GLACIER NATIONAL PARK 



399 



entrance, three other large hotels in the Park and one 

 at the western entrance, is due entirely to the energetic 

 efforts of public citizens. Before launching forth in that 

 form of eulogy on Glacier National Park, the thoughts 

 of which thrill the bosom of everyone who thinks or 

 writes about it, it would seem wise to outline the physical 

 characteristics 

 of the area so 

 that subse- 

 q u e n t state- 

 ments may be 

 justified or 

 at least ap- 

 pear substan- 

 tiated by a 

 semblance to 

 fact. 



The Conti- 

 nental Divide 

 traverses the 

 Park longitu- 

 dinally in a 

 northerly and 

 southerly di- 

 rection and ap- 

 proximately in 

 the middle of 

 the area. The 

 western slope, 

 receiving more 

 of the after- 

 noon sun, is 

 not so plenti- 

 fully supplied 

 with glaciers 

 and is more 

 heavily wood- 

 ed. On this 

 side the can- 

 yons are wider 

 and (ess pre- 

 cipitous and 

 the lakes larg- 

 er and more 

 plentiful. The 

 streams rise 

 almost at the 

 summit of the 

 Divide and 

 quickly find 

 the level of the lakes through which the waters 

 of the snow and glaciers pass to join the main 

 and middle forks of the Flathead River which bounds 

 the Park on the east and south sides, respectively. The 

 eastern slope is more precipitous, rugged and broken up 

 with innumerable pockets, as it were, here and there, 

 in which will invariably be found a sparkling lake, on 

 the placid surface of which are reflected the silhouettes 

 of the surrounding lofty peaks. On the western slope 

 there are fifteen main canyons which carry streams from 



HERE BEAVER DAMS MAY BE SEEN 



The trail from Going-to-the-Sun Camp to Gunsight Pass skirts the border of several beaver ponds. In 

 this one the reflection of Fusillade Peak is sometimes so perfect as to form an excellent) test of 

 sobriety. The success with which the beavers build their dams in this Park strongly suggests the ad- 



visability of establishing a school of training 

 immediate vicinity. 



the summit of the Continental Divide to the Flathead 

 River and its middle fork, and in seven of these there 

 are lakes ranging from one mile to ten miles in length, 

 surrounding all of which is a superb forest of pine, fir 

 and cedar. On the eastern slope it would be almost im- 

 possible to count the small canyons, heading in glacian 



cirques and 

 mountain 

 tarns, which 

 stray toward 

 the Black feet 

 Indian Reser- 

 vation. There 

 are, however, 

 some eight or 

 ten that are 

 large enough 

 to be readily 

 recognized as 

 real, grown-up 

 canyons, the 

 largest being 

 the St. Mary 

 Canyon, in 

 which is the 

 Upper St. 

 Mary Lake, 

 about ten miles 

 in length. 



Despite the 

 fact that this 

 is the most 

 broken up and 

 rugged area of 

 its size in the 

 United States, 

 it is strangely 

 easy to tra- 

 verse on horse- 

 back and lends 

 itself to devel- 

 opment in a 

 most simple 

 way. There 

 are no such 

 great areas of 

 almost impene- 

 trable territory 

 as can be 

 found in 

 Yosemite National Park and the Mt. Whitney coun- 

 try, for, with the exception of the vicinity of "The 

 Garden Wall," as it is called, it would be feasible and 

 practicable to build trails throughout the entire Park 

 that would be comparatively safe and inexpensive. At 

 present, however, there are only a few circuits which 

 are connected up in such a manner as to make a con- 

 tinuous trip practical, and it is along these circuits that 

 the chalets, hotels and camps of the Great Northern 

 Railroad Company have been built. The most pictu- 



for the engineers of the Reclamation Service in the 



