Glacier National Park is an American national park located in northwestern Montana, on the Canada–United States border, adjacent to the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. The park encompasses more than 1 million acres (4,000 km2) and includes parts of two mountain ranges, more than 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of plants, and hundreds of species of animals. This vast pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the "Crown of the Continent Ecosystem," a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles (41,000 km2).
Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately 55 mi (89 km) northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and Grand Lake to the west. The eastern and western slopes of the Continental Divide run directly through the center of the park with the headwaters of the Colorado River located in the park's northwestern region. The main features of the park include mountains, alpine lakes and a wide variety of wildlife within various climates and environments, from wooded forests to mountain tundra.
Bandelier National Monument is a 33,677-acre (13,629 ha) United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most of the pueblo structures date to two eras, dating between 1150 and 1600 AD.
Ostrander Lake is located in Yosemite National Park, approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Yosemite Valley and 10 miles (16 km) east of the Badger Pass Ski Area, at an elevation of 8,500 feet (2,600 m). The lake is a popular destination for cross-country skiers during the winter. It is the primary source of Bridalveil Creek, which feeds Bridalveil Falls.
The Lake McDonald Lodge is a historic lodge located within Glacier National Park, on the southeast shore of Lake McDonald. The lodge is a 3+1⁄2-story structure built in 1913 based on Kirtland Cutter's design. The foundation and first floor walls are built of stone, with a wood-frame superstructure. The lobby is a large, open space that extends to the third story. It has a massive fireplace and a concrete floor scored in a flagstone pattern, with messages in several Indian languages inscribed into it. The rustic lodge was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 as one of the nation's finest examples of large-scale Swiss chalet architecture. Lake McDonald Lodge is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Granite Park Chalet is located in the heart of Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana at an elevation of 6,693 feet above sea level. The chalet was built in 1914 by the Great Northern Railway and is a National Historic Landmark contributing property, being one of five structures in the Great Northern Railway Buildings district. From Logan Pass along the Going-to-the-Sun Road, the chalet is a moderate 7.6 miles (12.2 km) hike along the famed Crown of the Continent Highline Trail, usually referred to simply as the Highline Trail. Much of the trail passes through the scenic Garden Wall section of the park, immediately west and parallel to the Continental Divide. The chalet is also accessible via the Loop Trail and the Swiftcurrent Trail. The trails are for hikers and horseback riders only; no vehicle access is provided. Granite Park Chalet is a limited services facility and those that spend the night make use of the full service kitchen to cook their own meals.
Many Glacier Hotel is a historic hotel located on the east shore of Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. The building is designed as a series of chalets, up to four stories tall, and stretches for a substantial distance along the lakeshore. The building has a Swiss alpine theme both on the outside and on the inside. The foundation is made of stone, with a wood superstructure. The outside is finished with brown-painted wood siding, and the window framing and balconies have wood sawed in Swiss jigsawed patterns. On the inside, the four-story lobby is surrounded by balconies, whose railings are patterned after Swiss designs.
Two Medicine Store, formerly part of Two Medicine Chalets, is a historic building in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. The chalet was originally built in 1914 by the Glacier Park Hotel Company, a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway, as part of the railway's extensive program of visitor services development at Glacier. The chalet group originally featured a complex of log buildings, all built in the rustic style, which provided dining and lodging facilities. Overnight accommodations at the chalet ended with the onset of World War II, and the other buildings at the site were intentionally burned in 1956.
Sperry Glacier is a glacier on the north slopes of Gunsight Mountain west of the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. Although many geologic features of Glacier National Park were formed during the much longer period of glaciation ending over 10,000 years ago, Sperry Glacier — like all the glaciers in the park today — is a product of the recent Little Ice Age, the period of cooler average temperatures starting in about the 13th century and concluding in the mid-19th century.
National Park Service rustic – sometimes colloquially called Parkitecture – is a style of architecture that developed in the early and middle 20th century in the United States National Park Service (NPS) through its efforts to create buildings that harmonized with the natural environment. Since its founding in 1916, the NPS sought to design and build visitor facilities without visually interrupting the natural or historic surroundings. The early results were characterized by intensive use of hand labor and a rejection of the regularity and symmetry of the industrial world, reflecting connections with the Arts and Crafts movement and American Picturesque architecture.
Babb is a small unincorporated farming and ranching community in Glacier County, Montana, United States, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The community experiences a large influx of tourists in the summer months as it is the gateway to the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park. Babb is a census-designated place (CDP) and had a population of 174 at the 2010 census.
The Great Northern Railway Buildings are a set of five building complexes in or near Glacier National Park in Montana. They were built by the Great Northern Railway during the period of the park's founding to provide a unified tourist experience to visitors to the park, using the Swiss chalet as a building model. The building complexes, each separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are:
The Watchman Lookout Station No. 168 is one of two fire lookout towers in Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. For many years, National Park Service personnel used the lookout to watch for wildfires during the summer months. It is also a common hiking destination because of its views of Crater Lake and the surrounding area. The building is unusual because it serves the dual purpose of fire lookout and museum. The Watchman Lookout Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Oregon Caves Historic District covers 6 acres (24,000 m2) in the main visitor area of Oregon Caves National Monument in southern Oregon. The district includes four primary buildings plus two other structures. Because of the unique rustic architecture of these National Park Service buildings and the surrounding park landscape, the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The Glacier National Park Tourist Trails, including the Inside Trail, South Circle Trail and North Circle Trail, were established in Glacier National Park to connect a series of tourist camps and hotels established by the Great Northern Railway between 1910 and 1915. Prior to the construction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, these trails were the primary form of circulation within the park. The trail system includes a number of bridges.
The Glacier National Park Conservancy was established on January 1, 2013, from a merger of the Glacier National Park Fund and the Glacier Association. The Glacier National Park Fund previously operated as a non-profit fundraising organization whose main goal was to raise money to support various needs of Glacier National Park, headquartered in West Glacier, Montana. In its history, the Glacier National Park Fund raised 3.5 million dollars. The Glacier Association was founded in 1941 and incorporated in 1946 and provided funding from receipts received from book and merchandise sales at not only Glacier National park bookstores and visitor centers, but at other federal facilities including Flathead National Forest, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, and the Big Hole National Battlefield, all of which are located in the state of Montana.
The Enchanted Valley Chalet is a backcountry lodge in Olympic National Park. The chalet was built in 1931 by Tom E. Criswell, his son Glen and the Olson family of Quinault whose Olympic Recreation Company operated it as a destination lodge deep up the Quinault River Valley, about 13 miles (21 km) from the nearest road access. Under the Olsons' ownership through the 1930s, and for decades under the National Park Service, the chalet has endured as a destination in its own right. It was a popular destination for hikers and horse tours through the 1940s. In 1943, the chalet was closed as an accommodation. It was used for a short period as an Aircraft Warning Service station during World War II, watching for Japanese airplanes. It did not reopen until 1953, after the National Park Service had purchased the Olympic Recreation Company's holdings in 1951, having purchased the Chalet itself in 1939. After a period of neglect, the chalet was restored in 1983-84. It was one of four such accommodations built by the Olympic Recreation Company and the Olympic Chalet Company; Low Divide Chalet, Nine Mile Shelter, Graves Creek Inn and the Enchanted Valley Chalet. Of the four, only the Enchanted Valley Chalet and the bathhouse at Low Divide remain.
The Sprague Fire was a wildfire in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. It was first reported on August 10, 2017 around 8:30pm after it was caused by a lightning storm. The fire encompassed 16,982 acres (6,872 ha). It nearly destroyed the historic Sperry Chalet.
The Panorama Trail is a marked hiking trail in Yosemite National Park that descends along the south wall of Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point, past several major waterfalls, to Happy Isles. The trail derives its name from the panoramic vistas visible along the route, most notably Panorama Point.
