Sacred Dancing Cascade - A Roadside Cascade in West Glacier

There’s some confusion as to whether the waterfall you see pictured above is indeed the Sacred Dancing Cascade or if it’s McDonald Falls while some obscure cascades and boardwalks even further upstream were thought to be the cascade.

Glacier_NP_17_181_08052017 - Sacred Dancing Cascade — Sacred Dancing Cascade

However, according to my waypoint markings on my handheld GPS and comparing them to my Topo! map, it appears that the waterfall pictured here is indeed the Sacred Dancing Cascade.

Moreover, the smaller cascades further upstream at a different pullout were recognized by the park service as the McDonald Creek Overlook.

Meanwhile, the officially-named McDonald Falls was further downstream between Sacred Dancing Cascade and Lake McDonald’s north end.

Of the waterfalls near the north end of Lake McDonald, it turned out that this was the easier waterfall to view cleanly.

That was because we were able to pull over to a roadside parking area (see directions below, and we could take a short two-minute trail alongside McDonald Creek to a sturdy bridge spanning the McDonald Creek.

Glacier_NP_17_125_08052017 - Context of the McDonald Creek Overlook upstream of the Sacred Dancing Cascade — Context of the McDonald Creek Overlook upstream of the Sacred Dancing Cascade

It was from that bridge that I was able to get a clean upstream view of the Sacred Dancing Cascade.

In good weather (which we were fortunate to have on a second visit here in August 2017), this cascade was also backed by shapely mountains that were typical of Glacier National Park.

Authorities

Sacred Dancing Cascade resides in Glacier National Park near Kalispell in Flathead County, Montana. It is administered by the National Park Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.

Route to this Waterfall

The pullout for Sacred Dancing Cascade is less than a half-mile east of the pullout for McDonald Falls.

This pullout was about 11 miles northeast of the three-way junction at Apgar.

Apgar was about 2 miles north of the US Highway 2 turnoff at West Glacier.

Glacier_NP_17_122_08052017 - Context of the pullout by the McDonald Creek Overlook further upstream of the Sacred Dancing Cascade — Context of the pullout by the McDonald Creek Overlook further upstream of the Sacred Dancing Cascade

Note that further up the road another 1.4 miles was the McDonald Creek Overlook.

There was also another roadside pullout for Red Rock Point about 4.4 miles northeast of Sacred Dancing Cascade’s pullout or about a mile north of the wildly popular Avalanche Creek and Trail of the Cedars campground and parking area.

For context, West Glacier was 50 miles (2 hours) west of St Mary, 33 miles (45 minutes drive) northeast of Kalispell, and 136 miles (2.5 hours drive) north of Missoula.

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360 degree sweep from the bridge before the Sacred Dancing Cascade

Upstream to downstream sweep of some small cascades seen from the McDonald Creek Overlook

Bottom up sweep of the falls

Bottom up sweep looking downstream from the footbridge away from the falls

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Glacier_NP_17_198_08052017 - Sacred Dancing Cascade was just upstream from the north end of Lake McDonald, which was a surprisingly good spot to view the sunset as pictured here — **Sacred Dancing Cascade was just upstream from the north end of Lake McDonald, which was a surprisingly good spot to view the sunset as pictured here**

Glacier_NP_17_002_08052017 - Further up the Going-to-the-Sun Road from Sacred Dancing Cascade, the road rises and presented some very dramatic views of the glaciated U-shaped valley left behind at the end of the last Ice Age — **Further up the Going-to-the-Sun Road from Sacred Dancing Cascade, the road rises and presented some very dramatic views of the glaciated U-shaped valley left behind at the end of the last Ice Age**

Glacier_NP_393_09242010 - If not for the road closure in Sept 2010, we could've easily forgotten about Two Medicine Valley, which was a very worthwhile detour we made when doing the longer detour to Sacred Dancing Cascade — **If not for the road closure in Sept 2010, we could’ve easily forgotten about Two Medicine Valley, which was a very worthwhile detour we made when doing the longer detour to Sacred Dancing Cascade**

Tagged with: glacier, kalispell, flathead, montana, waterfall, rocky mountains, going-to-the-sun, lake mcdonald, mcdonald creek overlook, red rock point, mcdonald creek, apgar

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