The Belly River Trail starts at the Chief Mountain trailhead, just a couple hundred yards from the USA/Canada border. The trail first proceeds through a lovely forest before winding down a dozen or more switchbacks as it descends 800 feet to the Belly River valley.
Nearing the bottom of the series of switchbacks, Scott (foreground) and Len have a panorama before them of the Belly River and the pair of canyons which diverge from it 4 more miles upstream. To the left is the valley containing Elizabeth Lake and, beyond it, Helen Lake. The valley to the right contains Cosley Lake, Glenns Lake, and Mokowanis Lake. The trail after the 800 foot elevation loss is basically level (other than climbing and descending small ridges.)
Make certain you take the spur trail about .2 of a mile to Dawn Mist Falls. You can hear the thunder as you approach. Here Scott pensively enjoys our brief rest stop. The trail then climbs sharply and you quickly reach the summit of the falls.
Magnificent Elizabeth Lake is well worth the 9 or 10 mile hike into the wilderness. The campsites here are also among the best in the valley, each being more secluded and private than the other campgrounds we stayed at. The food preparation area is quite unique. The Park Service (actually Ranger Steve) devised a method to foil the flying squirrels which live in this area, and which had been flying down onto the suspended food packs, clawing them open, and then getting the food after it fell to the ground. The solution is large paint buckets (numbered by campsite number) into which the food is placed, which are then hoisted up onto the bear pole.
Elizabeth Lake as seen from Ptarmigan Tunnel, 2300 feet above the lake and a 5 mile hike from the campsite area below. The tunnel was blasted out in the early 1900s to shorten the route used by horse tours from Many Glacier which had been forced to travel over Redgap Pass.