PHOTOS: Pitamakan - Dawson Loop in Glacier National Park

Beginning at the Two Medicine Campground, the 18-mile Pitamakan-Dawson Loop hike first skirts around the flank of Rising Wolf Mountain before following Dry Fork Creek up to an intersection for Oldman Lake. Wildflowers of every color and early beargrass blooms line the trail as it meanders through interspersed meadows, gaining elevation along the way to the cirque cradling Oldman Lake below Flinsch Peak and Mount Morgan. Switchback up to Pitamakan Pass where turquoise-colored lakes Oldman, Pitamakan, Lake of the Seven Winds and Morning Star are fed by melting shelves of snow. A dizzying array of skyscraping summits rise up in every direction. Ascend further to the shoulder of Mount Morgan where the next panorama of pointy peaks is unveiled. Follow the tightrope trail around Morgan and Flinsch Peak, descending from Dawson Pass at a knee-buckling pace. Down through Bighorn Basin and back into the brushy forest where you march on until you're back where the adventure started.