Running Eagle Falls

The falls carry the name of Pitamakan, Running Eagle, a woman of the Piikani Blackfeet remembered for leading war parties, something no other Blackfeet woman is known to have done. Blackfeet tradition places her vision fast in the mountains above this valley, and accounts of her life differ even on when she lived, but not on what she did. Two Medicine was Blackfeet country long before it was a corner of the park, and the falls are held sacred.

The other name, Trick Falls, comes from the rock. Two Medicine Creek has worn a channel through the limestone, so that much of its water drops out of an opening in the cliff face rather than over the top. In spring, when the lakes upstream are full, a second fall pours over the lip and hides the first; by late summer the upper one dries up and the lower fall seems to come straight out of the stone.

The trail is short, level and among the few in Glacier built for wheelchairs, starting about a mile past the Two Medicine entrance station and crossing a footbridge to a viewing area below the falls. Two Medicine was a busy part of the park before Going-to-the-Sun Road opened and is one of its quieter corners now.