Sinopah Mountain looms over the Two Medicine valley and Two Medicine Lake. Two Medicine is a particular favorite of locals to camp, fish for rainbow trout, or picnic along the lakeshore. This camera is afixed to the Two Medicine Ranger Station. It is operated by the National Park Service.

The webcam is inaccessible for maintenance during the winter, and it occasionally is off-line due to power outages or satellite realignment.

Sinopah also is the name of the gorgeous wooden tour boat operated for generations by the Glacier Boat Company. For a general orientation to the valley and a 3 mile warm-up hike, I recommend a one-way boat ride and stroll back along the lakeshore. Or venture further up the valley to Upper Two Medicine Lake and Twin Falls.

The name "Sinopah" was the name of a Blackfeet woman, whose name translates as kit fox woman. Sinopah was the Indian wife of Hugh Monroe (Rising Wolf), and daughter of Lone Walker, a powerful Blackfeet chief. All three of the mountains bearing the names of these individuals are in the Two Medicine area.

Rising Wolf, one of Glacier's most massive mountains, looms above Two Medicine Lake to the north, and Lone Walker is farther up the valley.

The hiking opportunities are as good as anyplace in Glacier, and some would say some of the best hiking in the world. The Dawson-Pitamakin trek along the Continental Divide is a rigorous classic that circumnavigates Rising Wolf Mountain. Due to alpine snow, this is not an early-season hike. But there are many other options, including Scenic Point, Cobalt Lake, Dry Gulch, Appistoki Falls, and Rockwell Falls.

Once one of the most popular parts of the park (due to its proximity to the railway at East Glacier) it's now one of the lesser visited parts of the park. The building of the Going-to-the-Sun Road completely changed the way most visitors experience Glacier. Where once the train and horseback were the only ways to go, now cars and buses transport the majority of Glacier's visitors throughout the park.

And that's just fine with the regulars who pull time and again into the valley of Two Medicine.