Last Updated on: 26th October 2024, 09:17 pm
Many visitors to Glacier National Park regard the Grinnell Glacier Trail as their favorite hike in the park (though the Highline Trail is another top contender). But what makes it so special?
Though strenuous and somewhat crowded, the hike’s scenery constantly evolves. Along the way, you’ll encounter stunning views of turquoise lakes, encounter waterfalls, and finish the hike at Grinnell Glacier itself. And there’s a good chance you’ll even spot some wildlife.
In this guide, we’ll be covering everything you need to know to prepare for hiking to Grinnell Glacier, in addition to a detailed rundown of the hike itself.
This hike is located in the park’s Many Glacier district, which you’ll have to secure permits to enter in advance. At the time of writing, vehicle reservations go on sale no less than four months prior to your travel date. And don’t oversleep, as reservations can sell out within minutes!
We’ll go into detail about the complicated planning process in our dedicated Glacier National Park planning guide. But for now, keep in mind that if you fail to secure a vehicle reservation for Many Glacier, one workaround is to book a tour with the Glacier Park Boat Company for the days you want to hike.
And speaking of boat tours, many people book one to shorten the long hike to Grinnell Glacier. Learn more below.
Hotel bookings within Many Glacier, of course, will also grant you access to the area. Learn more about Many Glacier accommodation options, along with the current park fees, at the end of the article.
About This Hike
THE BASICS: The full out-and-back hike to Grinnell Glacier is 10 miles (16.1 km) with about 2050 ft (624 m) of elevation gain. However, you can shave off a couple of miles by taking a boat across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine – either roundtrip or just one-way.
In my case, beginning at Many Glacier Hotel, I did the full hike on foot to Grinnell Glacier. And on the return, I took a boat from the end of Lake Josephine back to Many Glacier Hotel.
The total ascent (including the initial walk along the two lakes) took me about three hours. But even with the boat trip back, the total return journey also lasted nearly three hours. The boat trip, it turns out, doesn’t save you that much time, but it is a nice chance to rest your legs.
Boat reservations can be booked here, and you have the option of reserving a one-way ticket for a discount.
As mentioned above, Grinnell Glacier is situated in the Many Glacier district, so you’ll need either a vehicle reservation or tour confirmation (yes, boat tours count) to access it.
WHAT TO BRING: As with any summer hike, you’ll want to come prepared with water, a hat and sunscreen. Both hiking boots and trekking poles would be ideal for this hike.
Another essential item you should definitely bring is bear spray, which essentially acts as mace. Be sure to research in advance how to use it, and also how you should react in a bear encounter before reaching for your spray. You can learn more here, while there are plenty of great YouTube videos on the topic.
While you can find some good deals online, you’re not allowed to fly with bear spray, so you’ll have to buy it locally unless you’re driving from home.
People living in bear country generally discourage the use of bear bells, even nicknaming them ‘dinner bells.’
RECOMMENDED APPS: You can find the full trail outlined on AllTrails or OnX Backcountry, though you’ll have to pay for a yearly subscription in order to download it and access it offline. Otherwise, the free Maps.me app should come in handy.
Swiftcurrent & Josephine Lakes
Most sources online will tell you that to hike the Grinnell Glacier Trail, you should park at the Grinnell Glacier Trailhead parking lot, which of course sounds perfectly logical.
Located along Rte 3, it’s in between Swiftcurrent Lake and the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. It’s a small parking lot that fills up quickly.
As such, if you want to hike from there, you’ll have to arrive well before 8:00. While the trailhead starts directly from there, if you do manage to find a spot, what if you want to take a boat back?
In that case, you’d have to walk from the Many Glacier Hotel boat dock to the Trailhead parking lot – about twenty minutes on foot.
Taking everything into consideration, it’s a much better idea to simply park at Many Glacier Hotel.
As the parking lot there is much bigger, you won’t have to arrive at Many Glacier quite as early. And if you do want to take a boat in either direction, the dock will be a fairly short walk from your car.
There’s yet another advantage to parking at Many Glacier Hotel instead of at the Grinnell Glacier Trailhead parking lot. Looking at a map, you’ll notice that trails run along either side of both Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine.
And if you start from the Many Glacier Hotel, you’ll be looking at the lakes from the east when the morning lighting is perfect.
On top of that, since most hikers depart from the Grinnell Glacier Trailhead parking lot, you’ll have this first portion of the hike almost all to yourself!
After about an hour of walking peacefully along the lakes, I arrived at the Lake Josephine Boat Dock. If you were to take a boat in the morning across the lakes, this is where you’d end up.
On the other hand, if you want to take a boat back to Many Glacier Hotel for your return trip, this is where you’ll need to come after your hike.
Boat Tickets & Schedules
At the time of writing, boats from Many Glacier Hotel depart at 8:30, 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:30 and 17:00. If you plan on taking the boat before your Grinnell Glacier hike, aim for one of earliest departures.
Return trips, on the other hand, currently depart at 9:45, 11:45, 13:45, 14:45, 15:45, 16:30 and 17:30. For the last boat of the day, the boat may do multiple pickups if there are many passengers. At the time of my visit, it wasn’t necessary to choose a time if you were only doing a return journey.
You will, however, have to show your reservation at the Many Glacier Hotel boat dock to pick up your ticket before your hike. And this is only possible from 8:00, so keep this in mind when planning out your day.
If you’re following these directions, past the boat dock, you’ll want to loop around to the other side of the lake. You’ll walk across the river via a wooden bridge, followed by some wooden planks.
You should then find signs and an uphill trail leading you to Grinnell Glacier.
The Ascent
The calm and easy portion of the hike is now over, and it’s a continuous uphill climb from here on. From this point, it’s about three miles to reach Grinnell Glacier itself.
And if you’ve been hiking along the east side of the lakes as described above, you’ll soon encounter large groups of people that were hiking on the other side.
Things can indeed feel crowded at points, though hiking to Grinnell Glacier never feels quite as hectic as one of the popular hikes at Zion or Grand Teton, for example.
As you make your uphill climb, it won’t be long before you can catch a view of Grinnell Lake. Despite its name, a stop at Grinnell Lake is not included as part of the hike to Grinnell Glacier (though the hike does culminate at Upper Grinnell Lake).
If the Grinnell Glacier hike sounds too daunting, consider the hike to Grinnell Lake as an alternative.
But what gives Grinnell Lake and others throughout the park its vibrant teal hue? It almost resembles a color you’d see in the tropics. But here, the teal (or sometimes turquoise) is a direct result of the glaciers themselves.
The immense weight of glaciers causes them to constantly yet slowly move. (In fact, they sculpted all the mountains in the area.) When glaciers start to melt, the water containing the particles they absorbed flows down to the lakes below.
As ‘glacial flour’ is so fine, it often remains near the top of a lake. And when sunlight shines onto it, the water and the particles end up absorbing both the longer and shorter wavelengths. What gets reflected back to our eyes, then, is mostly different shades of green or blue.
Taking a short break from the strenuous climbing, I stopped to observe Grinnell Lake when I noticed a tiny speck moving across the water. Looking closely, it turned out to be a moose out for a swim.
A majority of the Grinnell Glacier hike is pretty straightforward, with only a single possible path to follow. And coming around a corner, you’ll soon get a clear view of a glacial waterfall flowing down to the valley floor.
It being summer, the area was also full of thick vegetation and blooming flowers. Yet there were still plenty of snow patches remaining throughout the area, resulting in a surreal mix of summer and winter.
Eventually, on your right, you’ll also find a small waterfall coming down the cliff and splashing right onto the trail. This is probably one of the most popular spots on the trail for photo shoots, but I managed to briefly find it empty during the hike down.
With over 2,000 ft of elevation gain, the hike to Grinnell Glacier is no joke. And it never really gets easier, remaining almost constantly uphill until the very end. Out of all the hikes I did in Glacier, this was easily the most challenging.
But with the gorgeous and ever-changing scenery, it turned out to be my favorite experience in the park.
Though I’d taken a few short breaks during the ascent, I decided to keep going without stopping for the final stretch.
Of course, you don’t want to rush things too much, as the ledge can get very narrow at certain points, and you’ll always need to be mindful of hikers coming from the opposite direction.
Things get a bit trickier near the end, as the trail splits into multiple parts and it’s not always clear which way you’re supposed to head. Furthermore, the final portions is probably the steepest part of the hike.
I got confused when observing returning hikers seemingly coming from various directions.
As it turns out, there are indeed different ways to approach Upper Grinnell Lake, the final destination of the hike. But it doesn’t really matter which path you take, as you’ll later be able to explore the other portions of the lake fairly easily.
Grinnell Glacier & Its Lake
As with Grinell Lake mentioned above, Upper Grinnell Lake is comprised of beautiful teal water. But this one is also filled with small icebergs, and it’s also entirely surrounded by steep mountains.
And of course, directly above it is Grinnell Glacier itself. Glacier National Park is home to roughly 26 glaciers, though there were as many as 80 in the 19th century – right around the end of the Little Ice Age.
The exact number of glaciers in the park is difficult to determine, as a mass of ice must be a certain size to count as one. And as many of the glaciers here are gradually shrinking, some may no longer fit the criteria.
Glaciers are defined as masses of ice and snow that are so big that they can’t stay still, constantly moving due to the force of their own weight. In terms of size, glaciers are supposed to be a minimum of 25 acres, yet the real key is whether or not they’re still moving.
While Grinnell Glacier is still classified as a glacier, it’s been gradually shrinking. And the lake below it only formed as recently as the 1930s.
While the future of Grinnell Glacier remains uncertain, this lake is probably here to stay. And some hikers like to take the opportunity to swim in it after the grueling hike. But the water is just as cold as you’d imagine.
The lake is quite big, and you can spend a lot of time walking around the area and appreciating the view from different vantage points. And you might even spot some small mammals while you’re at it.
Notably, if you were to climb over to the other side of the mountains behind the lake (which is impossible), you’d end up on the Highline Trail!
The Highline Trail is another excellent hike at Glacier National Park that many regard as their favorite. The trail even features an extra detour from which you admire Grinnell Glacier from above! However, don’t think of that detour as a substitute for the real Grinnell Glacier hike.
After around an hour or so of hanging around at the lake, I decided that it was finally time to make the descent. Luckily, the hardest part of the hike was over.
The Descent
As this is an out-and-back hike, you’ll know exactly what to expect from the descent. But with the sun changing its position in the sky, the lakes below will look even better than they did in the early morning.
When it comes to long hikes, I usually dread the descents more than the climb up, as they can be hard on my knees. But even though getting to Grinnell Glacier is a strenuous uphill climb, it doesn’t get terribly steep. As such, I found the return trip quite manageable.
Near the end of the return journey, Lake Josephine finally came into view. But I noticed a couple of photographers on the trail who had clearly spotted something.
It turned out to be a massive bull moose! Thus far, I’d seen a few female moose at the park, but this was my first sighting of a bull moose at Glacier or anywhere else.
Making my way down to the lake, I also spotted a deer run across the river for good measure.
While I didn’t plan things this way, I just happened to arrive at the boat dock about fifteen minutes before the next scheduled departure at 13:45.
The hikers who arrived shortly after me weren’t so lucky, though, as there were too many passengers and they’d be stuck waiting for the next boat.
If you’ve just missed the boat, you’ll have to wait an hour for the next one. And considering how it takes just around an hour to walk to the Many Glacier Hotel from here, you might as well walk, especially considering the flat terrain.
As mentioned, if you parked at the Grinnell Glacier Trailhead parking lot and are taking a boat back, you’ll still have to walk about twenty minutes from the hotel’s boat dock to your car.
The Boat Tour
As mentioned, taking a boat tour is completely optional, but it’s a nice way to shorten the long hike. The tours are also popular with those who aren’t hiking to Grinnell Glacier, as the roundtrip journeys depart from Many Glacier Hotel and then bring you back.
Throughout the journey, the captain/guide will tell you various interesting facts about the surrounding scenery and about Glacier National Park as a whole. If you’re just traveling one-way, expect the journey to last about 45 minutes.
Lake Josephine and Swiftcurrent Lake are not connected. That means that you’ll actually need to take two separate boats. And getting from one lake to the other requires a short trek.
While it’s slightly uphill and rocky, it’s nothing compared to the Grinnell Glacier hike mentioned above.
While, as mentioned, I took a one-way return boat to shorten the Grinnell Glacier hike, I’d already taken a roundtrip journey the previous day.
In my case, I needed to buy a boat ticket to gain access to Many Glacier, as I’d come up short when trying to buy a normal vehicle reservation. Though I was ready at 8:00 on the day they went on sale, I first bought passes to Going-to-The-Sun Road. And then by 8:02, the Many Glacier reservations were already sold out!
(Since my visit, Going-to-the-Sun Road passes are no longer required when entering from the east, while it appears that Many Glacier passes are opening up day by day. Before my visit, reservations for the entire summer went on sale at once.)
Since I’d already paid for the boat tickets, we decided to join the roundtrip tour following my hike to Iceberg Lake. But while the tour is indeed pleasant, I wouldn’t consider it worth the cost of about $40 per adult.
As such, I’d only recommend Glacier boat tours to those who want to shorten their Grinnell Glacier hike, or to those who were unable to secure Many Glacier vehicle reservations.
After a long day, I was finally back at the Many Glacier Hotel. Opened to the public in 1915, it’s easily Glacier National Park’s most iconic manmade landmark.
Interestingly, its architecture was inspired by Swiss Chalets, as the railway companies at the time were trying to promote the American West to adventurous travelers as an alternative to Europe.
Additional Info
When it comes to choosing accommodation at or near Glacier National Park, you have the choice of staying on the west side of the park or on the east side.
Given the park’s geography, it would be wise to spend some time on both sides of the park throughout the duration of your trip. And when it comes to Many Glacier, the district can only be accessed from the east.
I stayed in the small town of Babb, which is just a thirty-minute drive from Many Glacier. Additionally, it also offers easy access to the Going-to-the-Sun Road, not to mention the Canadian border if you plan on visiting Waterton Lakes.
I stayed at the Glacier Elkhorn Cabins and Campground which I’d highly recommend. Accommodation throughout Montana is surprisingly expensive, and that’s especially true of places near the park. With that in mind, Elkhorn is a great value.
While the bathroom was shared, it was a short walk from my cabin. There’s also an on-site restaurant, while the owners can provide great information about the area. As the name suggests, you can also camp here if a cabin is beyond your budget.
Elsewhere on the east side of Glacier is the town of St. Mary. It’s about 30 minutes from the Many Glacier Hotel and it’s also situated near the east entrance to the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Other than St. Mary Village and Duck Lake Lodge, however, there don’t seem to be too many places that are bookable online.
Of course, you can also stay within Many Glacier itself, either at the iconic Many Glacier Hotel or at the smaller Swiftcurrent Motor Inn.
After camping for four nights at Yellowstone, I wasn’t in the mood to do so here, but the area is also home to the Many Glacier Campground. It’s just next to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and you can make bookings here.
While we’ll go into detail in our dedicated Glacier National Park planning guide, I ended up spending three nights on the east side of the park (in Babb) and two nights on the west. But looking back, I wish I would’ve spent four nights on the east and only my final night on the west.
At the time of writing, Glacier National Park costs $35 per vehicle to enter (learn more here).
US National Parks parks typically charge per vehicle rather than per person. However, if you’re traveling by bicycle instead, they’ll charge you for an individual pass which costs $20, while those on motorcycles will be charged $30.
(*Note: These are just the fees for the park entrance passes, which on their own do NOT grant you access to certain areas like Many Glacier or North Fork. Learn more about vehicle reservations in our dedicated Glacier planning guide.)
Considering how many National Parks and National Monuments there are to see in the Southwest alone, the best option for most will be to buy an ‘America the Beautiful’ Annual National Parks Pass.
These cost $80 for the year. In most cases, you’re already saving money by just visiting four National Parks/Monuments anywhere in the country within a full year.
What’s more, is that only one person in your vehicle needs to have the pass. Additionally, seniors can buy the pass for just $20. So if you have someone over 62 in your party, just have them get the annual pass and everyone else will be set.
As for where to get the pass, you can purchase it in person at most National Parks or Monuments. But you can also order it in advance online.
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