St. Mary Lake (home of tiny Wild Goose Island) stretches for miles along Going-to-the-Sun Road from the east entrance to Glacier National Park. If you want to see some of that water before it flows into the lake, you could head for St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls, a little above the lake’s west end.

The hike is relatively easy: just a mile and a half of trail gets you first to St. Mary and then to Virginia Falls without much elevation gain. And it’s definitely a kid-friendly hike. I told my daughter, who was 9 years old that summer, “It will be rare in your life that you get to see so much beauty for so little work!”

St. Mary Falls (lower cascade)

Above St. Mary Falls: footbridge, and St. Mary River continuing beyond

Virginia Falls

Virginia Falls

I can imagine the sounds of falling mountain water . . . and the joy of inhaling cool, clear mountain air while listening! Can you?!