Greener and wetter than the St Mary Valley, the Lake McDonald Valley harbors the park’s largest lake and some of its densest and oldest temperate rainforest. Crisscrossed by a number of popular trails, including the wheelchair-accessible, 1.3km (0.8-mile) Trail of the Cedars , the area is popular with drive-in campers, who frequent the Sprague Creek and Avalanche Creek campgrounds, as well as winter cross-country skiers who use McDonald Creek and the Going-to-the-Sun Rd as seasonal skiing trails.
