Parking
The upper junction is on Gunsight Pass Trail above Lake Ellen Wilson Campground and has no road access or adjacent parking. Reach it on the backcountry trail from a road-access trailhead; the full approach depends on the chosen itinerary.
Overview
About Ellen Wilson Trail
Why go
- A brief alpine meadow descent to a steep-walled lakeshore basin
Heads up
- The spur is reached only by a longer backcountry approach
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Glacier map
Full mapElevation5,941–6,218 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Best time to go
Safety
1 active Glacier alert
- ClosureTwo Medicine Campground closed for 2026 constructionTwo Medicine Campground is closed throughout 2026 because of construction in the Two Medicine developed area.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Glacier Tour Guide
Your drive to Ellen Wilson Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Glacier National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Glacier audio tourMore stories near here in the app
- Sacred Dancing Cascade
- McDonald Creek Overlook
- Johns Lake Loop Trailhead
- McDonald Falls
- 204 audio storiesacross Glacier’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grizzly Bear, Wolverine, Mountain Goat, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 157 trails, 91 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Our first time to glacier and we used the audio portion for Going to the Sun Road. Wonderful information with perfect advice of what to see and do along the road.”
Trail guide
Hiking Ellen Wilson Trail
A short high-country spurThe Ellen Wilson Trail is a 0.
The Ellen Wilson Trail is a 0.4-mile, one-way spur from Gunsight Pass Trail down through an alpine meadow to Lake Ellen Wilson Campground and the lake shore. It loses about 250 feet over the descent; allow roughly 20 minutes for this segment. The upper junction is deep in Glacier’s backcountry, so the 0.4 miles cover only the spur, not the journey from a road.
The descent and returnThe path drops steadily across open meadow, with an average grade around 13% and short sections…
The path drops steadily across open meadow, with an average grade around 13% and short sections up to 20%. If you turn back to the upper junction, retrace the same spur for about 0.8 miles total, climbing roughly the 250 feet you descended. The mapped line follows the one-way segment from the Gunsight Pass Trail junction to the lake-side campground.
The lake basinThe route reaches Lake Ellen Wilson Campground at the shore of a lake set inside a steep-walled…
The route reaches Lake Ellen Wilson Campground at the shore of a lake set inside a steep-walled alpine basin. Gunsight Pass forms the basin’s high saddle and headwall; the open meadow gives way to the enclosed lake setting as you descend. The campground is a wilderness destination rather than a road-accessed facility.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Glacier
404 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
11 sightingsWolverineMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
1,173 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
1,000 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
395 sightingsMooseMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
506 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Glacier. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
