Ptarmigan Tunnel and Iceberg Lake

Sunday morning, we woke up very early to leave the house at around 630. So early, in fact, that a deer was grazing in the backyard as we were getting ready to leave. She was surprised to see people up at this time! It was a long drive over to the Many Glacier area of the park. The Going to the Sun Road was closed due to the Reynolds Creek Fire, so we drove US-2 around the park and then headed north on MT-49 and US-89. We stopped at an overlook on US-89 near the Cut Bank entrance to the park for a couple pictures and the chance to stretch our legs. We stopped at another one further up where some horses and cows were grazing in the overlook. We arrived at Many Glacier around 930 and started our hike on the Ptarmigan/Iceberg Lake Trail. The trail starts along an open area with fantastic views of the glacier-carved mountains all around. The mountains were mostly clear of trees and so wildflowers along the slopes were exploding in color.

We had great views of Grinnell Point and Mount Wilbur.

The sky was cloudy and many of the mountain peaks were hidden by clouds.

In about 2.5 miles, we passed Ptarmigan Falls, though there was no good view of the waterfall from the trail due to dense vegetation. There didn’t appear to be any easy way to get a good view, so I would have to get creative to get a nice photo. I decided to try this on the way back. We stopped near the top of the falls for a snack break.

While we were eating, several Columbian ground squirrels came out.

Clearly, they were used to seeing people and looking for any scraps of human food to eat. After lunch, we crossed the creek and came to a split in the trail, where we turned right to head upstream along Ptarmigan Creek. The trail was a little steep, steadily heading upstream along the creek. It had started to rain, but it was just a light drizzle. All along the trail, the wildflowers were exploding in a rainbow of colors, so we hardly noticed the rain or steep incline.

Fireweed, asters, and Indian paintbrush were in full bloom along much of the trail.

In about 2 miles, we reached Ptarmigan Lake, the first of many gorgeous mountain lakes we would see this week.

From here, the trail steeply climbed up to Ptarmigan Tunnel via a couple of switchbacks.

It was a little cold and quite windy heading up, so I hiked quickly to the tunnel and had lunch inside, shielded from the wind behind the door. After lunch, I headed to the other side of the tunnel and right away, we saw some bighorn sheep.

Initially, they were right on the trail, but when they spotted people, they climbed up the cliff face. It was a small herd of females and juveniles, so their horns weren’t as impressive as a male’s. We walked a short ways past the tunnel, with nice views of Elizabeth Lake far below and Old Sun Glacier high on the mountains above.

A waterfall flowed out from in under the glacier. As we were heading back to the tunnel, a large hoary marmot came out and posed for some pictures.

He seemed to be just fine around people, but then got spooked and started climbing up the cliff face. I was amazed watching him climb – he rock-climbed just like a human.

Looking back and forth, he sought out hand holds and foot holds to boost himself up the rocks, then shimmied into a crack and climbed further up. We also saw a great big snow bank near the tunnel entrance. After such a hot summer in NC, it was nice to see snow in July! Just before we headed back into the tunnel, a golden-mantled ground squirrel popped out.

This area was a really great spot to view wildlife! We then headed back through the tunnel and down the switchbacks to Ptarmigan Lake. On the way down, we saw the herd of bighorn sheep, who had climbed over the tunnel and were now high up on Ptarmigan Wall. Heading down towards Ptarmigan Lake, it was noticeably warmer down here than up by the tunnel. From here, we backtracked towards Ptarmigan Falls and turned right to get on Iceberg Lake Trail.

The hike was along an open ridge with great views of the surrounding mountains and the wildflowers were in full bloom.

There was even a waterfall on the creek flowing out of Iceberg Lake, but it was too far away for a good picture.

As we approached Iceberg Lake, we hiked through a gorgeous wildflower meadow before the final leg of the hike, where we could see the lake.

From up here, we could see the icebergs on far side of the lake. We hiked down to the lake, but unfortunately, all the icebergs were on the other side and we didn't have as good of views.

When the icebergs are more plentiful, it’s possible to stand on them, but not today. I did take off my shoes and wade into the chilly waters, but it was too cold to go more than ankle deep.

After we were here for a while, a large group of high school students from Michigan arrived. They were actually brave (or stupid) enough to go all the way in, but that looked way too cold for me. Once in the water, they didn’t stay under long. After enjoying the beautiful lake for a while, we started making our way back.

When we got back to Ptarmigan Falls, I scrambled down the path for a better view of the waterfall. It was very steep, but I managed to get in a position for a decent shot of the waterfall.

Then I climbed back up and we continued hiking back to the parking lot. About half-way back to the parking lot from here, we spotted a moose grazing far below.

He was too far to get a good picture, but we were excited for our first moose sighting. Then we finished up the hike to the parking lot. We decided to get dinner on the way back and stopped at Serrano’s Mexican in East Glacier. It came highly recommended, though I can’t figure out why. On the way out of the park, a bunch of cars were pulled over, so we stopped too. A black bear was rummaging around just up from the road along the base of Altyn Peak.

Once out of the park, we called ahead to Serrano's as it was a big party, but still had to wait at least 30 minutes for a table. Once we finally got a table, we had to wait over an hour for our food. The waitress was not apologetic at all, I guess knowing she would get the automatic gratuity. The entire restaurant had cleared out and they were closing before they finally bothered to bring our food, which was mediocre at best. We were just glad to get out of there at that point. It was another hour or so to get back to the house in Hungry Horse and we were exhausted by the time we got back.