What Is Bowman Lake And Where Is It?
Bowman Lake is a mountain lake in the Rocky Mountains of Northern Montana. It is accessible from the west side of Glacier National Park in Montana. To get to Bowman Lake from West Glacier, you’ll head up the North Fork road past the little town of Polebridge and then look for the road to Bowman Lake.
The Bowman Lake road is a six mile gravel and dirt road that is quite narrow and not always very well maintained. It can help to have a high clearance 4WD or AWD vehicle but you can make it with a regular passenger car if you drive slowly and carefully. There is heavy brush along the side of some parts of the Bowman Lake road. It is a two way road but the road is so narrow in spots that you can expect the brush on the side of the road to scratch “racing stripes” into the side of your car if you are not careful. If you’ll be driving a rental car up there is is probably a good idea to get insurance.
If you want to go to Bowman Lake, you’ll now need to get a vehicle permit to go up there. The details can be found on the Glacier National Park website and here you can buy the North Fork road permits.
What Is It Like To Travel To Bowman Lake At Glacier National Park?
Bowman Lake is a remote lake at Glacier National Park in Montana. If you’re not taking a road trip there, chances are you will want to fly into the Kalispell Airport. From there you’ll need to get a rental car and find place to stay. There are lots of place to stay in and around Glacier National Park that will enable you to get to Bowman Lake.
If you can spend a night in the Polebridge, Montana area that will be the most convenient place to stay to visit Bowman Lake. If you’ll be staying inside Glacier National Park you’ll want to stay on the west side of the park. If you can’t stay inside the park, the towns or Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls are all reasonable options. There is also a 45 site campground right at Bowman Lake.
Aside from water, bathrooms and a ranger station, there isn’t much of anything at Bowman Lake. You’ll want to make sure you’ve got a reasonable amount of gas in your tank. Pack some food and anything else you might need for a day at Bowman Lake. If you’ll be camping there you’ll want to bring everything you’ll need for however long you’ll be there. The Polebridge Mercantile does have some basics but it is not a place to go to stock up on groceries. If you do, you’ll spend a fortune. You can always drive back out to Kalispell for groceries but that is about 130 miles round trip.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Bowman Lake At Glacier National Park?
The first thing you need to do to get a wall art quality photo of Bowman Lake at Glacier National Park is just to get there. The fist thing you’ll need to do it get the road pass for the North Fork Road. IF you can get the pass, it will be a good idea to get there early. The Bowman Lake used to be an almost deserted area of Glacier National Park that nobody went to not that long ago.
In 2015, the Reynolds Creek fire closed a sizable chunk of the east side of the park. That closure pushed park visitors to seek out other sections of the park. Hoards of people flocked to the North Fork Road, the little town of Polebridge and Bowman and Kintla Lakes. That surge in visitors remained high so now you have to get a special permit just go to that section of the park.
There is a trail around Bowman Lake that you can hike all or part of. The main parking area is right by the edge of Bowman Lake. There is a sandy beach there and the mountains can be seen off in the distance. Like any lake, there are stormy days and calm, clear days.
While I haven’t been to Bowman Lake at sunrise or sunset I haven’t seen any photos that indicate the mountains light up in any impressive way. Colorful sunrise or sunset skies can still make for an awesome photo. Since it is such a trek to get there over the rugged Bowman Lake road and you’ll have travel time from wherever you are staying to get to the Bowman Lake road, getting there at sunrise will be quite a chore unless you are camping at the lake. Add in the permit and it will be a real hassle to get there for sunrise.
Even if you are not there during the magic hour, the views are still awesome. You can get some great shots from the lake shore by the parking lot. The scene in front of you is pretty wide. Panoramic shots will be your best bet for photographing Bowman Lake.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing Bowman Lake At Glacier National Park?
If you’re heading to Bowman Lake and want to come away with some wall art quality photos, a decent DSLR or mirrorless camera will do the trick. A standard 24-105mm zoom lens would probably be the all around safest lends to take with you it you are only going to take one lens with you. A second lens would be something that goes wider than 24mm. A third choice would be something longer than 100mm. For landscape shots a Bowman lake, however, a 100mm+ lens would likely have pretty limited use.
The landscape at Bowman Lake fits better into a panoramic format than a standard 4×6 formation that you will get out of most DSLR or mirrorless cameras. I’d highly recommend taking a camera or a tripod setup that will facilitate taking panoramic photos at Bowman Lake. That will enable you to get something like the photo in this article.
If you are shooting panoramic photos, a tripod will come in handy to keep everything steady and aligned the way your want it. For single shots I always use a tripod and recommend using one to facilitate framing up the exact shot desired. In mid day light, it is not absolutely necessary.
A circular polarizer can come in handy but if you are shooting panoramic photos, you’ll want to avoid using the polarizer on the lens.
What Is The Story Behind This Bowman Lake Panoramic Photo At Glacier National Park?
This panoramic wall art photo was taken at Bowman Lake back in the summer of 2015. That summer I’d been camping on the east side of the park in the Many Glacier section of the park. At that point, the Many Glacier campground was a first some first served campground. The plan was to stay in the Many Glacier campground for 5 nights. That was to be followed by 3 nights in the St. Mary Campground and three nights in a cabin in the Polebridge area just outside of Glacier up the North Fork Road.
In the summer of 2015 the Reynolds Creek fire erupted while we were staying in the Many Glacier section of the park. It stated out as a small fire but soon spread all along the Going To The Sun Road. That led to the closure of part of the Going To The Sun Road and within a day or two the St. Mary campground where we were scheduled to move to.
Fortunately at that time, the Many Glacier campground was a first come first served campground. In the first come, first served system you just get there early to claim a campsite. Since there are no reservations taken you have until 11am to decide whether or not you want to extend your stay. During peak season you can decide to stay for up to 14 days. Since we’d only been there for 5 days we were able to just stay put while the Reynold Creek Fire raged on and closed the St. Mary Campground.
The reservations for the St. Mary campground were automatically refunded. Unlike those who just had reservations at or plans to stay at the Glacier St. Mary campground, we had a place to stay despite the fire. Had that same scenario happened today now that the Many Glacier Campground is reservation only, we would have had nowhere to stay.
After what turned out to be some really smoky days in Many Glacier, it was time to move over to the cabin in the Polebridge area up along the North Fork Road. The cabin was about a mile or less past the Polebridge Mercantile and close to the start of the Bowman and Kintla Lake roads.
Once we got to Polebridge the weather got worse. The cabin was quite nice but it rained a lot. The fire on the east side of the park led lots of people to flock to the Polebridge/Bowman/Kintla Lake areas of the park. Fortunately people were still discovering this area of the park. The increase in traffic there was built up slowly. Most of the people heading over to the North Fork area were staying in West Glacier or farther away from the North Fork area. That meant it took them an hour or more to get over to the Bowman Lake road in the morning. Our overnight location gave us an advantage in getting there early.
Despite the early start, there was already two-way traffic in the narrow road to Bowman Lake. The road was REALLY rough even for a Subaru Outback. Large holes in the road were everywhere. It was dry, dusty, rocky and narrow. By the time we arrived at Bowman lake, the passenger side of the car was all scratched up from the thick branches growing right along the side of the road. When two approaching cars had to pass, there was no way to avoid getting the sides of the car scratched up.
When we got to Bowman Lake there was still a fair amount of parking left. There was no trouble getting a spot. I’m not sure what the big attraction to Bowman Lake it. It is fairly remote and at that time not that many people went there. It is a nice peaceful sort of place virtually every other lake at Glacier National Park is more impressive than Bowman Lake. A general increase in visitation to Glacier and an increase in posts about it on social media must be driving more people there today.
Once at Bowman Lake, we were happy to be there after two days of sitting inside in the rain. The lake itself and the scenery around it is nowhere near as impressive as St. Mary Lake, Switftcurrent Lake or Lake McDonald on the west side of Glacier.
I grabbed the camera gear and took it down to the edge of the lake. We hung out there for the bulk of the day, had a picnic and did some light hiking. As you can see from the photo, this is an area that lends itself to panoramic photography. I setup the camera on an Induro Carbon Tripod with a Nodal Ninja head and took this pano and a number of others.
After a good chunk of time at Bowman Lake, we headed back to the Polebridge Cabin. It looked like rain clouds were moving back in late in the afternoon and I didn’t feel like navigating the rugged Bowman Lake road in the dark on the way back.
What Formats Is This Glacier Bowman Lake Panoramic Wall Art Print Available?
This panoramic wall art print of Bowman Lake at Glacier National Park is available on canvas and paper in size up to 108×28 inches, on metal in sizes up to 84×22 and on acrylic and wood in sizes up to 96×25 inches.
If you will hang it in an area with diffused lighting then any of the above prints with any finish will look great. The most shiny prints on metal, acrylic and glossy or metallic paper or canvas will look extremely vibrant while the matte paper or canvas prints will be a little more subdued. If you’ll be hanging the print in an area with bright direct natural or artificial lighting or an area with exposed light bulbs then a canvas or paper print with a matte finish will look best.
This print is also available on shower curtains and Sherpa fleece blankets. Both are extremely high quality but will require cropping the print to fit on either.
The print can also be ordered on heavy duty canvas tote bags, cel phones and apparel including t-shirts and other apparel. These items make very practical purchases on items that can be used for day to day use. The tote bags are perfect to use as shopping bags and even beach bags.
If you’d prefer a puzzle, the print is available on 500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. Like the shower curtains and Sherpa fleece blankets, the image will have to be cropped to a degree to fit on the puzzles.
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