Parking
Park at Cut Bank Campground, reached from US 89 between Two Medicine and St. Mary. Follow Pitamakan Pass Trail to the left-hand branch for Mad Wolf Boundary; the mapped distance includes this short approach.
Overview
About Mad Wolf Boundary Trail
Why go
- The climb ends in open meadows with views up to the peaks and out to the plains.
Heads up
- North Fork Cut Bank Creek must be forded.
- The tread fades around the creek and through brush, making route-finding part of the hike.
Mad Wolf Boundary Trail is a rough, old route from Cut Bank Campground to open meadows below Mad Wolf Mountain. It is about 4.2 miles round trip, including the short approach on Pitamakan Pass Trail and the return along the same route; the named Boundary section is about 1.8 miles each way. Allow four to five hours for the steep climb, creek ford and route-finding. It suits hikers comfortable with an indistinct trail, not anyone expecting a polished park path.
Parkwolf’s verdictIs this the hike for you?Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Glacier map
Full mapElevation5,161–6,325 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
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 Mad Wolf Boundary 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 tourRecorded for this trailhead
Cut Bank Trailhead and Campground0:00 / 0:33
“You're approaching Cut Bank Trailhead and Campground, a small base for a long day in the creek valley.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Glacier Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- A Turtle’s Shell Helps It Through Winter
- Spring Follows the Melting Snow
- The Mountains’ Dark Stripe
- Why Butterflies Gather on Mud
- 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 Mad Wolf Boundary Trail
A creek, brush and steady climbingFollow Pitamakan Pass Trail to the left-hand branch for Mad Wolf Boundary.
Follow Pitamakan Pass Trail to the left-hand branch for Mad Wolf Boundary. The branch drops to North Fork Cut Bank Creek, which you have to ford. In spring runoff the water can be high, cold and swift. Beyond it, the trail gets hard to pick out in an open meadow beside a seasonal creek bed; look for orange markers where the tread picks up again. The climb then steepens through trees, with muddy patches and small meadow openings along the way. Keep a reliable map handy: this line fades in places.
The upper meadowThe path comes out into broad meadows below Mad Wolf Mountain, and the route ends there.
The path comes out into broad meadows below Mad Wolf Mountain, and the route ends there. You get a close look toward the surrounding peaks and a view out toward the plains, but the summit is a separate off-trail climb and is not included in these miles. For a photo, leave a strip of trail in the foreground so the meadow and mountain skyline show how the walk opens up.
A surviving boundary routeMad Wolf Boundary is one of the few surviving fragments of a longer trail that once followed…
Mad Wolf Boundary is one of the few surviving fragments of a longer trail that once followed Glacier’s east side. This branch ends at the meadow; it does not continue as an easy through-route. If you came for a summit, the off-trail climb beyond is a much bigger outing. Pets are not allowed on park trails.
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.
