The hike down to Hidden Lake from the Overlook doesn't look too far - it is only a mile and half - how hard can it be? The drop is 675 feet down to the shore. Basically, the trail is two giant long switchbacks. It isn't really difficult, there are only a couple of steep stretches.
We saw several mountain goats just beyond the overlook as we started down the trail. They seemed completely unafraid of humans - one stood directly on the trail (well, the trail was buried under snow at that point, but the goat was standing on the path where all the snow had been crunched down beneath the boots of many hikers).
The trail swings out a long way to the west before it doubles back on the first switchback. As we went along this stretch the view of the lake changed bit by bit - several of my Hidden Lake photos show slightly differing angles because they were taken at various points on the trail. Once you get far enough on the trail, you can look through Hidden Lake Pass and see a glimpse of Lake McDonald. Looking, we spotted a large waterfall draining into Hidden Lake from a point that apparently is just below the overlook. This falls has no name (as far as I can tell), I believe it is a seasonal flow - when the melted snow is gone, the falls will disappear. Perhaps by mid-July it is gone.
The lake is just beautiful. We ate lunch on the shore and took some pictures. I didn't see any trail that led around the lake - it looked like you could only go a short distance in either direction from the end of the trail. It is a large lake, it would take a while to hike all the way around even if there was a trail.
Just when we started up the trail on our return trip, we saw a mother goat and her baby coming down the trail towards us. I didn't want to scare them, so we just stood still to see what they would do. Our presence did not phase them in the least - they simply took a couple paces off of the trail, and then walked right by us. My photo of the baby goat was not taken with a zoom lens - they were so close we could practically have grazed them.
It takes a little bit of climbing to get back to the top, but this trail is certainly worth doing.
Panorama photo of Bearhat Mountain.
This panorama photo of Hidden Lake was taken part way down the trail.
Click on any thumbnail to open photo in new window. My favorite photos have blue frames.
