Backpacker Magazine – August 2008

Phenomenon: Glacial Relics

The Ice Age left its mark from Acadia to Yosemite. Here's scenic evidence.

by: Drew Pogge

Tags:
• Rocky Mountain National Park
|
• Colorado
|
• Glacier National Park
|
• Acadia National Park
|
• Maine
|
• Yosemite National Park
|
• California
|

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Arête
Glacier National Park, Montana
The Garden Wall

Arêtes are knife-edged ridges that form when two adjacent glaciers carve parallel U-shaped valleys until only a long, narrow crest remains in between. Arête is French for "fish bone."

>>The Garden Wall
Sculpted by the 4,000-foot-thick ice of the Wisconsin glaciation between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago, the Garden Wall separates Lake McDonald Valley from Many Glacier Valley. Logan Pass, which cuts through the Continental Divide, was once a continuation of this arête, but additional glacial erosion chewed through the wall to create the pass. The popular Garden Wall (or Highline) Trail begins at Logan Pass Visitor Center and ends 11.6 miles later at the Loop parking lot of Going-to-the-Sun Road.

The Garden Wall
UTM 12T 0300323E 5401089N

Glacier National Park
(406-888-7800; nps.gov/glac)

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