Avalanche Creek Gorge, Glacier National Park, Montana

Since the end of the last ice age, glacial meltwaters have carved this narrow gorge into the bedrock along Avalanche Creek just above McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park, Montana. An exposure of several seconds was used to blur the acid-clear water as it poured through this slot in the rock. An old-growth forest of Cedar and Douglas fir provides a cool green canopy along a short trail to this creek. During late summer these waters originate in the melting ice of Sperry Glacier, high on the side of 9,188-foot Gunsight Mountain, four miles east and nearly one vertical mile above this location.