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| St. Mary Virginia and Baring Falls, MT | | -
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| | St. Mary Virginia and Baring Falls, MT | | | |
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St. Mary Virginia and Baring Falls, MT
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| Hiking | 5.29 Miles |
1,024 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.29 Miles | 2 Hrs 6 Mns | | 2.56 mph |
| 1,024 ft AEG | 2 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Glacier Day 3
This was the "big event" of the day. We started off with the boat tour of St. Mary Lake. Tickets were a little overpriced IMO, but the boat tour gave us a nice opportunity to get off our feet for a bit and still see some cool stuff. The boat captains shared interesting facts about the geology of the area--including that Wild Goose Island is a tall spire of Alston Limestone that withstood glacial grinding and is just tall enough to poke out of the top of the lake--as well as on info flora and fauna (including that moose are apparently good swimmers and can dive up to 18 feet underwater).
The boat tour heads up to the western side of the lake where it docks, and allows those on the short tour to walk the 0.2 mi. up the trail to Baring Falls, while those with more time can hike over to St. Mary and Virginia Falls. We did the latter (and also did a quick jaunt on the way back to Baring Falls).
The first part of the trail goes through a burn area from the 2015 Reynolds Creek fire. The undergrowth is recovering nicely, but the trees are going to take awhile. In the meantime, as the trail climbs up from the lake, the views of the western end of the lake are also a nice distraction from the burn scar.
Once we rounded the corner at the end of the lake, we passed the burn scar and were back in the verdant valley. Shortly, we came to St. Mary Falls, where NPS has constructed a bridge just down from the falls, creating a nice viewing platform.
This is a popular area, and many people were there. And for good reason. The falls are impressive! And the clear water is great eye candy. A few people were cliff jumping off the rocks near the bridge. I might have partaken in other circumstances, but we were in a time crunch--wanting to get out to Virginia Falls as well and back to the boat dock before our departure time.
So, we took in the views briefly and then continued on up the trail. The traffic lessened slightly, but was still relatively busy. In another mile or so, we reached Virgina Falls, which is also very impressive. A very large fall, which can be seen from Going to the Sun Road, followed by several downstream cascades, which are worthy sights in their own right.
We enjoyed the views and took in lunch before hustling back to the boat dock.
Upon arriving at the boat dock, we continued on briefly to the viewpoint for Baring Falls. Definitely worth seeing if in the area, but not as impressive as St. Mary and Virginia Falls--both of which were up at the top of my cool waterfalls list in Glacier.
We took the boat back to the dock. Less commentary from the captain on the return, but a nice chance to take a breather between hikes.
If I do this hike again, I would do it in the evening--arriving at the trail head on GTSR around 5:30 pm and then hiking out in the evening. During the summer, it is light till around 10 pm, and the late-day start would be less crowded. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
