Glacier National Park,was established in 1909,is a national park located in the city Montana,in the United States of America.

This park is located in the northwestern part of Montana and it is near the Canadian border.

This park also borders with the Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, and together they are called as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park which was  was established in 1932 and this is considered as the first
international peace park.

Both these parks were designated as International Biosphere Reserves by the United Nations in 1976 so that they could protect and monitor their ecosystems. And another credit was given in 1995 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and they announced this peace park as a World Heritage Site .

The National Park Service takes care of the Glacier National Park whereas the Waterton Lakes National Park is administered by Parks Canada. The area of Glacier National Park, is about 10.13 lakhs acres.

This park preserves a spectacular

i)wilderness area of rugged glaciers

ii)Beautiful lakes and

iii)Lofty mountain peaks.

History and future

Here the Lewis Range is present and it is a part of the Continental Divide,and this Lewis range crosses the park from north to south.Mount Cleveland is the highest peak in the range and the height is 10,466 feet.

Native Americanknow the area of the present-day park for a very long time.During the 1800's,during the arrival of European fur traders and trappers Blackfeet, Salish, and Kootenai peoples inhabited this area . Lewis and Clark Expedition came to within 80 km  of the park boundary, in 1806.

Apart from this an American naturalist called as George Bird Grinnell, during the late 1800's, led a national campaign so as to place this area under federal protection, and as a result of this in 1910 it was established as the country’s tenth national park.

A survey in 1910 reveals that there are about 150 glaciers but after that the number of glaciers in the park have diminished dramatically.

Latest report says that there ar only 26 glaciers present in  2007 only about 26 glaciers and scientist believe that by  2030 there will be no glaciers and they feel that this problem arises due to Global Warming.

Research activities

For the special Mountain Ecosystems program, this Glacier National Park is the primary study site and this involves research scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and this USGS takes care in monitoring the park’s glaciers and since 1900 it has also conducted topographic surveys of them

During a  very high cold temperatures glaciers area has expanded particularly in the Northern Hemisphere prior to 1850.This movement of glaciers played a significant part as it carves the park’s many spectacular landforms, that includes cirques, aretes, and moraines.

Apart from this numerous glacially carved valleys are usually found in the Many Glacier and also in Two Medicine Valley regions of the park.

Lakes

The most important function that this glacier does is that glaciers it is responsible for provideing water to more than 250 lakes and many of these high mountain lakes are usually surrounded surrounded by sheer cliffs of which
the lake McDonald, which is 16 kilometer long and 1.6 kilometer wide, is the largest lake in the park.

Vegetation and Wildlife

The features of the eastern slopes of the park includes spruce, fir, and lodgepole pine, whereas the western slopes are
forested with ponderosa pine, larch, hemlock, and cedar.About more than 1,000 species of wildflowers bloom throughout the park’s alpine meadows and this happens mostly during the summer and some of the species includes heather, gentian, bear grass, glacier lilies, lupines, Indian paintbrushes, asters, and shooting stars.

When comes to the wildlife in this park, it includes grizzly and black bears, pumas (cougars), lynx, wapiti (American elk), mountain caribou, Rocky Mountain goats, bighorn sheep, bald and golden eagles, and ospreys.

Connecting Road

The connection of the park to the eastern and the western side is by the Going-to-the-Sun Road,and this is 84 kilometer long and and this took 11 years of construction and finally it was constructed in 1932. This road crosses over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, which is at a height of 6,680 feet.

This road connects Saint Mary Lake on the east side of the divide with that of the famous Lake McDonald on the west side. This is considered as one of the most scenic roads in the United States,and this attracts tourist and this is also an important reason why more tourists come to this Glaciar National Park

Recreational activities

The recreational activities of this attract many visitors and it provide hiking for more than 1,100 km and also
provides horseback riding opportunities.Apart from this the boat cruises are offered at many of the park’s lakes.

There are also Visitor centers in the park that features the information about the park’s geology, history, and ecology.