Glacier National Park still has glaciers, for now

There’s good news and bad news regarding the future of Glacier National Park.

The bad news has to do with science. Long-term studies indicate that the famous ice fields that inspired the park’s name are, in fact, shrinking. And, yes, the same research predicts that all 25 named glaciers likely will be gone by 2030.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that these large-scale changes are still at least a decade away, and the park has plenty of grandeur to go around until then.

Grandeur like blue-green Lake McDonald, which is more than 9 miles long and sits like a mirror in one of the most picturesque valleys of the West. And the knee-buckling vistas at Many Glacier, the heart of the park, from which visitors can spy jagged mountains, those aforementioned glistening glaciers, and (if you’re lucky) abundant wildlife, including moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and grizzly bears.

Lauren Newman Alley, a spokesperson for the park, said the wildlife often surprises visitors the most.

“Imagine driving up at sunrise and seeing a herd of bighorn sheep, or a bear walking along a lakeshore in Many Glacier in the evening as you end your day,” she said. “The wildlife makes everything even more amazing.”

In addition to wildlife-watching, the park’s most popular diversion is driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road, a 50-mile ribbon of concrete that winds and switchbacks its way past waterfalls, up and over the Continental Divide. Along the way this journey crests the Rockies at Logan Pass, the park’s tallest point at 6,646 feet.

From the top, with views that seem to stretch forever, it’s easy to understand why the park is considered the “Crown of the Continent.” Technically, this moniker refers to the fact that these very peaks are the headwaters for streams that flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay. Metaphorically, however, it also could refer to the fact that the panoramic vistas are unmatched anywhere in North America.

Save for the park’s great lodges, which were built by the Great Northern Railway, these views have remained virtually unchanged since the park was created in 1910.

What has changed over time, as visitation has skyrocketed, is the way visitors experience the place.

Jason St. Clair has devised a strategy that works like a charm. A transplant to Flathead Valley from North Carolina, St. Clair says he’s visited the park dozens of times since he arrived in the region in 2013. His approach: getting lost.

“There are quite a few epic, very difficult hikes where there’s no trail or markers and you have to be able to read a topo map and choose routes up and over mountains and glaciers,” said St. Clair, who runs the horse program at Averill’s Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork. “The park can get really busy on marked trails, but once you push beyond it opens up and becomes yours.”

About the park

Size: 1,012,837 acres.

Visitors: 2,946,681 in 2016.

Established: 1910.

History: Glacier Park Lodge, Lake McDonald Lodge, Many Glacier Hotel and some of the park’s iconic chalets all were built by the Great Northern Railway between 1910 and 1930. By encouraging tourism in towns along its tracks, the railway played a critical role in developing the American West.

When visiting: Check out the Saint Mary Visitor Center on the far east side of the park, which regularly brings together Salish, Blackfeet and Kootenai tribal members for cultural performances and talks. Info: 406-888-7800 or nps.gov/glac/.

Of note: Goat Haunt, one of the most remote ranger stations in the park, is just south of the border with Canada, which is marked with a swath of cut trees.