The photo from Glacier National Park shows the cirque that Lake Ellen Wilson sits in. The back wall of the cirque is marked in red on the topographic map. The photo was taken approximately from where the camera is located on the map, looking towards the northeast. Just a small portion of Lake Ellen Wilson shows in the foreground. The headwall of the cirque is quite steep, although this is not readily apparent from the photograph. The closely spaced contour lines on the topographic map, however, clearly show the steep sides and the semicircular shape of the cirque. Lake Ellen Wilson is an example of a tarn. At an earlier time, a glacier formed here and flowed down the valley to the southwest.