Hiking the Entire Two Medicine Lake Loop, Plus Upper Two Medicine Lake
Looking for a long hike with minimal elevation gain, packed with gorgeous views and wildlife? This one is for you!
It's always nice to revisit an area with a new twist. In July 2015, the boys (ages 6 and 8) and I, along with Grandma Elsie and Grandpa Vin, took the Sinopah across Two Medicine Lake and hiked to Upper Two Medicine Lake. This year, my friend Rosanna and I opted to forego the boat ride, and hike the North Shore Trail to Upper Two Medicine, then loop back on the South Shore Trail. It was a new adventure with burgeoning fall colors and an impressive bull moose.
Trailhead
Parking in Two Medicine can be a challenge at the height of the summer because no ticket is required (at least for this year) to visit. The rangers close the gate routinely, practically daily, when the parking lots are filled. We arrived at 8:30 a.m. and had no problem finding a parking spot at Pray Lake near the North Shore Trailhead.
North Shore Trail Section
The North Shore Trailhead skirts around the base of Rising Wolf Mountain, named for Hugh Monroe, a fur trader who lived with the Pikuni (Blackfeet) People. They called him Rising Wolf, and James Willard Schultz, a renowned explorer, author, early Glacier guide and adopted son of the Pikuni People, named this mountain Rising Wolf in honor of his friend.
The hike around the lake is dotted with glimpses of Sinopah Mountain and the beautiful but choppy Two Medicine Lake. It's an easy rolling trail with gradual inclines and declines, although the vegetation, at least at this time of the year, is very lush. While hiking through tall, green vegetation sounds ideal to many people, for those of us who are focused on bears in the park, it means a heightened alert since neither we nor the bears would see each other. It's a good time to talk (loudly) to your hiking partners.
At approximately 3.2 miles, you'll reach the junction that takes you to No Name Lake and Dawson Pass or continues to the trail to Twin Falls and Upper Two Medicine Lake. You'll notice the dramatic Pumpelly Pillar right in front of you. In fewer than 300 yards, you'll most likely meet the boat people.
Taking the Sinopah across Two Medicine Lake shaves off roughly four miles of the hike, and many people choose this option. It was certainly good for us when the boys were little, and we were hiking with the grandparents in their mid-70s at that time. Plus, the boat guides do a phenomenal job offering an interpretive discussion of the surrounding area. It truly is worth riding the boat when you can. But for Rosanna and I, we were out there to enjoy the scenery and look for wildlife.
Twin Falls and Trail to Upper Two Medicine
It's only about a mile from the boat's disembarkation point to Twin Falls, a lovely dual waterfall that's an easy side trip for many people. The trail is fairly level, although thick with thimbleberries, but it's one even less physically capable folks can manage.
Beyond Twin Falls, it's another 1.3 miles to Upper Two Medicine Lake, which grows more stunning as you emerge from the trees. Pumpelly Pillar is to your right, and Lone Walker Mountain is right in front of you at the head of Upper Two Medicine Lake.
George Ostrom, a seasoned journalist and colorful local figure in the Kalispell area, wrote in a 2010 column in the Bigfork Eagle, "Lone Walker was a tall, handsome man of great dignity, a leader of the Small Robes band in the early 1800s. In the Blackfeet language his name was Nit-awahka."
The mountains in Two Medicine are like a family portrait of the park's early days. Lone Walker was a friend and technically the father-in-law of Hugh Monroe, as one of his sixteen wives was the mother of Sinopah, Monroe's first wife. ( Sinopah is the combination of two Blackfeet words. Sinopa is Pikuni for the kit fox, and Sinopaki means "Fox Woman.”) Lone Walker stands majestically at the other end of the valley and is impossible to miss.
My favorite part of this hike was the fall colors just beginning. Despite the heavy snow we had two days prior, much of the vegetation was still green and growing, but there were hints of the reds and oranges, particularly with the ample, although short, mountain ash bushes loaded with berries. Moose or bighorn sheep pruned many of the ones we saw earlier on the hike, but there were large groups of the shrubs closer to the lake. Grizzlies and black bears tend to focus on the berries after a hard frost, and fall hikes are often dotted with piles of bear scat filled with the fruit.
Near Upper Two Medicine is a small pond where you would expect to see moose. We didn't spot anything but heard the distinct call of a bull elk bugle. The rut is underway, and the boys announce their intentions most dramatically. From my best estimation, the herd was in the heavy timber surrounding the pond.
Upper Two Medicine Lake is the standard beauty we expect of Glacier's backcountry lakes, with deep blue water and mountains surrounding it. There was more of a beach at this time of the year, but many other months, the water reaches much higher along the shoreline. After a bite of lunch, we headed back to the boat people junction to make a new plan.
South Shore Trail
Our original intent was to go back to the North Shore Trail because we were under a time constraint, but because we hiked the 5-ish miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes, we were fine on time. We decided to hike the South Shore Trail to hopefully spot the wildlife we did not see on the other side of the lake. Overall, it is 5.6 miles and 794 feet in elevation gain (and 518 feet in loss) from Upper Two Medicine to the head of Two Medicine Lake via the South Shore Trail.
There is a roughly 345-foot elevation gain from the boat dock junction to the highest point of the South Shore Trail, but other than that, it's a fairly easy trail with excellent views along the lake. I appreciated the glimpse of Flinch's Peak and Rising Wolf and pointed out the route across the scree of Flinch's Peak that we took when I camped up there decades ago.
Closer to the trail's end is a series of ponds, which are historically excellent places to see moose. The largest one did not disappoint as an enormous bull, one of the largest I've ever seen in the park, stood feeding in the water. We watched him for at least 20 minutes as groups of people came and left, taking a few photos, even though I left my big camera with the 400 mm lens at home. Regardless, he was still magnificent to watch.
It's only another mile or so to the trailhead, but we had to walk past the parking area, boat dock, camp store, and through the campground to reach our vehicle at Pray Lake. Overall, this swift outing covered over 12 miles, and was a nice hike before the end of the season.
That's a big moose!
Fantastic photos of the scenery, looks like a great hike