The trail completed its gradual ascent at roughly the 6100-foot (1860m) mark, and we arrived at the "lip" of the Iceberg Lake Cirque. We re-entered some forest here, although it was intermittent and interspersed with sub-alpine meadows. We crossed the outflow from Iceberg Lake on a large footbrige. There was still a slight rise which prevented us from seeing the lake.
Paintbrush near Iceberg Lake
After surmounting the final small rise and walking through some very nice meadows, we caught our first glimpse of Iceberg Lake. You don't get to see the lake until you are only a hundred or so metres from it, so the view of it comes suddenly. I wasn't completely sure if - given the fact that it was well into summer - we would see much in the way of "icebergs". However, the initial views showed a lot of white stuff ahead.
Even though the trailhead and guidebooks have pictures of the lake with snow and ice in it, it is still surprising to see in person. The pictures do not exaggerate and the name is very appropriate: even well into summer, Iceberg Lake has a lot of frozen material in it - much more so than similar nearby lakes, or even lakes much farther to the north. Against the green of the meadows and surrounding forest, and beneath the imposing walls of sheer rock behind, it is a bright and striking visual.
Still waters of Iceberg Lake
Still waters of Iceberg Lake
After taking some close-up shots from the lakeshore (the water is tinted a slight shade of turquoise but was otherwise crystal clear), we explored the environs a bit. From the end of the official trail, many little ad-hoc paths lead off in various directions. We followed one of these left, along the shore of the lake, to the base of a large slope of scree coming down from the foot of Mount Wilbur. The pack ice (that was the best way to describe the material in Iceberg Lake - it was kind of like pack ice) had concentrated more on this side of the lake, and we had a closer and better view of it from here.
Icebergs and Forest
I felt I had still not captured the essence of the bowl-like nature of Iceberg Lake adequately, so I climbed partway up the talus slope until I had the perfect all-encompassing view of the lake and the circque in which it sat. I got my signals crossed with Jenn, who had interpreted that I was continuing all the way up the slope. As a result - and through an unfortunate coincidence of terrain - she did not see me come down as she climbed up to follow me. I was all the way across to the northern end of the lake by the time I noticed that Jenn was a little dot back on the scree slope, climbing higher and higher (in search of me in the wrong direction).
courtesy JInnes
I took many shots of the amazing cliffs surrounding the lake, especially of the jagged crest high above on the western side of the lake, and of Iceberg Notch, a prominent groove coming down to the lake from the northwest. My scrambling guide to Glacier National Park describes a very airy class 4 mountaineering route that scrambles up to and through this notch. It looked quite formidible from this angle; but boy, what a view you must get from along it.
We had the first thirty or so minutes at Iceberg Lake to ourselves, and then other hikers began to arrive (We had been the very first of the day to arrive, at about 9:30am). The next two arrived about 15 minutes later, then another group about 15 minutes after that. These visitors hooped and hollered as they waded out into the obviously near-freezing waters to stand on an ice floe. A few more people arrived, then a few more.
After having exhausted the obvious viewing and photo opportunities, and since the wonderful solitude we had been privileged to experience was now rapidly dwindling away, we decided to start our return journey back to the trailhead.
