08/31/2026
On a perfect late-summer evening, the sun sets over the famously cold waters of Upper St. Mary Lake in Glacier National Park. At nearly 10 miles long and up to 300 feet deep, the lake lies in a deep glacially-carved valley beneath the rugged peaks of the Lewis Range.
Along the south shore, from left to right, rise Red Eagle, Mahtotopa, Little Chief, and Dusty Star, with Gunsight Mountain and Fusillade Peak at the southwestern end of the lake. On the north side is Goat Mountain, with the top of Going-to-the-Sun Mountain just visible beyond it.
At the center of the view is perhaps the most photographed location in all of Glacier National Park—Wild Goose Island.
The dramatic shapes of these mountains and valleys were sculpted by massive glaciers during the Pleistocene Ice Age, with the most recent major glaciation reaching its maximum roughly 20,000 years ago and retreating from the area by about 10,000 years ago. The rocks themselves, however, are extraordinarily ancient—truly from the basement of time—with some more than a billion years old.
With the immense scale and awesome natural beauty of these breathtaking peaks and valleys, it’s not difficult to understand why this has been my favorite place since I was very young—or why Glacier is known as the Crown of the Continent.
