It’s no secret that Glacier NP is full of incredible day hikes and overnight backpacking excursions. When I visited the park two summers ago, I spent most of my time seeing the more accessible areas. Now that I live a couple hours away, I plan to dive much deeper into the wilderness every chance I get. The first trail I decided to tackle on my most recent visit was 3 nights backpacking to Lake Isabel in Glacier National Park.
Where Is Lake Isabel?
Lake Isabel is accessible via the Two Medicine area on Glacier’s southeast side. While researching how to hike here on the AllTrails app, it only listed one option, a 33 mile out and back trail starting in the Walton area. I guess I’m putting a new hiking route on the map today because it is much easier (and shorter) to reach Lake Isabel from the Two Medicine area.
If you don’t feel like roughing it out in the wilderness overnight and are an experienced hiker, you can also choose to day hike to Lake Isabel! You’ll still follow the same hiking route that I lay out below.
Backcountry Permits for Lake Isabel
You’ll most likely have the chance to obtain backcountry permits for Lake Isabel. Since it’s a long distance from Two Medicine Lake, most hikers won’t make the trek. The only permit issue you may run into is if you plan to break up the hike into multiple nights like we did, which I’ll talk more about below.
There is a ranger station at Two Medicine that offers backcountry permits. Remember, you must reserve the permit day of or day before embarking on the hike.
Need a backcountry permit and info about the sites? Read more here
Tips for Backpacking to Lake Isabel
The hike to Lake Isabel straight from the parking area at Two Medicine is nearly 12 miles and over +3000 feet in elevation gain. Because of this, we decided to break up the trip into 3 different nights; first staying at Upper Park Creek, hiking on to Lake Isabel to stay for the night and then camping at Cobalt Lake the third night before hiking out.
You can knock out nearly 1.5 miles of the hike by taking a boat across the lake. The Glacier Park Boat Company operates boat tours across the stretch of Two Medicine, arriving at the west dock. For a reasonable price, you’ll learn about the history of the Blackfeet Indians, get a stunning view of Two Medicine Valley and receive a return ticket back to the east side upon completion of your hike.
Check out the current schedules and prices for boat tours here
As with all other areas in Glacier NP, be bear aware! Bring along your necessary hiking essentials for the trek, especially bear spray and a water filtering system. I would also highly recommend hiking poles for this excursion. The loss in elevation over Two Medicine Pass really took a toll on my knees!
Backpacking to Lake Isabel in Glacier National Park
Distance: 24 Miles Round-Trip
Type: Out & Back
Elevation Gain: +3,127 Feet
Best Time to Hike: June – October
Our Itinerary: 3 Nights via Upper Park Creek Campground, Lake Isabel Campground, Cobalt Lake Campground
If you want to pass on the boat and add the 1.5 miles to the hike, begin from the mouth of Two Medicine Lake via the South Shore trailhead. After arriving to the boat dock on the west side and walking a few feet, there is a junction for the South Shore trail. Take a left for 1 mile until you meet the junction to Cobalt Lake.
The trail winds us through a lush forest with the towering peaks of the Two Medicine area taking hold of the sky. Within a mile of hiking we meet a foot bridge where we can veer off to the right to see the misty Rockwell Falls.
Cobalt Lake
In another 1.2 miles and around 1200+ feet in elevation gain, we reach the banks of Cobalt Lake. This is a good chance to take a snack break before the real climbing begins.
Two Medicine Pass
And so begins the most difficult part of our day. Tighten up the laces on those hiking boots and prepare for an epic climb over Two Medicine Pass. It will take us around 2.3 miles to reach Two Medicine Pass, but not without around 1200+ feet in elevation gain.
As we start climbing out of the trees around Cobalt Lake, the view opens up to a panoramic of glacial peaks and Two Medicine Valley. Pops of wildflowers dominate the landscape, contrasting with the snow still holding on to a different season. As we make our way west directly towards the nearly 10,000-foot high Mount Rockwell, turn around for an epic view of Cobalt Lake to the right and Two Medicine Lake in the far distance.
We make a turn around a switchback at this point, continuing the the trek up to Two Medicine Pass. As soon as the trail levels out, we meet Chief Lodgepole Peak at nearly 7700 feet in elevation.
At the moment we break to the vista, the U-shaped peaks of former glaciers take hold of the sky. From here we can see the Walton area on Glacier’s southside. We sat here for a while in admiration of what we were seeing. Soak this in because it’s one of the best views in the park!
Before making our way down to the other side of Two Medicine Pass, look west to see Lake Isabel nestled below the mountain peaks.
Descending Down Two Medicine Pass
While the hardest hiking of the day is over without more elevation gain in sight, now begins the most tedious part of the entire experience backpacking to Lake Isabel. This was the moment I realized I should’ve brought some hiking poles; the loss in elevation really takes a toll on the knees. The hike down seems a bit unstable at times with the narrow trail so watch your footing and stay low to the ground, especially with that wicked wind up here!
We’ll meet a series of switchbacks in the next two miles and it literally feels like they’re never-ending! But it’s awfully rewarding to look back up at Two Med Pass from here to see how far we’ve come.
The rocky trail soon turns to dirt as more vegetation takes hold. It doesn’t take long to notice that not many people must hike this trail–we were literally bush-whacking our way through the thick greenery. Have no fear though, only around 2.5 more miles until we reach our destination for the night!
Upper Park Creek Campground
Once the trees start to narrow in, we know we’re getting close to the Upper Park Creek Campground. Evident by the log cabin that sits by the creek, we can finally stop for the night and rest!
There are 3 separate campsites here at Upper Park Creek and we chose the first one beings it was further away from the food prep area and the pit toilet. This campground was super nice and I absolutely loved the food prep area, complete with a fire ring because yes, at this campsite you can have fires! The only complaint is the obscene amount of biting flies. It’s like they all hatched at once upon our arrival; we were fighting them off the entire stay.
After hanging our food, we attempted to filter water from the stream since we drank what we brought on the hike.
Problems Leading to a Change of Plans
After filling up our Sawyer in the creek, we began to filter it into our Nalgene but ran into some trouble. The Sawyer wasn’t filtering properly and, as we were squeezing it, we created a massive hole in the Platypus, forcing all of the unfiltered water to trickle out. From this point, we were forced to boil water with our JetBoil but discovered we wouldn’t have enough propane for the next 3 nights to do that. Racking our brains on what to do, we came to the conclusion that we’d have to hike out the next day.
Despite coming this far, we wouldn’t be making the trek on to Lake Isabel.
Lake Isabel
The original plan was to stay the night here at Upper Park Creek and then hike the easy 2.3 miles on to Lake Isabel where we’d spend another night. Because of our water filtering problems, we now had to wake very early the next day to make the full 12 mile hike out back to Two Medicine Lake.
Returning Back to Two Medicine Lake
And let me tell you, this is no easy feat. Be sure to conserve your energy for the next few miles before climbing Two Medicine Pass again. Although it was before 6 AM, the soft sunlight on the surrounding peaks was enough motivation for me to keep pushing.
It doesn’t take long for the calves to start burning and the body heat to rise. In the 4 miles it takes to reach Two Medicine Pass again, we’ve already climbed nearly 3000+ feet in elevation. With all of the stopping we did on the way, it took us almost 4 hours to reach Chief Lodgepole Peak again. I was extremely happy to have these outstanding views along the way though or else I’m not sure I could’ve made it in that time!
Upon reaching the peak at Two Medicine Pass, we sat on a ridge for a while and looked out yonder to the west to see Lake Isabel. Completely bummed knowing this was where we were supposed to be for the night, I was still grateful I got to view it from afar. Hopefully someday I’ll get the chance to return!
Moral of the story, always make sure you have backups for your equipment in case something goes wrong like it did for us.
While hiking on trails, be sure to abide by the “Leave No Trace” principles.
Read More: Leave No Trace: The 7 Rules of the Backcountry
Learn more about Leave No Trace on their website here.
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