Walking the Divide: Wilderness Lessons from Glacier National Park

by Kate McHugh, Supervisory U.S. Park Ranger, Wilderness and Wild and Scenic River Coordinator, Glacier National Park

The silence in the immense valley resonated. I looked down at my feet and found it remarkable, that in the muddy tracks of lots of people, I could still see crisp wolf and grizzly tracks pressed into the muck. I thought about the generations of people to walk here before me, since time immemorial, and share this space with those wolves and bears. In hiking on the Continental Divide Trail in Glacier National Park, I felt like I entered another dimension and another time.

Despite being in a massively popular national park, having just left the bustling crowds on a popular trail, the landscape of Glacier seemed to swallow the nearby chaos and become suddenly wild and quiet. I don’t know if it’s the scale of the terrain, the dense vegetation, or something otherworldly that makes this happen, but Glacier is special. Throughout my hike, I came to increasingly appreciate the long valley after long valley that I walked through that was left undeveloped. From every high pass, I looked out onto a vast, vast ecosystem that is the Crown of the Continent. 

My name is Kate McHugh, and I am a Park Ranger and the new Wilderness Coordinator at Glacier National Park. I spent the last decade working as a Wilderness Ranger at Grand Canyon, and when I accepted my new position my ranger mentors shared their joys and frustrations about hiking in Glacier. From my time at Grand Canyon, I knew how to work in a busy park, one with an expansive wilderness, and one with a National Scenic Trail. In my first year at Glacier, I had conversations about managing the CDT, and reflected on how different, but how similar Glacier was to Grand Canyon. Nevertheless, these places are nuanced and unique. It was hard to really understand Glacier without experiencing it. To make the best decisions as a wilderness manager, I decided that I would walk the CDT myself.

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In September 2024, I set out with rangers and scientists to backpack the CDT through Glacier. I hiked for a week southbound, against the flow of northbound hikers, in order to talk to all of them. I wanted to know about their experience in Glacier. What made it special. What made it challenging. I wanted to learn about the world-class resources that Glacier protects. I wanted to understand the risks and impacts to wilderness values that are posed by increasing visitor use, climate change, and management decisions.

During this hike, I met around 50 CDT hikers. They impressed me with their strong land ethic and deep appreciation for Glacier National Park. We talked about permits, camping, food storage, community, other public lands along the route, and logistical challenges of hiking for thousands of miles. Each conversation was illuminating, and I appreciate those hikers for stopping and talking with me.