Mountain goat at Hidden Lake overlook
— the animal that became the park.
Not only on a wall.
“The Hidden Lake Overlook boardwalk climbs 1.4 miles through the alpine meadow above Logan Pass, and somewhere along it a mountain goat is usually standing on a rock as if it had been waiting. Oreamnos americanus is the emblem of Glacier National Park, painted onto every entrance sign. The boardwalk tops out at about 7,150 feet, with Bearhat Mountain across the cirque and Hidden Lake far below in a basin the early summer never quite reaches.
Mountain goat at Hidden Lake overlook, 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.
The Hidden Lake Overlook trail leaves directly from the Logan Pass Visitor Center at 6,646 feet, climbs a boardwalk and stone path through the alpine meadow, and reaches the overlook at roughly 7,150 feet — 2.7 miles round trip with about 500 feet of gain. Hidden Lake itself sits 765 feet below the overlook, cupped between Bearhat Mountain and Reynolds Mountain in a hanging cirque carved during the last glacial maximum. The trail is the busiest in Glacier National Park and one of the most reliable places in the lower forty-eight to see mountain goats up close.
The boardwalk usually clears of snow by mid-July and stays open through September; in early summer the upper sections still cross hard snowfields. Park regulations require staying at least 25 yards from mountain goats, though the animals routinely walk the boardwalk and ignore visitors. Logan Pass parking fills early; the free park shuttle runs the Going-to-the-Sun Road from late June through mid-September. Vehicle reservations for the road corridor are required in peak season. There is no water on the trail and no shade above the visitor center.
Mountain goats are not goats. Oreamnos americanus is the only species in its genus, more closely related to chamois than to domestic goats, and the animal evolved for this exact terrain — cloven hooves with rubber-like inner pads grip rock most predators cannot reach. A nanny and her kid will spend an hour grazing thirty feet from the boardwalk without lifting their heads. They are the official symbol of Glacier National Park, painted on every entrance sign since the park's establishment in 1910.