Hungry Horse Dam

Hungry Horse Dam is a concrete arch dam on the South Fork of the Flathead River, about 15 miles south of Glacier National Park's west entrance and a few miles up a side road from the town of Hungry Horse. At 564 feet high, it was the third-largest and second-highest concrete dam in the world when it was finished in 1953. Behind it, Hungry Horse Reservoir stretches south into the Flathead National Forest, with the Jewel Basin and the Swan Range on its west side.

The thing to see is the scale. The road runs across the top of the dam, and from the crest you look down the curved face to the powerhouse at its foot and up the reservoir to the mountains. Beside the dam is the spillway, a "morning glory" funnel that is described as the highest of its kind in the world; when the reservoir is high enough, water pours over its rim and drops down a shaft. The powerhouse produces about a billion kilowatt-hours a year, and water released here also drives the dams downstream on the Flathead, Clark Fork, Pend Oreille and Columbia rivers.

Congress authorized the dam in 1944. Construction started in 1948, with the first concrete poured in September 1949; the project used about 3 million cubic yards of concrete and was the first dam built with air-entrained concrete and fly ash in the mix. Twenty-three men died building it. President Harry Truman threw the switch to start power generation on October 1, 1952, and the road across the dam opened on November 2, 1953. The town of Hungry Horse grew from the construction camp; its name comes from a local story about two freight horses, Tex and Jerry, that nearly starved after wandering off in deep snow along the South Fork.

The 2026 situation is different from older guides. The Bureau of Reclamation's visitor center did not reopen after closing at the end of the 2025 season and stayed closed for summer 2026, so there were no guided tours. The top of the dam remains open to vehicles and pedestrians, new interpretive panels have been added around the dam, and the public restrooms remain open. Reclamation says it will post updates on its website.

Practical tip: walk at least part of the crest rather than just driving across; the view straight down the downstream face is the best part of the visit. Combine it with a stop in Columbia Falls or West Glacier.