Grinnell Lake turquoise glacial silt
— — the colour the ice leaves in the water.
Not only on a wall.
“A short walk from Lake Josephine in Many Glacier ends at a shoreline of pale green. The colour is rock flour, ground out of the basin above by Grinnell Glacier and carried down by meltwater. On still mornings the lake reads as one flat plane of opaque turquoise against the dark cliffs. The boat across Swiftcurrent shortens the day; the walk back is quiet. from the studio
Grinnell Lake turquoise glacial silt, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Grinnell Lake sits in the Many Glacier valley on the east side of Glacier National Park, fed by meltwater cascading from Upper Grinnell Lake and the Salamander Glacier above. The standard approach uses the Many Glacier Boat Company shuttle across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine, then a short trail to the shore. From the Many Glacier Hotel the full round trip on foot is roughly seven and a half miles. The lake drains into Swiftcurrent Creek and ultimately the Saskatchewan River system.
The opaque turquoise comes from rock flour — extremely fine particles of ground bedrock suspended in glacial meltwater. The particles scatter shorter wavelengths of sunlight, so the lake reads as pale green rather than blue. The colour is strongest in mid to late summer, once melt is steady and the silt load is high. The same effect colours Iceberg Lake one valley north and Lake McDonald's tributaries on the park's west side.
The Many Glacier Boat Company runs scheduled crossings from late June through mid-September, weather permitting, and the boat-plus-walk option is by far the most common way to reach the lake. Hikers who skip the boat add about three miles of shoreline trail. Grizzly bears use the valley heavily, especially in the huckleberry weeks of August; the park asks parties of three or more and bear spray on the hip, not in the pack.