Parking
Bowman Lake Picnic Area is the trailhead. The North Fork roads are slow and rough; 4WD or AWD and tire-changing ability are recommended. Vehicles over 21 feet and trailers are generally prohibited, with a limited horse-trailer exception.
Overview
About Quartz Lake Trail
Why go
- Openings on the ridges look over all three Quartz lakes
- A gravel lakeshore and patrol cabin mark the remote destination
Heads up
- Long, hilly out-and-back with a demanding return
- Slow, rough North Fork road approach with no cell service
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Glacier map
Full mapElevation4,032–5,059 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 Quartz Lake 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
Bowman Lake0:00 / 0:30
“You’re nearing Bowman Lake, an eight-mile stretch of water framed by forest and mountain ridges. You don’t need a long hike here: head to the shore for the view, then settle in for a picnic or a little lakeside walking.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Glacier Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- From Beaver Pond to Meadow
- Why a Loon Needs a Runway
- Why Bull Trout Need Streams
- Polebridge Ranger Station and Covey Meadow
- 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 Quartz Lake Trail
The full-day commitmentQuartz Lake Trail is a 12-mile out-and-back from Bowman Lake Picnic Area to the shore of remote…
Quartz Lake Trail is a 12-mile out-and-back from Bowman Lake Picnic Area to the shore of remote Quartz Lake. The published one-way distance is 6 miles. You climb Quartz Ridge and Cerulean Ridge through forest, get a view across all three Quartz lakes, then drop to the lake and retrace the route on the way out. Budget most of a day; around eight hours is a sensible plan for this long, hilly hike.
Getting to Bowman LakeThe North Fork roads are slow, rough and unpaved.
The North Fork roads are slow, rough and unpaved. A 4WD or AWD vehicle and the ability to change a tire are recommended because flats are common. There is no cell service in the North Fork, and its services are in Polebridge outside the park. Pets are not allowed on park trails or in the backcountry.
The approach and climbA footbridge crosses Bowman Creek near the start.
A footbridge crosses Bowman Creek near the start. Follow the West Lakes Trail along the south end of Bowman Lake to the Quartz junction, then climb through forest toward Quartz Ridge and Cerulean Ridge. The forest hides most of the route until openings near the crest give you the first broad views.
The three-lake viewFrom the ridge, look down on Quartz, Middle Quartz and Lower Quartz lakes.
From the ridge, look down on Quartz, Middle Quartz and Lower Quartz lakes. The route then drops through young lodgepole pines growing in the area burned by the 1988 North Fork Fire. The climb and descent are spread across the route, so this is not a steady uphill walk to the shore.
At the lakeThe trail reaches a gravel beach and a backcountry campground near the lake outlet; a patrol…
The trail reaches a gravel beach and a backcountry campground near the lake outlet; a patrol cabin is another lakeshore landmark. Vulture Peak and Logging Mountain frame the view. From the shore, keep some of the beach in the foreground to show the lake’s scale. You return the same way, so the descent to Quartz Lake becomes a substantial climb back over the ridges.
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.
