Glacier National Park

is characterized by alpine glaciers, turquoise lakes, and Rocky Mountain wildlife. Throughout the park rugged mountain peaks rise far above rounded valleys, the work of Ice Age glaciers.

For almost three million years, ice was the major erosional agent active in changing the landscape. A combination of factors produced a change in the climate from warm and dry to increasingly colder and wetter. Snow and ice accumulated on the continents and in the high mountains around the world during this period called the Pleistocene, or Ice Age.

Even though the Ice Age glaciers have retreated—most recently about 10,000 years ago—their effect on the terrain of Glacier is everywhere.