I want to get off the beaten path but not spend all day on the trail in Glacier National Park

Last Updated on September 10, 2023 by

While it may be true Glacier has 700 miles of trails, the reality is many of them are well over 15 miles and quite a few of those are in the back country. Unless you enjoy hiking half a path, there are a limited number of medium distance hikes. Fortunately, there are still a few solid half day hikes rewarding you with views equally impressive to anything the longer hikes can provide. If you prefer hikes with less elevation (what we generally refer to as walking), there are plenty of trails originating around Lake McDonald near the Apgar Visitor’s Center. As a bonus, we spoke to several folks who saw plenty of wildlife of the large four legged mammal variety on those trails.

Here are three half day hikes we really enjoyed:

• Avalanche Lake
• Hidden Lake
• Apgar Ranger Trail

Once you come off the trail, round out your day by heading over to Apgar Village for some retail therapy and a treat. The village offers a few gift shops, a camp store, and Eddie’s Deli. You would also come here for horseback ride reservations, boat rentals, the shuttle service, and Red Bus tour reservations.

Finally, if you still have the energy, head on out to West Glacier for the rodeo!

Apgar Village

Despite me hyperventilating briefly over the potential for some serious impulse buying by Angela, we settled in for some casual window shopping and ended up at Eddie’s Deli. It has been in operation in Apgar since 1933, back when horses were the primary means for sidling up to the lunch counter. (No swag in stock – Darn it! Was hoping for a t-shirt!) We had some delicious huckleberry ice cream, and as anyone knows I am a huge fan of ice cream, so that is high praise indeed.

Definitely the best part of the day. We ended up there because we were hoping to get the kayak certified for use for tomorrow. Unfortunately, because we are staying outside the park, we have to have it certified daily if we want to kayak on the lakes in the park. Window shopping ensued. I was hoping to do some serious impulse buying, but my calmer side (that would be me) prevailed. I decided to do the 24 hour wait rule and see if I still wanted things tomorrow. Shawn was spared for another day at least. On to ice cream – huckleberry – which was incredible. Of course, everything tastes better after a hike. We’ll just have to go back and try it again to be sure. Great little spot with all the original buildings from the park. Bottom left is the original school house for the workers of the park. Wildflowers were still out and who doesn’t love a bear carving?

Avalanche Lake

This is one of the most popular (and highest rated) trails in the park. Cynically, because it is one of the few that have ample parking and are less than 5 miles in length, but honestly after having hiked it, it is also proof that you don’t need marathon length trails to find unsurpassed natural beauty. Technically, this trail also incorporates Trail of the Cedars which is a mostly board-walked interpretive path that is well worth it. It takes you through some incredibly old growth forest and has a wealth of information on placards throughout (Sadly, as already noted on more than one occasion, my powers of retention for floras and fauna are nearly non-existent.) I have managed to retain yew tree this time around, bringing my confidence in naming trees up to a solid half dozen.

Ample parking, he says. People were circling the 3 different lots when we got there at ‘o dark thirty. There was one spot left in the close parking lot that we weren’t even sure was a spot. We were taking it nonetheless. Thankful for a Subaru. And for Shawn’s parking karma. We joke about it, but it’s definitely a luck of the Irish gift that he has.

The Trail of the Cedars is a site that was revered by the Kootenai and the Salish people who inhabited this area before Europeans showed up and it’s easy to see why. These trees are so old you can feel their presence. One of the placards puts it like this – ‘You are among the ancients here. Some of these trees were young when Peter the Great ruled Russia, Mozart dazzled the courts of Europe, Thomas Jefferson crafted the Declaration of Independence, Sacajewea helped guide Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, the US fought its civil war, and the Wright brothers took to the air above Kitty Hawk’. Perspective.
Coolest thing I learned from those little placards – The chemotherapeutic drug Paclitaxel was first isolated from the Pacific Yew in 1971. Oncology nurse learning some science on the trail. Who knew? There was also a wicked cool fallen down tree with cleaned out root system. Looked like a piece of art.  I do love art.

Back on the Avalanche Lake trail, you pretty much get everything you could want in a hike. Steady, but not severe elevation gain, riverbed to your left, and the overwhelming majority of the hike in old growth forest. Right at the beginning of the trail is a section of really unique pools and eddies with the river rushing through. I’m sure it is commonplace in other places, but almost everywhere we look here, the water is running over huge slabs of bedrock instead of mud and river stone. It’s not something we are used to, and it’s a completely different look.

The colors were stunning and the force of the water creating alcoves was staggering. But, I’m not quite sure what was going on with me. I was a train wreck on this trail. Just could not get my groove. The huge grove of lodge pole pines creating vertical lines in my peripheral vision; the craggy shadows of the rocks and boulders from the early morning hike; and the constant swivel my head was on to take in the splendor of the landscape, all did not help my menopause induced vertigo. (Aren’t you all so happy to learn about all my bodily functions?!)

Probably should have taken a Bonine (which I do carry with me), but I was concentrating too hard on not falling over to remember I had it. That all being said, it was an absolutely gorgeous trail. And one of the few hikes in the park that is a reasonable distance. Good way to get our hiking legs back under us. One of us anyway.

Once you get to the lake, your view opens up to essentially being in a bowl of the mountain range. We walked to the other end of the lake to get away from the crowds (6 people) and have a cup of tea in the relative tranquility of the mountain range and to enjoy the incredible colors of blue on the lake. I have only ever seen colors like that in the Caribbean.

Definitely the pinnacle of the hike and glad we were stopping after all the vertigo.

After noticing 2 waterfalls in the distance, I spied a couple with a paddle board on the lake. Of course we had to stop to talk to them. Yes, he did hike his inflatable board up that trail. It weighed about 45 pounds. Well done him. I think we would need a rolling cart if we wanted to hike our inflatable kayak up three miles with a 760 feet elevation gain to the lake.

Made me think of all our hard core fore fathers pulling their 500 pound wheelie carts across the west – up and down all those mountain ranges. Yup, they used hand carts when there weren’t enough/they couldn’t afford pack animals. Definitely living a first world life since they were pulling everything they could possibly need to start a new life in those carts. Trying to become hard core by working up to the 10-12 mile hikes in this park.

Seems a little pathetic, inadequate, meager. Perspective – made me grateful for another glorious day in paradise. God is good.
And it got even better when we got a little show from a juvenile Fisher Marten. He was just waking up for the day in his little nest on the side of the trail and went scampering across our path and alongside the tiny creek we had to pass over. Followed up by tea on the trail. What more could you ask for?

On our return, trail traffic picked up significantly and we were pretty happy to have gotten on trail by 6:30 that morning, especially returning to see all of the lot vultures waiting for a space.

You leaving? Nope. But, you look like you’re leaving. Why aren’t you leaving?!

Why? Because we got up at 0430 to get this parking space and we’re staying here until we are done having lunch. Sorry about your luck. This was all said in my head, but clearly Betty White #2 needed to have a snickers. Not to poke the bear or anything, but good thing we had lunch with us.

Hidden Lake

We took a chance on this hike because it starts at the Logan Pass Visitors Center. If we haven’t mentioned it already, parking everywhere is a chore, but Logan Pass is particularly challenging. The lot is typically full by 6:30, and remains that way until late in the day. For us, that means a 4:30 AM wake-up, to leave at 5 and get there by 6.

By ‘took a chance’, he means, Angela was in a ton of pain from the 10 mile day we had yesterday and this trail looked short and sweet. It didn’t matter that we had to get up at o’dark thirty. As we have mentioned before, there aren’t a lot of short hikes in this park so this one was right up our path. Off we went, climbing switchbacks in the car, circling and snaking up the mountain to Logan path in the dark of the night. Actually made me giggle a little as we got higher and higher watching all those little twinkling headlights down below. I continue to be in utter awe of the creation of this road. Not to mention, there were tons of parking spots left when we finally arrived at the parking lot. Bodes well for leaving at the same time when we do the Highline Trail.

I am happy to report this hike did not disappoint, once again affirming the distance of the hike is not necessarily the determinant to it’s quality. The first, ‘touristy’, section is mostly board-walked, but surprisingly steep that takes you to the overlook of the lake. Fortunately, again, we were on the trail early because it was literally a traffic jam of humanity in this area on the way back. You should see a theme here. (Note rules one and two here.)

This hike was wide open for us. Quite literally – hardly anyone on the trail since it was so early. We were definitely in Big Sky country here. 360 degree views. Alas, no mountain goats as the brochure touts for this area. Even getting on the trail at dusk, no sightings. Hope springs eternal. But we did start the day with a gorgeous walk through the Hanging Gardens while the sun was rising – 533 feet up in one mile to the overlook.

Continuing past the overlook, you follow the trail on a fairly steep descent down to lakes edge. It’s a great little spot for photography buffs because the lake reflections off the glaciers (and mountains) are great. We also had a pretty entertaining time with a friendly/aggressive (you choose) Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel who came right up and took apples and peanut butter right out of Angela’s hand. Clearly, these little guys get plenty of human interaction.

Repeat of the Inca trail hike here. It had to be about 2000 foot elevation decent in one mile down to the lake. Of course that meant 2000 feet elevation gain to get back out. Lots of switchbacks and stairs. We thought a short and sweet hike, boy were we surprised. We were, however, rewarded with awesome views (are there any other kind out here?) Not to mention a couple of lunatic 20 year olds who decided jumping into the lake would be a good idea. Note the glacial water here. The brochures say 64 degrees, but from experience I can tell you, it’s ice cold. We, on the other hand, decided hot tea and a treat were in order. So did the squirrel.

On the way back, the marmots were also apparently aware of the human traffic schedule as they were out in force all over the trail. (Hoary Marmot vs. the Yellow Bellied Marmot of Yellowstone. He looked like an old grizzled marmot with all the grey on his head and back. We did our research and found out that is just Hoary’s coloring.) We also (finally) got to see some mountain goats – even if they were about a mile away. Sort of hurts my feelings to keep having conversations with folks that start with – ‘Oh a moose walked right in front of us at X trail…..’. Alas, the scenery is making up for it. Mostly.

YEAHHHHH! Mountain goats. Eight of them. Of course the binoculars were at the ranch. We had to deal with the emergency ones we keep in Shawn’s pack. (I know, I know, first world problems). But, we did get to see them. As well as two couples who were also up there on the goat path. The goats were following them up the mountain. Waiting to see if the crazy humans were going to fall off? You decide. The NPS lady was not impressed they were up there. Not a technical trail. Don’t tell the goats that.

I on the other hand, could barely make the boardwalk trail down, forget trying a trail like that. (Though I kept looking up wistfully thinking – Hold my beer. Maybe not.) All those horizontal lines, going down steps, trying to take in the scenery and cue the vertigo. Remember 533 feet down over one mile. Good thing there were mountain goats to stop and look at.

Apgar Ranger Trail

We were looking for a trail that had some distance to it, but wasn’t particularly challenging and this fit the bill nicely. Full disclosure – the original trail was supposed to be the Apgar Lookout, but I forgot to download the trail on our trusty, rusty AllTrails app and we ended up heading out in the opposite direction. But we soldiered on, oblivious. Although it was sort of a hike for the purpose of hiking, we had hopes of seeing some wildlife and just stretching our legs a bit.
Turns out we continue to be mammal repellant, but we did at least get to see some birds. My expectations were low, given the trail description was a masters course in ‘Old Timer’ directions – ‘Follow the trail that used to be the Rangers trail to the fire tower that isn’t there anymore on account of the fire that burned it down 10 years ago, but don’t go past it because the trail becomes class 3 immediately following’. Had to look up what class 3 meant – high difficulty, may require the use of ropes. Nice. Those directions are exactly why we have AllTrails BTW. Anyway, we hiked out to a pretty overlook of the river below, a trestle, and a huge meadow across the river. I have no idea if that was the the spot the fire tower used to be, but it suited our purposes just fine. I was naively optimistic I would see bear or moose in the meadow below, but as usual, no.

This trail was relatively easy – A little over 7 miles with gentle ups and downs, otherwise pretty flat. Exactly what the Dr. ordered for my poor old knees and sore leg muscles as we work our way up to 10 miles so that we can do some of the longer trails in the park. Shawn was still hoping to see some bear. We actually had the bear spray and the binoculars today. Alas, no such luck. We did get to see Pileated woodpeckers, dusky flycatchers, a pair of Lewis’ woodpeckers, black capped Chickadees, and the Dark eyed Junco (female adult Canadian Rocky). Not to mention the regulars – sparrows, finch, robins, etc.. Most exciting sighting – Shawn spied a gorgeous hawk mucking about in the woods. This trail was a win if you love birdwatching. The only thing that could have made it better would be a bench or two along the trail. Just saying.

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Rodeo

To be fair, this was not a professional rodeo, but for newbies like us, I think it added to the allure. I particularly liked the little guys all sporting killer mullets. Something about a mullet just snaps me right back to my youth. Not to mention, their relentless enthusiasm for the sport was contagious. There were roping and riding events for both boys and girls as well as a few for the adults but everybody really seemed to be there to offer support to one another. It was great to see and a really good time, especially if you’ve never been to a rodeo.

Can you say, ‘America’? It was awesome to be someplace that was so patriotic. Started out with a prayer over the participants and the animals. Went on to flag bearers including Blue Lives Matter and of course, the American flag. We got to sing the national anthem (without any kneeling and with every hat removed) and that was all before the events even started. Much to Shawn’s dismay, we didn’t quite make it to the end of the evening as my back was spasming from the old bleachers and my old body. Still, a great day all around. Blessed.