— No other national park in the USA offers such beautiful and diverse views as Glacier National Park. I know that’s a strong statement, but Glacier is arguably the most beautiful park we have. Nearly 3 million visitors came to Glacier in 2021, putting the park in the top 10 most visited national parks in the USA.
The glacially-fed St. Mary Lake dominates the view on the east side entrance of the park. The second largest lake in the park (the first is Lake McDonald), St. Mary Lake is at an altitude of 4,484 feet (1,367 m). The lake does freeze in the winter generally with ice up to 4 feet (1.2 m) thick. The Going-to-the-Sun Road offers magnificent views along the lake’s north shore. The full length of the lake is 9.9 miles (15.9 km) long with a depth of 300 feet (91 m). Its waters rarely rise above 50°F (10°C).
The small island you see in the photo here is Wild Goose Island, measuring only 4,496 feet (1,370 m) in length and rising 14 ft (4.3 m) above the lake surface. If the scene above looks familiar, it is because St. Mary Lake was used in the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie The Shining.
There is an easy and very scenic trail in this area: Sun Point Nature Trail. It allows you to get to the lake to see the mountains surrounding the area. The mountain prominently displayed on the horizon is Divide Mountain. It rises 8,665 feet (2,641 m), and its peak marks the continental divide between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
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