Two men drowned in Glacier National Park on Saturday • Daily Montanan

Two men in their 20s drowned in two different areas of Glacier National Park on Saturday, a park spokesman said Sunday.

The first man, a 26-year-old Indian man living in California who was visiting the park with friends, was hiking near the gorge on the Avalanche Lake Trail when he entered Avalanche Creek around 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

After entering the stream, he went under water, resurfaced briefly and was then carried by the current into the ravine.

Witnesses called emergency services at 8:37 a.m., and according to the park, campground staff and police officers were on the scene at 9:00 a.m.

A search and rescue helicopter and more than 10 rangers searched the creek for the man, but he was not found and is presumed dead – presumed underwater in the gorge. A park official said the flow in the creek is still very high and rangers cannot enter the gorge.

The second man drowned on Saturday evening shortly before 6:30 p.m. He was a 28-year-old man from Nepal who lived in Portland, Oregon and was vacationing with friends. He was swimming in Lake McDonald near the Sprague Creek Campground.

Friends told park officials that he was an inexperienced swimmer and got into trouble about 100 feet offshore. The man went under the water and never resurfaced.

People called 911 at 6:25 p.m., and rangers arrived at 6:50 p.m., the park said. The Flathead County Sheriff’s dive team recovered the man’s body about 30 feet underwater at about 8:20 p.m.

A park spokesman said authorities had contacted consulates in Nepal and India to establish contact with the next of kin of the two men. As of 11:30 a.m. Monday, their identities were not known.

The two drownings are the second and third in Glacier National Park in just two weeks. Gillian Tones, 26, of Pennsylvania, drowned on June 23 after slipping on rocks and being swept over waterfalls near Virginia Falls.

Drowning is one of the top three causes of death for park visitors, along with natural causes and falls, park officials said in 2022, which was the park’s deadliest year. In 2017, 56 people drowned in the park, the Great Falls Tribune reported.