Cobalt Lake, Glacier National Park — An Overnight Trip Report

I did this hike on August 30th, 2025. One of the great ones for sure. I hiked up on the 30th and camped that night at the lake, then hiked up to the Continental Divide early on the morning of the 31st, and then hiked out on the 31st as well.

AllTrails has it listed as hard, 11.1mi out and back with 1,578’ of elevation gain. It’s definitely a good hike with a tent and gear.

Getting There

I started from the Two Medicine Trailhead. The suspension bridge was a ways in, but I don’t remember exactly where at. That was the first suspension bridge I’ve ever crossed, which was pretty cool.

The waterfall pictured here is Rockwell Falls. It’s pretty cool, definitely worth the stop to refill your water bottle.

I should also add the last two miles going to Cobalt are pretty steep.

Camp, Wildlife, and a Jet Engine in the Wind

I had a moose surprise me when I was putting my food up, later towards the evening. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and the first thing I thought of was bear. Luckily it was not, but it still came closer to me than expected.

Another thing I’ll add that’s really cool was the sound of the wind ripping over the mountainside at night. It sounded like a jet engine. It eventually calmed down, but it was really cool.

The Continental Divide Side Trip

I think it’s roughly another mile to two miles up to the divide from camp, and it was steep. But if you’re camping at the lake, I would highly recommend going up to the divide. The views are incredible, that was for sure the highlight of the hike for me. Sitting on the divide just soaking up everything that I could.

My plan was to hike from Cobalt Lake to Lake Isabel and camp at Lake Isabel on the 31st. However, I would have had to hike out about 14 miles and drive 8 hours home on the 1st, so I decided against hiking to Isabel. My thought process going up to the divide was that maybe the hike to Isabel wouldn’t be as bad as I thought, so I hiked up to check it out. You can see Lake Isabel from the divide, and it would have been a very long hike. I made the right decision, even though I wanted to go to Isabel. So that’s still on my to-do list, because I’ve been told Lake Isabel is good fishing.

I would recommend a Garmin inReach or something similar if you’re going to Isabel, as it’s really pretty remote and I don’t think people visit it very often.

Wildlife

For wildlife, I saw several mountain goats. None were very close, I spotted them all with binoculars hiking on a mountainside, which was pretty wild. They were just doing their thing on what looked like a straight drop-off, but it’s all natural to them. It was a mom and a baby.

Fishing

I did go fishing too, but didn’t catch anything. Talking to one of the rangers when I was getting my permit, he wasn’t sure if there were any fish in Cobalt Lake, and I would agree, I’m not sure if there are any or not either.

Overall it was a great hike.

— Adam