Howe Lake Glacier Park
  • Howe Lake Trail
       trailhead is 5.5 miles from Fish Creek Campground   
       2.0 miles elevation gain 240 feet
       Inner North Fork Road
       Very easy to miss this trailhead!
        Google™ Map Howe Lake
       No Shuttle Service
       Limited parking at trailhead
       Trail is through the remains of the Roberts Fire of 2003
       great views from Howe Lake
       Easy hike

Bear Aware 3RD Edition
by Bill Schneider
Powells.com


Inside North Fork Road open not sure when it opened but it was sometime late August 2011. The Inner North Fork Road opened June 19, 2009 from Fish Creek to Polebridge. Then the Inner North Road partically closed in June 2010, and reopended again in eaerly July, 2010. Over the last few years this stretch of the Inner North Fork Road has been closed more often then it is open. This year, 2010, the Inner North Road opened the earliest it had in a decade, then closed again due to flooding. Last time I checked the Inner North Road closed to through traffic as of 6-27-11. You can get to the Rocky Point Trailhead on the Inner North Road but the road is closed to cars after that. From the north you can only go sout as far as Logging Creek.


Howe Lake Trail is another one of the hidden gems in Glacier National Park. For the past few years access has been difficult as major parts of the Inner North Fork Road were closed. Late last summer Inner North Fork Road reopened and I finally got back to Howe Lake Trail. Please note there is only parking for four cars at the Howe Lake Trailhead on the Inner North Fork Road. This can be a very wet trail. At Howe Lake the views open up to distant mountain ranges. Howe Lake is a beaver dam lake. The trail joins the lake near the beaver dam. Howe Lake Trail is one of the easiest hikes in Glacier National Park.

Hidden Lake Overlook summer sunset.



View from Howe Ridge of Snyder Ridge across Lake McDonald taken in October of 2007. This area was burned during the Roberts Fire of 2003. It was a chilly day in the middle of October, the fall colors were almost gone, and frost was on the trail. The Howe Lake Trail passes through the aftermath of the Roberts Fire of 2003. A few larch trees survived the fire: none of the trees survived on Howe Ridge where this photo was taken.