West Glacier Hike and Packraft Loop

Note: this trip happened in August 2020 but it’s being written two years later.

Introduction: the best-laid plans…

In August 2020 we planned a nice little packrafting trip near Glacier National Park to break out of the COVID quarantine blues. The plan was to hike into the Middle Fork of the Flathead River (just south of Glacier NP in the Great Bear Wilderness), spend a few days packrafting down the river, and then hitch back to our car. After that we’d explore Glacier for a few days.

It was to be a leisurely affair. Day 1 required a 13-mile hike but it was almost all downhill, and then we’d be floating down a river. We packed accordingly—in other words, we made some outrageous food choices for a backcountry trip. We brought a frozen pizza, fresh veggies, bacon, two six-packs of beer, and a bag of the finest wine $12 can buy. We carried two soft-sided coolers in addition to all of our hiking and rafting gear.

As expected, the hike into the river sucked. 13 miles is a long way when you’re carrying an ultraheavy pack full of pizza and beer, even when it’s mostly downhill. But the payoff sure was worth it. When we finally reached the riverbed we set up camp and had one of our best backpacking meals ever. Cooking the soggy, not-so-frozen-anymore pizza over a campfire worked about as well as could be reasonably expected—mostly cooked, a little bit burnt, and extremely satisfying.

Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ended. The water level looked low when we reached the river, and that was confirmed the next day when we attempted to start rafting. We decided to give it a shot but didn’t make it very far—a few hundred feet at most—because our rafts were constantly scraping along the bottom or the river or bumping into rocks. Turns out August (at least this particular August) is too late in the summer to raft the Middle Fork. So much for a leisurely float down the river. Now we faced a 13-mile uphill hike back to the car with very heavy packs.

We ate and drank through a good chunk of our stash throughout the afternoon, and then broke the hike out into two days. We enjoyed another great dinner, as Siyang grilled up some bacon and veggie skewers over a campfire. And that wrapped up our failed packrafting trip—some good eats but not very fulfilling from an adventure standpoint.

(If you’d like to see a successful trip report for the same itinerary, check out this blog post.)

Back to the drawing board

Cutting our original trip short meant we had time to put something else together, but in summer 2020 our options were more limited than normal—a large part of the park was closed due to COVID, meaning greater competition for the reduced number of backcountry campsites. Furthermore, the online permit system was disabled so all permits had to be acquired in person on a first come, first served basis. We woke up bright and early and lined up at the permit office around 3 AM with the hopes of getting a desirable itinerary, and we lucked out with a great itinerary for a 3-day/2-night hike through the west side of the park. And the best part? We were able to fit some packrafting into it, this time down the North Fork of the Flathead River.

• Strava
• Start: Bowman Lake trailhead
• End: Brown Pass campsite
• Distance: 14.37 miles
• Elevation gain: 2,705 feet

We started from the Bowman Lake trailhead, which is at the end of a long and winding dirt road. There are nice views from the lakeshore near the trailhead, but then the next 7 miles are mostly unremarkable. It’s pleasant and the lake is nice—it’s crystal clear a hint of that glacial light blue color—but the trail is just a long tunnel through the woods for a while.

Eventually things started to open up and we got some views of the surrounding cliffs and peaks. We stopped for lunch at a dry riverbed with nice views and enjoyed our tuna wraps and cheese and crackers. After lunch I took a spectacular 30-minute siesta while Sean and Siyang continued on.

The dry riverbed was a little concerning. It was late summer and we’d heard from other hikers that some of the water sources at higher elevations had dried up, so I started worrying about the prospect of not having any water at camp. I stopped at the first available water source after lunch, which was a tiny stream (basically a puddle) in the middle of the trail. I painstakingly filled my two water bottles before moving on. When I finally caught Sean and Siyang—well ahead of me after my nap—they were waiting for me at a large stream and they laughed at me when I told them how I’d struggled to fill my bottles from a puddle. They laughed even more as we passed another half dozen water sources on our way to camp.

The last few miles to the Brown Pass campsite were steep. We had some nice views just before arriving, but the campsite itself was wooded with no views. We shared camp with two couples, one from Illinois and one from Iowa. I feel like I always meet a lot of midwesterners when I’m hiking in the national parks.

• Strava
• Start: Brown Pass campsite
• End: Kintla Lake campsite
• Distance: 17.83 miles
• Elevation gain: 1,933 feet

We had aspirations of waking up early and watching the sunrise, but it was a surprisingly cold morning so we slept in instead. It was a gentle quarter mile climb to Brown Pass (unspectacular) and then continued towards Hole in the Wall, which has one of the most desirable backcountry campsites in the park. I’m not exactly sure what the “hole” or the “wall” are, but it’s a nice spot.

The highlight of the day (and the whole hike) was the few miles between Hole in the Wall and Boulder Pass. The trail through this area has great views in all directions and there were lots of wildflowers this time of year. It’s uphill the whole way but not very steep. We took a long lunch break when we reached the Boulder Pass. This would be a really nice place to camp, although it’s not the most convenient distance from trailheads—it would require two short days or one long one to get there. Boulder Pass is also home to one of the most scenic toilets in the world. We checked it out (it really is quite scenic) but none of us decided to go for the full experience.

Boulder Pass was our last high point before a long way down towards Kintla Lake and pretty soon we were back below tree line. The trail was pretty overgrown and unpleasant at times, but it was mostly easy walking. Somewhere along the way Siyang lost his bear spray (which we fortunately never needed to use). There were a few nice vistas but not really anything to write home about. It was a few hours of the type of hiking where you zone out, go on cruise control, and put in some fast mile times.

We finally reached our campsite at Kintla Lake in the late afternoon. It was a hot day and we were pretty beat after hiking almost 18 miles, but we probably could have kept going for a while longer. In our experience the trails out here are generally pretty easy and conducive to big miles. In any case, it was nice to stop walking and the campsite was very nice, just off the shore of the lake. We were one of the first groups to arrive but soon we had many neighbors (none were very social, though).

We ate a big dinner and then skipped some rocks in the lake. We hung out by the lake as it was getting dark, and it was such a nice night that Siyang and I decided to cowboy camp under the stars right on the lake shore (Sean opted to sleep in his tent). The stars were nice but unfortunately the moon was nearly full, so no Milky Way views.

• Strava
• Start: Kintla Lake campsite
• End: North Fork riverbed
• Distance: 9.52 miles
• Elevation gain: 625 feet

Not much to say about the last day of the hike. It’s a pleasant but boring hike out to the trailhead from Kintla Lake, pretty flat the entire way. We completed the 6.5 miles at nearly a jogging pace without stopping until we reached the trailhead.

But that wasn’t the end of the journey! We took a quick break in the parking lot before hiking another three miles down a dirt road towards the North Fork of the Flathead River where we had stashed our packrafts. The river would take us back the way we came, (almost) all the way back to our starting point at Bowman lake.

We had a quick but memorable chat with a park ranger in the Kintla Lake trailhead parking lot. He asked about our plans and then told us that it “sounds like you’ve got a nice little adventure there.” We agreed and went on our way, although we were quietly disappointed that he didn’t offer to drive us three miles to the river in his pickup truck.

• Strava
• Distance: 15.88 miles

The North Fork of the Flathead River runs roughly between the Kintla Lake and Bowman Lake trailheads (except for a few road miles to the trailheads on either end). Luckily, our backcountry permit sent our hike in the right direction for rafting (our ending trailhead upstream from the start). Before our hike we did a little research and scouting to verify that the river was raftable, and it was!

It was a beautiful morning as we inflated our packrafts and got going. The water level was plenty high enough for rafting, much better than our failed attempt on the Middle Fork a few days earlier. We hit some small rapids right where we entered the river, which was a fun way to start the day.

[Note: The North Fork is in the Flathead National Forest, outside the Glacier National Park boundary. This was the only time we used the drone, as drones are not allowed inside the national park.]

We hit some medium sized Class II rapids in the first few miles (Upper and Lower Kintla Rapids, according to the American Whitewater map). We took on a lot of water and I felt close to tipping once or twice, but it never felt like we were in danger. It was probably right around the upper limit for our cheap Klymit packrafts. They’re surprisingly stable and sturdy, but not very maneuverable so it felt like we were at the mercy of the river at times. Those first few miles were really fun.

The river mellowed out as we went and the rapids got smaller and less frequent. We had great views into the park (at this point we were right on the park border) and the water was unbelievably clear, making for a really pleasant day of rafting. We passed plenty of people fishing and saw a handful of other people in boats or kayaks (but no packrafts). Some clouds rolled in while we took a lunch break on the side of the river, but fortunately it never started raining. 

We had one moment of… excitement, for lack of a better word, when Siyang accidentally let his raft get away from him. He pulled over to the side of the river to adjust something and for some reason didn’t weigh down his raft, and the wind picked it up and blew it into the river. Eventually the unmanned raft floated down to me, so I grabbed it, pulled over to the side, and waited for Siyang to walk along the river to retrieve it. One problem: he was on the opposite side of the river. The current was too swift and the river too wide for me to paddle across without being pushed way downstream, and it was too deep for Siyang to wade across. We spent about ten minutes trying to figure out a solution before a pair of nice kayakers came to our rescue. Their superior boats had no trouble with the current, so they shuttled Siyang’s raft across the river to him. Crisis averted.

Otherwise it was mostly smooth sailing the whole way. It was just about the perfect distance for a single day of packrafting, and we reached our endpoint around 6 PM. Siyang and Sean started laying out our rafts and gear to dry out on shore, and I headed off to retrieve the car.

• Strava
• Start: North Fork riverbed
• End: Bowman Lake trailhead
• Distance: 6.03 miles
• Elevation gain: 766 feet

When we finished rafting we were still six miles away from our car, which was parked at the Bowman Lake trailhead, down a dirt road that doesn’t get much traffic. Only one of us had to retrieve it while the other two could wait with out gear to be picked up. I drew the short straw.

I was in pretty good running shape at the time (that’s usually not the case), so I decided six miles was a short enough distance to jog. I left my pack with Sean and Siyang and took off running. The distance wasn’t too bad but the road was entirely uphill. I ended up walking some of the long, steep sections to save my energy. Around the halfway point a single car drove past me—I put my thumb out but they did not offer me a ride.

I reached the car in just under an hour—pretty good time if you ask me—with just a little bit of daylight remaining. Then I picked up Sean and Siyang, who had finished drying out and packing up our gear, and that wrapped up a fun and successful trip in Glacier!

Closing thoughts

• Glacier National Park is awesome. I want to go back and see the rest of the park (much of it was closed due to COVID while we were there).
• You can hike big miles in Glacier. The trails are mostly well groomed and not too steep, and altitude isn’t an issue. We did long days (for us) without much trouble. We also did some long day hikes that I didn’t mention in this post. I wouldn’t shy away from planning even longer days next time.
• It was a little annoying that people seemed to be hogging permits for the best campsites. For example, they’d stay at Hole in the Wall and Boulder Pass—the two best sites in the area—on consecutive nights, even though they’re only a couple miles apart. I’m all for “hike your own hike”, but in a year where permits were extra limited due to closures it would have been nice if the park stepped in to prevent hogging permits. Let more people experience the backcountry sites that were open.
• The Middle Fork would be a great rafting trip (that’s the one that we failed to do). It also might have been too much for our rafts (and our inexperience) to handle, so it’s possible we dodged a bullet. We’ll go earlier in the summer and armed with better rafts and more experience next time.
• The North Fork was a super fun and easy packrafting trip. I’d highly recommend our exact itinerary to any beginner packrafters.