Drive to the very end of the Many Glacier Road to the parking lot for the Iceberg Lake Trail. Ptarmigan Falls is along this trail. The hardest part of the trail is at the beginning. If you can make the first few hundred yards, you will have no problem with the rest of the trail. After this the trail climbs gently through fields of beargrass and other wildflowers with a creek below. Numerous rivulets cross the trail. There was even a mini weeping wall.
Eventually you pass through a forested section. Here we were stopped by another couple and warned that there was a bear ahead. We visited a few minutes with them, and no bear was in sight as we continued on.
At Ptarmigan Falls, large flat rocks make an excellent picnic spot. The ground squirrels are very aggressive, though. One nearly crawled in our lunch box and another actually crawled in my lap to beg. We tried shooing them away, but I didn't want to hurt them. They were very cute and never tried to bite.
The falls cascade down the mountainside. It is difficult to get a picture of the complete falls. There is a bridge across the creek, and the trail continues on to Iceberg Lake. We had been told that the lake was still completely frozen over so we decided not to hike all the way up there. About 3/4 mile beyond the falls, the trail rises above the trees, and you can see for miles. Other hikers told us this view is almost as good as from the lake. Once again people told us there were bears feeding on the slopes farther ahead, but they had moved on by the time we got there. I didn't REALLY want to meet a bear on the trail, but it would have been fun to view them from a distance.
This trail offers spectacular views and lots of wildflowers. It is considered prime bear habitat. There was an outhouse along the trail that we didn't notice until our trek down. Many Glacier was my favorite part of the park.