Lincoln Lake

Dogs No Dogs

Features Fall Colors · Lake · River/Creek · Waterfall

Park at the big Lincoln Lake Trailhead sign along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. From here the trail immediately starts steeply climbing and rarely lets up until you've gained over 1,000 feet in a little over a mile. The trail is in the trees with little more than pocket views, but the forest is cool and lush. It spends the next two miles gaining a little over 500 feet where it passes the Snyder Ridge Trail, then reaches the top of the ridge and begins to descend.

As it descends, the forest is a bit drier and you have a couple of decent views before steeply descending to the Lincoln Creek Trail right before you reach the bottom of the drainage, then start working your way gradually upstream. You have a few quick views of the stream and a couple of nice meadows, but it's mainly more trail headed through moss covered trees.

You stray from the creek through more trees, then meet the creek and repeat this until you reach the foot of the lake and the campground. The lake itself is very beautiful as it sits beneath immense cliffs. There's not much of a shoreline to really enjoy the lake as vegetation grows right up to the edge. The waterfall, Beaver Chief Falls is fantastic, however. Towering above the amazing cliffs are immense ridge lines. It's either a grueling day run or a backpack that feels longer with the trees and constant up and down.

This content was created by Jake Bramante of Hike 734. Visit hike734.com for more expert Glacier content and maps that help you decide which trail to run.

A wet forest that features flowers such as violets and trillium with cedar and hemlock with other pine and fir forest on the south facing slopes. Animals are harder to see with the amount of trees and it features smaller forest birds.