Virginia Falls Glacier National Park

This particular article is for all waterfall lovers out there because this beautiful, moderate hike will take you to three gorgeous waterfalls in the park. It has been very exciting to re-live the memories from Glacier National Park by writing and creating videos on our YouTube Channel.

Trail Information

• Location: Sun Point Trailhead (4670 feet)
• Distance: 5.6 Miles (From Sun Point to Virginia falls) (Out and Back)
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Best time to hike: from January until September
• Pets allowed? No

Trail Description

This hike starts at Sun Point trailhead and takes you to three beautiful waterfalls. In total the hike will take a few hours and you’ll likely pass a good number of other hikers on the trail. We’ve attached a map above for you to check out the trail for yourself.

Baring Falls

Located 0.6 miles from Sun Point Trailhead, Baring Falls is the smallest of three waterfalls on this trail. The beginning of your hike will take you alongside Saint Mary Lake. After a while you’ll hit a fork in the trail with a few signs scattered about. Find the sign that indicates Baring Falls and follow the trail off to your left.

In a short amount of time you’ll hear the waterfall. Once you hit the small wooden bridge you’ll be right in front of the waterfall. Immediately after you cross the bridge, take a moment to realize that the trail continues off to the left if you want to push on to Saint Mary Falls (we managed to miss this, but we still claim that the trail was pretty over-grown at that time :D). After taking note of the continued trail, take as much time as you want to enjoy Baring Falls.

If you feel like being silly, like Alex, you can work your way closer to the rock opposite of the waterfall, if you walk away from the falls here on a little path, you can find a neat spot higher up if you’re willing to scramble a bit. This area is slippery when wet and we’re guessing it’s equally scramble-ly even when it’s not raining out. Don’t let your kids run up here unsupervised.

Saint Mary Falls

St. Mary Falls is located 2.1 miles from Sun Point Trailhead, but there is a closer parking lot if you don’t want to start from Sun Point (cleverly named Saint Mary’s Falls Parking Lot). This option will save you about half a mile from Baring Falls and will join up with the main trail. Once on the main trail you can follow all of the typical directions.

St. Mary Falls churns more than it falls. You’ll find yourself standing on a bridge which the waterfall runs under with a little rocky outcrop directly in front of the falls. The water is a nice glacier-blue as it settles and calms its way into the river that feeds Saint Mary Lake.

The trail is a bit narrow here, and as a result you’ll find that things can get crowded. Prepare to be patient, otherwise you can continue on to Virginia Falls and you can grab some photos on the way back.

Virginia Falls

Virginia Falls is only .7 miles farther on the trail from Saint Mary’s, totaling 2.8 miles from Sun Point Trailhead. While you hike has been relatively flat so far, you will notice a slightly steady climb on the last leg here. You’ll make your way to a rocky clearing with some water flowing, you can even walk right up to the water and touch it if you’d like. Don’t get too settled though as you’re not at Virginia Falls yet.

The actual waterfall is located up a bit higher. As you continue you’ll see a sign indicating 0.2 miles to the Virginia Falls Viewpoint. Continue and you’ll cross two wet wooden bridges as the trail opens up to a much taller Virginia Falls.

Take a moment to enjoy the waterfall, grab a snack, and enjoy the area. Notice that you’re actually relaxing on a segment of the Continental Divide Trail. Once you’ve had your fill, you’ll need to turn back and retrace your steps to finish the trail.

Wildlife on the Trail

The upper area of the trail near Virginia Falls gave us the opportunity to come across a family of Deer, seemingly adventuring just like us. You’ll find that you can come across wildlife at any moment when you’re in Glacier. In our case, a few of us all grabbed our cameras and slowly crept along after the deer, snapping photos and capturing videos on our phones; the deer had taken to traveling on the same trail we were using.

You may feel confident when you’re surrounded by others, but remember to keep a safe distance from any animals you might come across.

Safety on the Trail

You’ll find many different forms of safety advertised and recommended as you enter the park. Some of you may be travelling with a group and may make enough noise on your own that you can naturally alert animals of your proximity. Solo hikers might need to sing to themselves or talk out loud periodically just to make some noise.

We found a few places selling Bear-Bells, little jingly bells that you can attach to your bag and they will make noise for you as you walk. These bells come with a little magnet on an attached strap that you can use to mute the bell. We bought one and found it to be worth the small amount of money we spent on it.

Carry Bear Spray

Bear Spray will be sold to you wherever you go, you’ll even see it at the airport while you wait for your luggage. They’ll make it quite clear to you that you’re purchasing a weapon and will likely have a video tutorial as well.

Purchasing just the Bear Spray will not guarantee that you have purchased a Bear Spray carrier (silly, we know). We didn’t realize this in time and ended up placing our bear spray on an area of our hiking bag that we had determined would be reasonably easy to get at without removing our bag. A few comedic practice attempts helped us narrow down the best location to keep our spray.

Bear Spray carriers can come in the form of either a sling that goes over your shoulder and across your chest, while others come more as belt clips. It seemed to us that the over-the-shoulder kind would fit our needs better as the belt clips seemed that they would interfere with our waist strap on our bags. Take whichever you find more comfortable.

Bear Spray looks like a mini fire extinguisher and as such is a pressurized container. You won’t be allowed to take it on the plane which means you’ll likely want to rent Bear Spray. Some places allowing you to collect your deposit on the way back by when you depart; do ask about these options as you shop for spray. You can typically keep the carrier, this seems to justify selling the two individually.