Triple Divide Peak summit
— — one mountain, three oceans.
Not only on a wall.
“A modest summit by Glacier's standards, just over eight thousand feet, but the only point on the continent where snowmelt parts three ways. Rain that lands on the north face drains by Hudson Bay to the Arctic. Rain on the west face goes to the Pacific by the Flathead and the Columbia. Rain on the south face goes to the Gulf of Mexico by the Missouri and the Mississippi. The summit itself is a quiet pyramid of red argillite. Most who climb it do so from Cut Bank Creek, by way of the Triple Divide Pass trail.
Triple Divide Peak summit, 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.
Triple Divide Peak rises to 8,020 feet on the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park, in Glacier County, Montana. The summit sits at the meeting of the Continental Divide and the Laurentian Divide, which is what makes its hydrology unusual. Water from the peak reaches three oceans: the Pacific by the Flathead and Columbia rivers, the Atlantic by Hudson Bay through the Saskatchewan system, and the Gulf of Mexico by the Missouri and Mississippi. The peak is composed of Precambrian red argillite, the same banded sedimentary rock that gives much of Glacier its colour.
At just over eight thousand feet the peak is far from Glacier's tallest, but it stands clear of its neighbours and the air on the summit ridge is thin and dry. Most ascents are made between July and September, after the snow has retreated from the upper scree. Afternoon thunderstorms build quickly over the divide and the National Park Service recommends being off the summit by early afternoon. From the top, climbers can see east into the prairie of the Blackfeet Reservation and west into the densely glaciated heart of the park.
The standard approach is from the Cut Bank trailhead on the east side, about eighteen miles south of St. Mary. The trail to Triple Divide Pass runs roughly seven miles one way, and the off-trail scramble from the pass to the summit is rated class 3, with loose argillite throughout. The route is not maintained beyond the pass and there are no fixed lines. A permit is required for backcountry camping. Most parties make it a long single-push day from Cut Bank Creek or a two-day trip with a night at the Atlantic Creek backcountry site.