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Baring Falls Trail

  • Baring Falls Trail
       0.3 mile elevation drop 250 feet
       Shuttle Service
       Lots of small waterfalls along the trail, plus wildflowers
       Scenic hike
       Easy down Moderate Return
       It's a very short hike take your time.


Baring Falls, Glacier National Park © Shawn Coggins www.glacierhikers.com

Baring Falls June 2010





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Bear Safety

    "There was a time when I had thought that a mountain pass was a depression. It is not. A mountain pass is a place where the impossible becomes barely possible. It is a place where wild game has, after much striving, discovered that it may get from one mountain valley to another. Along these game trails men have built new paths. Again and again we rode through long green valleys, the trail slowly rising until it had left timber far below. Then at last we confronted a great rock wall, a seemingly impassable barrier. Up this, by infinite windings, back and forward went the trail. At the top was the pass."    Mary Roberts Rhinehart

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The Baring Falls Trail starts at Sunrift Gorge parking area, it is on the lake side of Going To The Sun Road. The Sunrift Gorge parking area fills up quickly, a good hike to use the shuttle, particularly from St Mary Visitor Center. The Baring Falls Trail starts to drop down below the level of The Going To The Sun Road. The Baring Falls Trail follows the creek with numerous small waterfalls easily seen from the trail. This is a short, pretty hiking trail, I generally prefer to hike up a trail at the start and down a trail on the return. The Baring Falls Trail drops quickly down to Baring Falls, the St Mary Falls Trail has about the same drop but is a much easier trail to hike.

Baring Falls Trail Sign Glacier National Park © Shawn Coggins www.glacierhikers.com
view of gem glacier from Baring Falls Trail Glacier National Park © Shawn Coggins www.glacierhikers.com

Bear attacks make the world news, but as the sign says drowning is the number one cause of death in Glacier National Park. The death toll by drowning is already at one for 2010, the last fatal bear attack that I remember was in 1998. Summer stream flow is a mixture of summer rainfall and melting snow from the higher elevations, which means that the water running in the creeks and streams in Glacier National Park is cold.





Baring Falls Trail is one of the early trails to open in Glacier National Park, once Going To The Sun Road opens to Gunsight Pass on the east side of the park.

mountain bog gentian

Baring Falls Trail has a nice diversity of wildflowers which are easily visible while hiking along the trail. For those of you having problems with the steepness of the trail while hiking back up to The Going To The Sun Road save your flower gazing till your return trip. This is a fairly busy hiking trail so if your looking for peace and quite you won't find it on the Baring Falls Trail once the Going To The Sun Road opens over Logan Pass.



spotted saxifrage