Glacier & Waterton Lakes National Parks

A young woman greets the dawn as it lights up mountains beyond Swiftcurrent Lake. Patches of white only hint at the region's history: More than 20,000 years ago, an ice sheet covered this part of northwestern Montana so deeply that only the tallest mountains were visible. The pressure of the ice carved the horns, arêtes, cirques and hanging valleys for which Glacier is known. Toward the end of the 19th century, explorers documented more than 100 ice fields in the Glacier area, some covering nearly 1,000 acres. Today there are 27, and by 2030, scientists predict, all of the glaciers will be gone.