day hiking in the Belly River valley in Glacier National Park

The Belly River area of GlacierNP is mostly used for backpacking (which is in my plans). You can reach the Waterton Park area from here and also you can backpack to a lot of areas of the park: Bowman Lake, Many Glacier, even The Loop.

I did two day hikes here: (1) hike along the Belly River until I hit Cosley Lake and back, (2) do a loop by getting to the Belly River Ranger Station, going up and intercepting the Lee Ridge trail back to the start.

The trail starts inside a dense forest, where you are losing elevation (about 700 feet) in order to get to the river valley below. And here comes another bear story: ….. the first hike was on a rainy day, so I had my rain gear on and also a hood. I hated it since it would shield my ears from sound; this is a backpack trail and I started the trail early in the morning, so backpackers are not yet on the trail. The first part of the trail is in a heavily wooded area, with switchbacks to get down to the river valley. I heard a grumbling that sounded exactly as a bear !!!! I was struggling them to avoid keeping on the hood to listen and I heard the bear growl again (this time there was no confusion). Lucky me I was on a switchback taking me away from the noise ... until the next switchback took me next to the noise and a THIRD growl. Bear canister at the ready, getting prepared to be jumped. But the next switchback took me away from the area for good. I was scared shitless.

Well, once you get down, the forest clears and you are hiking in some amazing meadows.

You will eventually get to the Belly River Ranger station, which is the intersection for a bunch of hikes: (1) continue towards the Elizabeth Lake area, (2) turn towards Cosley Lake and the Waterton Park area, or (3) do the day hike loop and go up in elevation to intercept Lee Ridge.

I hiked towards Cosley Lake just to get there and peek at the lake. You go over a nice suspension bridge, pass some waterfalls and get there. One thing: there is a spur trail that goes up to the Bear Mountain Lookout. That trail is about a mile up and the views are supposed to be magnificent.

The loop hike, not fun ……….. once you go past the horse corral at the range station you start going up in elevation in some brutal switchback with no protection from the sun. But, hey, pain is rewards with amazing views.

At the top you get nice view of Chief Mountain (I think that is not the proper name) and then you start the descend on Lee Ridge.

The Lee Ridge takes you down to the forest again and you will leave the trail on the road, about 200 yards south of the parking lot.