Hiking

A flat seven-mile trail edges Bowman Lake’s [1] northwest shore and is a good up-and-back walk for a family. Extend the trip by continuing past the lake on a relatively gentle creek-side climb to Brown Pass. (It’s another seven miles between the backcountry campground at the head of Bowman Lake and the Brown Pass campground.) From the pass, hikers can cross the divide and continue east to Goat Haunt, on Waterton Lake [2], or take the high road back west to Kintla Lake.

Or try this variation: Start at Kintla Lake, hike 32 miles east to Goat Haunt, and then head south to a terminus at Logan Pass [3]. Cut this trip shorter by taking the boat from Goat Haunt up to Waterton. The country between Upper Kintla Lake and Brown Pass is phenomenal, and one of the places a hiker is most likely to see black bears or grizzlies.

The Hole-in-the-Wall Campground, one mile west of the Continental Divide along this trail, may be the park’s finest and is certainly one of the most remote.

The Numa Lookout trail, five uphill miles to Numa Ridge, is a good place to walk slowly with an eye out for wildlife and good views of Bowman Lake and the Livingston Range. Catch the trail at Bowman Lake Campground.

Also starting at the foot of Bowman Lake, a trail skirts Numa Ridge and runs almost six miles to tiny Akokala Lake.