was like a mini celebrity sighting!
Anyway, we eventually made our way around the final curve and found ourselves staring at Iceberg Lake. My first impression was one of pure amazement. Having only seen this lake covered in snow, I had no idea what I’d been missing all these years. These photos are unedited. It really is that color.
It was also extremely cold… which I guess is to be expected, given that it’s called Iceberg Lake and it has actual icebergs floating in it. The icebergs, by the way, fall into the lake from the patches of snow above. A quick google search tells me the water temperature is between 35-40°F (2-4°C). I have absolutely no trouble believing that. It was refreshing, but I only waded in up to my ankles and I only lasted about 30 seconds at a time. The phrase “painfully cold” exists for a reason.
We spent an hour at the lake, eating a snack and enjoying the view and taking way too many photos. Choosing my favorite hike from this trip is no easy feat, but I actually think it might have been this one simply because the lake was so unexpectedly gorgeous.
Before departing, we stopped to use the privy near the lake, and we were just about to head back to the trail when we were waylaid by a bull moose. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I have a history with moose, and it’s led to a very love-hate relationship. Moose are beautiful animals. Moose are also terrifying. And this one was enormous and only about 10-15 feet (3-5 m) off the trail.
Some people, who apparently either don’t know anything about moose or have absolutely no fear, decided it was okay to walk on by since the moose had its back turned. Actually, the vast majority of people watched it for a minute and then decided to proceed. I wanted to ask them if they knew how quickly a moose could turn around, but I refrained.
As someone with a healthy fear of moose (okay, so maybe my level of fear is slightly irrational) I was in absolutely no hurry. So we, along with a couple other appropriately cautious hikers, found a spot a safe distance away and simply waited him out.
It took about 15 minutes before he crossed the trail and then dashed away into the trees. We had no idea where exactly he’d gone, so imagine our surprise when we spotted him, no more than two minutes later, swimming across Mini Iceberg Lake. It was so cool! I’d like to think getting to witness this was our reward for doing the safe thing and giving him space.
Finally, we made our way down the trail and back to the car.
As I sit down to begin writing this post (it’s mid-August), I see that the Iceberg Lake Trail is currently closed due to bear activity. As I proofread it a couple weeks later, the trail appears to have reopened. Glacier takes a very proactive strategy when it comes to bear management, closing trails when necessary to protect both bears and humans.
Many Glacier has a particularly high density of grizzly bears so trail closures happen with some regularity. I’ve never been to Many Glacier and not seen a grizzly. I remember camping at Many Glacier with my family when I was a kid; we were sitting outside waiting for our laundry to finish and scanning the nearby hillsides with binoculars, and we spotted 5 or 6 bears in the course of those couple hours.
I’ve also had my hiking plans here thwarted more than once by trail closures. It even happened to us on this trip.
Moral of the story: Iceberg Lake is amazing and absolutely worth the hike. But have a backup plan in mind, just in case the trail is closed.
Up next: hiking to Ptarmigan Tunnel
Hike stats: 10.5 miles (16.8 km) round trip with 1450 feet (440 m) of elevation gain.
Here is a trail map of the Many Glacier area, including the route to Iceberg Lake. I also recommend downloading the NPS app and saving Glacier National Park for offline use. You will be able to use the map in the app to track your location.
For more information on visiting Glacier National Park and how to access the Many Glacier area for this hike, please see this post.
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