Hike to Ice Berg Lake at Glacier National Park
One of the most beautiful hike in Glacier National Park is Ice Berg lake trail, it is approximately 10 miles hike with rugged mountain landscape views, waterfalls, wild life, wild flowers, birds, butterflies and lot of mosquitoes. The lake is amazing, its covered with snow on all side, and lake water is icy toward the other end of the lake and the water is pristine blue.
There are lot of popular hikes on the East Glacier, so me and my wife were discussing about doing either of these hikes Grinnell Glacier or Ice Berg Lake, these hikes are very near to Many Glacier Hotel. Due to heavy snow in winter and frequent bear visits , Grinnell Glacier hike was partially closed , so we decided to go Ice Berg Lake trail. In front of Many glacier hotel / Swift Current Motor Inn there are boards addressing trail status and its always good to go through them as you plan the hike. Ice berg lake trail was open and the construction of the bridge to cross water stream was done by 7/1 ,so we were good to go ahead with this hike.
On the day of hike, we got up early and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and started from the hotel around 6:30 am. We could do this hike from hotel but it will add another 2 miles so we decided to go in car and park near the trail head. It's a 5 mins drive from the hotel to trail head, we didn't knew that the trail head has a parking lot so we parked the car at the Swift Current Motel Inn Parking lot, after 10mins walk, we reached the trail head.
I had done this hike before in 2015, first 1 mile of the hike is moderate. After 30mins of our hike, we saw a deer near the trail but it ran away after noticing us. There is no shade on this trail, but luckily we had started early in the morning so it was not so sunny. As it is a bear country we had our bear spray handy, also we had learnt that grizzly bear and its cubs are frequent visitor to this trail and surrounding area. Initially, we saw less people hiking on the trail, but around 9:00 am or so the crowd increased, many people were passing by us. We stopped frequently on the trail to enjoy the beautiful views of the mountains, waterfalls and also to keep an eye on the wild life.
After 2 hrs of the hike, we reached Ptarmigan falls, it is good spot to stop to have breakfast or snacks or take rest . We also stopped by the falls for 15mins took rest and also had some snacks and then continued with our hike. The trail after this falls, will be divided in two section, one will go to Ice berg Lake, another will go to Ptarmigan tunnel and backpack country. In between the 2 hr hike, we met an old lady who was doing a solo hike, we spoke with her and were very inspired by her commitment towards the hike. After 30mins of hike from the falls, the people coming down from the hike told us that they spotted a grizzly bear with cubs so to be careful.
We were watching the trail closely and tried to make loud noise as well, we didn't see any wild life till we reached a snow patch on the trail. Lot of people were standing and watching the mountains, so we stopped there and checked and there I could see a grizzly bear with two cubs moving. Finally, we were able to see the wild life at a distance, I took my camera out and took couple of videos and photos of the bear and the cubs.
We waited there for 15mins and then continued with the hike. We almost reached the lake, because of the newly built crossing bridge it was easier to cross the stream and from there we could see the lake . The view of the lake was so beautiful . After reaching the lake, we searched for a quiet spot to sit and relax. The water was too cold, we sat there looking at this beautiful lake and the surrounding mountains covered with snow patches, it was quiet something after our 3 hour long hike. There were lot of folks having fun, some people even took a dip in the water, sure enough everyone were shivering :)
We spent almost 45 mins there and started back. Lot of people do a round loop hike to Grinnell Glacier from Ice Berg Lake, but we were tired so we didn't plan for it. In return, we met the old lady, she finally reached the lake, we were very happy for her. It took us almost 7 hrs to complete the entire hike. We were so tried after reaching the trail head. It was too hot by the time we completed our hike, we went to SwiftCurrent Motor Inn shop and bought ice cream and then went back to our hotel. We were glad that we had to drive just 5 min to our hotel and then we could relax for rest of the day.
