Boulder Pass Trail

Boulder Pass Trail is a 30.31-mile, one-way wilderness traverse from Kintla Lake Campground at the foot of Kintla Lake to Goat Haunt Ranger Station. It follows the lakeshore to Kintla Lake Head, climbs to Upper Kintla, crosses Boulder Pass and Brown Pass, then drops through Olson Creek Valley past Lake Francis and Lake Janet to Waterton Valley. Published totals differ by about a mile; this figure follows the full campground-to-Goat Haunt line. A useful planning estimate is about 24 hours of hiking, usually spread across three or four days depending on pace and the camps in your permit itinerary. This is a serious backpacking trip through remote country.

Goat Haunt has no road exit. The usual way to reach a vehicle is to take a boat from Goat Haunt to Waterton Marina in Canada. Check boat service and border requirements for your dates before you commit to the route. Overnight camping in the park requires a wilderness permit, and your assigned camps shape how far you walk each day. Pets are prohibited on park trails and in the backcountry.

The first 6.55 miles follow Kintla Lake’s wooded shoreline from the campground to Kintla Lake Head. The walk rolls through forest and open meadows, with Kinnerly Peak and Kintla Peak across the water and Kintla Glacier visible from the approach. Another 5.13 miles lead to Upper Kintla Lake. These early miles are gentler than the climb ahead, and the lakeside camps make a natural first night.

Above Upper Kintla, the trail crosses Kintla Creek and climbs the west slope of Gardner Point on long switchbacks. The steepest push gains roughly 3,000 feet in a little over three miles. Boulder Pass is an open high-country traverse about two miles long, not a single summit. Small tarns and smooth, gray, glacially polished rock sit beneath a high point near 7,478 feet. Looking back brings Kinnerly and Kintla peaks and Agassiz Glacier into view; ahead, the route faces Thunderbird Mountain, Hole in the Wall and Mount Cleveland. Snow can linger on the pass into early or midsummer. The rough Boulder Pass Overlook spur follows a moraine and adds about two miles round trip; it is separate from the through-route mileage.

The east side of Boulder Pass drops down a steep headwall into the greener Hole in the Wall cirque. From the campground junction, the route continues toward Brown Pass, around mile 21 from Kintla. Brown Pass is about 6,255 feet high; beyond it the trail descends above Thunderbird Creek. This is still remote backcountry with no road exit, so keep your food, water treatment and camp plan in mind as you leave each basin.

The trail works down Olson Creek Valley past Thunderbird Pond, Lake Francis and Lake Janet, then enters Waterton Valley for the finish at Goat Haunt Ranger Station. Lake Francis and Lake Janet are steep-sided mountain lakes rather than roadside stops, and the long descent gives the route a very different feel from the exposed pass country. Polebridge is the only service stop in the North Fork area; there is no cell signal on this approach. Early in the season, Kintla Creek can be cold and swift, high trails can hold snow, and seasonal bridges are generally removed by late September.