By William and Christine Dean
Glacier National Park in Montana is truly one of the “Crown Jewells” of America’s National Park system.
Our first visit to Glacier National Park was many years ago while visiting family who resided in Kalispell, Montana. Kalispell lies in the Flathead Valley just west of the park, so exploring Glacier has become a favorite activity for our family for a good number of years.
Times changed, and William’s parents eventually left Montana and moved to Colorado for their retirement years.
For us, our retirement years have only begun, and on March 1st, 2022, we both retired. For our retirement, we plan on enjoying horseback adventures as often as we are both physically and adventures as often as we are both physically and financially blessed with the ability to do so. This leads us to this story and photographs to highlight a truly amazing horseback adventure in Glacier National Park, The Ptarmigan Trail, and the Iceberg Lake Trail.
Our first recollection of the Ptarmigan Tunnel came from studying an NPS map of
Glacier, where the tunnel’s location was noted in the high basins separating the Swiftcurrent Creek and Belly River drainages. That, of course, led to a search for information about the tunnel and nearby trails. What we found was an area of high alpine beauty unsurpassed by most of the world’s mountain vistas. Additionally, we found a backpacking video of hiking through the tunnel with scenes where you could see horseback riders! We knew this ride had to be on our “Bucket List”!
Then spring of 2022, two of our closest riding friends, Mike and Susie Drougas, contacted us about riding Glacier National Park and invited us along.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t make the same dates they could, so Mike, Susie, and another good friend, mule man “Oatmeal” Aaron Graham, headed to Glacier with our request to take “Lots of pictures”! They had a wonderful riding adventure through Glacier and learned the lay of the land, enjoying wonderful rides while taking many photos. There was one glaring problem, though no photographs of the Ptarmigan Tunnel! When we talked to Mike and Susie, we found out the Ptarmigan Trail had been blocked by a rockslide somewhere between Ptarmigan Lake and the Tunnel, so they had to bag the ride and settle for Iceberg Lake only. (Like that’s a bad choice? NOT!) That gave us all the reason we needed to plan another horseback adventure in Glacier National Park, and we began making plans for 2023. One has to empty that “Bucket List” as often as possible so the list stays manageable. Fortunately, if your list gets low and you still have the go, visiting the pages of HTA’s The Trail Journal will fill the “bucket List” back up, even if there’s a hole in it! Ask us how we know.
We made plans to meet Mike and Susie for two horseback adventures in 2023, a wintertime adventure in Arizona and a summertime Adventure in Glacier National Park. However, plans can change as plans are made. “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9. Such was the case for our Arizona plans. After a career of heavy mechanical work and many years of chiropractic therapy, William’s lower back finally had enough, and the pain was getting unbearable, too much to ride a horse, and something had to be done. His back surgery took place on January 3rd, which meant Arizona was out of the question, but what about Glacier? One of the pre-surgery items that William’s surgical team requested was for him to pick a goal to accomplish approximately six months post-op. That was a no-brainer for us! The Ptarmigan Tunnel. It was a worthy goal and did help during those early post-surgery times of PT (Pain & Torture) and doubts that horseback riding would ever be in our future. Out of faith and hope, Christine kept riding our horses through recovery so they’d be legged up and ready to ride when the doctor gave the go-ahead.
Fortunately, we were blessed with a great surgical team and a good recovery, putting William back in the saddle by Memorial Day with Glacier National Park on the horizon!
We spent 13 days camped at Hooks Hideaway in Babb, Montana, on the east side of the park, owned by Bill Powell, a rancher, roper, horseman, and member of the Blackfeet. His camp has 12 electric hookups, two shared hydrants, and a sewage dump. We rented a trailer from him for our adventures in Glacier.
Additionally, he has plans for more improvement. During our time at Hooks, we enjoyed eight rides and rode 91 miles, 88 of which were in the park. It was a blessed riding adventure for sure, and as our stay in Montana was winding down with only one ride left, Susie asked us, “What was your favorite ride in Glacier?” That was a VERY tough question to answer, and in fact, we didn’t respond except to say, “They were all worth it.” After a month of reflections, photographs, and thoughts, we’ll answer that question with this ride, Ptarmigan Trail and Iceberg Lake.
So, let’s get to the ride! We began this ride at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn parking area, where the Ptarmigan Trail/Iceberg Lake trailhead is located. It was before sunrise as we swung our legs over our cantles and headed off on the ride. Climbing steadily, the Ptarmigan Trail climbed the north side of Wilbur Creek, offering up majestic views of Mount Grinnell, Mount Wilbur, and Swiftcurrent Pass. We took the Ptarmigan Trail to the right towards the tunnel a short distance past Ptarmigan Falls. Here’s where the horses had to work and pull the longest steep climb of the entire ride. To our right, we enjoyed the splendor of Crowfeet Mountain while the sheer cliffs of the Ptarmigan wall towered overhead on the left. Once we reached
Ptarmigan Lake, we took a short trail to the right to rest and water the horses. The horses, all in good condition, caught their wind quickly, and we headed on up to the switchbacks just below the tunnel. We’d heard tell of the trail being treacherous in this section; after all, a slide had stopped Mike, Susie, and Oatmeal the summer before. We found it to be a well-constructed trail with ample room for stock use. We still prefer a seasoned mountain horse, as a less collected mount would be dangerous. We arrived at the Ptarmigan Tunnel and looked south at a wonderful sweeping vista as far south as Mount Gould and the Garden Wall.
At this point, we decided to ride our horses through the tunnel to the Belly River side. If you’re blessed to ride this trail, you may opt to lead your horse through. Christine had the tallest horse, as Ritah is 16 hands, but she felt very comfortable with the clearance. Shiloh and I took the point through the tunnel, and Christine, Susie, and Mike followed. The tunnel is 250’ long, so it does get a bit dim in the middle, but we had no issues. When Shiloh and William
were about 30’ from the end, a hiker suddenly appeared in the tunnel, walking towards us without seeing the approaching horses! William had to yell out several quick “heads up horses” because we outweighed him by thousands of pounds collectively and weren’t able to turn around if we wanted to. It scared the hiker badly, and he said when he saw the size of the animal approaching, he thought it was a bear! We all had a good laugh at that.
The greatest memory of our time in Glacier is when we emerged from the tunnel's darkness into a gorgeous bright morning vista with Elizabeth Lake shimmering like a blue sapphire in the Belly River valley far below. William thought of the blessing the moment truly was, with his wife and great friends Mike and Susie Drougas to share the moment. William was thankful for the dedicated skill of a truly talented neurosurgeon and his team in Colorado, who helped us get where we were! We thanked God for our horses, Ritah, Shiloh, Cheyenne, and Sugarfoot; they are amongst his grandest gifts. It was a GOD moment for all of us!
Once we had enjoyed these special moments, we knew it was time to get back through the tunnel and head for Iceberg Lake because our planned ride would be nearly 16 miles on the day, all in a mountainous country with not one square foot of flat land in sight! The ride south on the Ptarmigan Trail was eventful only in the views a place as special as Glacier can offer. Once we neared Ptarmigan Falls, we took the uphill fork in the trail, which is Iceberg Lake Trail. It’s a 2.1-mile trail with a steady uphill grade that’s not as hard a pull as Ptarmigan. We encountered many hikers on the way, and all were cordial and happy to see the horses, except for one. Some people can have a bad day no matter where they are! Words are simply inadequate to describe the beauty of Iceberg Lake. You can see the glacial cirque where the lake sits, hidden for most of the way up, but nothing can prepare you for the deep aquamarine color of a glacial lake upon first glimpse. There it was, this stunning turquoise-colored lake with Mount Wilbur and Iceberg Peak towering overhead as 2300-foot shear cliffs plunge into the waters.
We tied the horses off on the hitching rail provided as the NPS doesn’t allow livestock at the water's edge, took our lunches, and enjoyed Iceberg Lake.
After getting ourselves and the horses in a few pictures, it was time to head back to Swiftcurrent and bring an unforgettable experience to a pleasant close.
In sharing this, we wish to inspire our fellow riders to see this country from their own horse. The Horse is one of God’s most magnificent creations—and we would never have experienced Glacier as we did on this horseback adventure without them.
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