Avalanche Lake, Glacier National Park

A moderate 4 mile round trip hike. This is a beautiful hike that includes rushing steams, dense forest, stunning waterfalls, and a magnificent lake. Accessible virtually year around. This hike scenery changes with the seasons. Parking may be a pain, but the hike is worth it!

Avalanche Lake was one of my favorite trails I ever hiked in Glacier National Park. It feels like you are walking through a prehistoric forest with the massive leaves and trees. The river that runs through this area is absolutely mesmerizing with the way it cuts the gorge and rocks around it. The rocks are super slippery though so I do not recommend getting too close to them out of the danger of slipping. Avalanche Lake itself lends perfectly to photos and offers dramatic reflections of the mountains and forest behind it. In the fall the leaves were changing all sorts of colors which lent itself wonderfully to photos. I would put this hike on your list especially if you only have one day in Glacier!

Beautiful trail. Lake is not huge, but it is gorgeous. Hiked it at the end of April 22. Going to sun road was closed, so had to hike from lake McDonald which is a 17 mile hike or so. About 8 miles in and 8 miles out. The last couple miles to lake was in snow.

Completed the hike on 7/17/22. See highlights of the hike on my IG @fungtional. Easy hike that is accessible to most. Limited parking, but you can take the shuttle from Lake McDonald that drops you off right at the trailhead. There’s a lot of bugs on the trail. However, it’s a very scenic hike with plenty of roaring rapids, wildlife and a gorgeous view and beach day at Avalanche Lake at the end.

At the end of Avalanche Lake trail which is 2.24 Miles from parking lot you get to this beautiful lake with multiple cascading waterfalls dropping for surrounding mountains into the lake. You can also walk a trail along side the lake. The views are worth the 2.24 Miles walk.