Today we will reconsider some of the easiest hikes in Glacier National Park, one among 59 National Parks of the USA, important as well because it is also on the list of World Heritage Sites.
Before we get started with tracks and trails, let’s begin with a brief introduction of the Glacier National Park. It is one of two parts of a bigger park, named Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, shared between USA (Glacier National Park) and Canada (Waterton Lakes National Park), which was established in 1932 as an international park of great importance. Glacier is located in Montana, covering an area of 4087.68 km2. It has been listed among places of great importance because of its unique and outstanding features.
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Glacier National Park got its name, well obviously, because of glaciers, which have mostly disappeared since the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago. Until the recent times only around 30 glaciers have remained (with the criterion that the ice has to exceed 25 acres in order to be considered a glacier), and that’s why many people wonder when will the glaciers in Glacier National Park be gone. Scientists doing research on this question and climate change, assume that all of the glaciers in this park will disappear until 2030/2040.
Nature is not the only thing that makes Glacier stand out. It is also rich in historical and prehistorical remains, from Native people’s artifacts to house ruins and things of the modern age. But surely you would be more interested in natural wonders when visiting and looking for easy hikes in Glacier National Park. So, of course, the Glacier National Park’s best sights are a result of work of natural processes that lasted for millions of years. Glacier belongs to the Rocky Mountain range, with highest peaks reaching more than 10,000 ft. Some of them being Mount Merrit, Mount Cleveland, Little Cheaf and Chapman Peak. Be sure to take a look at some of them when you take your easy hikes in Glacier National park. Glacier has around 700 lakes (only of which 131 are named), which are mostly remains of glacial valleys (at lower altitudes) and natural glacial shapes like amphitheaters and end moraines (at higher altitudes). With that much water, there are wonderful waterfalls throughout the Park. We will name just some: Virginia falls, Aster falls, Running Eagle falls, Twin falls…
In any case, Glacier Nature Park is a great place for everyone, shown in numbers: it had around 3 million visitors (of only recreational character) in 2016. So, yes, if you are a young nature lover, you might consider spending some time here, along with considering some other opportunities like 10 Best Paying Outdoor Jobs for College Students for example.
Now, searching for the easiest and the best moderate hikes in Glacier National Park, we have come across many suggestions, but have decided to take suggestions from a bit more experienced hikers and nature enthusiasts. So the main resources for our research were Crazy Family Adventure, Hiking in Glacier, Glacier Guides and EnjoyYourParks. There were also some good tips for good starting points and easy trails in Glacier on National Park Traveller. Then, in the end, we have also considered some suggestions from Tripadvisor as well. We have picked easiest hikes on our list on number of recommendations for tracks we have found going through these resources. But then in order to rank those easiest hikes in Glacier National park, we have listed them according to trail difficulty rating. The calculation of difficulty rating is proposed at Hiking Glacier, so you can go deeper in calculations there, but the important thing to highlight here is that a hike is considered easy if the difficulty rating is below 5.
If after being introduced to the Glacier Natural Park you have realized that it is not your piece of cake, you can always look for adventures in some other places, for example 10 Best Places to Visit in the USA in October. And for all others who have kept the spirit until now, and who are interested in whether can you walk on a glacier in Glacier National Park or which are the best sights in Glacier National Park, this is the right list for you. Whenever you are ready, go to the next page to see which those easiest hikes in Glacier Natural Park are:
