5 Amazing Hikes in Glacier National Park

While Glacier National Park offers visitors a suite of gentle hikes and bikes, a panoply of beach sides, car rides and campsites accessible to all comers, many of its most prized geological features, its grandest two-mile-high views and its steepest headwalls, lay off the beaten path. They are best experienced away from the crowds, high above the roads and the riff raff, off-trail and in the midst of the Crown Jewel’s wild, inhospitable terrain.

These hikes and climbs are neither for the faint of heart nor the ill prepared, and this list is by no means a guide. Interested parties should consult a guidebook, procure a map from the ranger station, and travel with experienced hikers.

But in the immortal words of Edward Abbey: “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”