We hiked from the Illecillewaet Campground in Glacier National Park up the Asulkan Trail, upriver, through the giant trees, then up the Asulkan Brook Valley.     the trail emerges into a wide cirque below Asulkan Pass, with glaciers hanging off the mountainsides.    We hiked up to the Asulkan Cabin, then above onto the moraine ridges for views through the pass.    We have done this hike a few times and hope to return.

From the end of the Great Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park, it is all rock above to get to the toe of the Illecillewaet Glacier.   In the previous century the ice came right down the valley, close to the end of the trail.    to get up to the glacier, we have to scramble up steep rock, climbing for 1.5 km.     The granite of the rock shelves has only been ice-free for a century so it is scraped and striated.     Mosses, lichens and ferns have established a foothold in this barren terrain.    This photo was taken about halfway up to the ice.