Escaping heat and smoke at State Parks

Walking between caves at Pictographs State Park near Billings

A flag with 37 stars marks where Gen. Crook battled with the Indians at Rosebud Park 

An unusual blue sky on my Pioneer Ridge Loop hike near Neihart 

 We've been experiencing an extended heat wave with tons of smoke from fires in Canada, Oregon and Washington.

Hiking in such conditions is not the best idea, so we hit the road, going to State Parks in the Billings area and south.

We covered seven parks in three days:  Elmo Lake, Pictograph Caves, Chief Plenty Coup, Greycliff Prairie Dog, Tongue River, Rosebud Battlefield, and Cooney State Park.

We also spent a day in Lewistown at the Montana Cowboy Poetry Festival.

Locally, I did hikes in Rivers Edge part of Giant Springs State Park, and the Sluice Boxes State Park, and threw in one of my favorite hikes in the Little Belts ---- the Pioneer Ridge Loop near Neihart.

I found the Pictograph Caves to be the most scenic, and so near downtown Billings.  I wish I had visited this one earlier.

The most interesting of the parks was the Rosebud Battlefield, where we hiked a loop that gave us a pretty good feel for how the Indian tribes repulsed Gen. Crooks men, keeping them from going to Gen. Custer's aide in the nearby Little Big Horn.

The Chief Plenty Coup park was a close runner-up in the Pryor Mountains where we learned how he recognized the reality of the plight of the Crow and cooperated with the White invaders.  On a short hike near his cabin, we encountered a rattlesnake, who didn't threaten us.  The visitor center was exceptional.

It had been many years since I had been in this part of the state and I was impressed with all the Indian wars history that played out so close to Billings.

I write about this in this hiking blog because there were good hikes in nearly all of these site.

The least interesting was the Greycliffs park, which didn't have much to offer.  I think the priaire dog town on top of the First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park near Ulm is much more extensive and interesting.

We didn't escape the heat and smoke entirely, but at least we weren't sitting at home, trapped by it either.

Our state parks are real treasures.

 

 

 

A nice window for 4-day backpack in Glacier

 

The view from our campsite at Morningstar Lake

Camille Consolvo on Pitamakin Pass looking down on the Lake of the Seven Winds

Pitamakin Lake with Mount Morgan above it

We awakened to snow on our second day

The heat and smoke cleared just enough that we were able to get in a four day backpack trip in Glacier Park's Cutbank Creek area, camping at Atlantic Creek and Morningstar Lake.

We were able to get side hikes to Medicine Grizzly Lake and Pitamakin Pass Overlook.

Temperatures in Great Falls had soared to 104 degrees, accompanied by dense smoke before we left.

However, in the park the temperature at the start of the trip was 20 degrees cooler and the smoke had lessened.

Our first night out it rained, with snow falling on the peaks above us, dropping night time temperatures into the 30s.  It felt cold.

But, the second day the sky was blue and it warmed up considerably for our hikes.

I've always loved this part of the park, reachable on a rutted dirt road.  It is far less visited than many other parts of the park because it is remote.  It is the gateway to Triple Divide Pass. 

In my younger days I climbed most of the peaks lining this valley.

I reveled in the Indian lore that gave rise to the Medicine Grizzly that arose from the body of a dead Blackfeet chief to vanquish the Flatheads trying to access prime bison hunting.  A major mountain and lake are named for that grizzly here.

I'm not a big fan of Atlantic Creek campground that's in the trees on the way to Triple Divide, but our other campground at Morningstar Lake has got to be one of the best in the park, with tremendous views of a high mountain side above the lake. 

 We saw very few people on the trail between Atlantic Creek and Pitamakin Pass Overlook. The trail to Triple Divide wasn't particularly busy, either.

 

 

Alberta and BC provincial and national parks in flight from smoke and heat in U.S.

Crowsnest Peak from the Saskatoon Mountain ridgeline prominent despite smoke 

 

Forum Lake in BC's Akamina Kishinena Provincial Park

Lovely magenta Indian Paintbrush flower

Crowsnest Peak towers above Chinook Lake

A young moose we encountered a Beauvais Lake Provincial Park 

It has been tough trying to hike in all this heat and smoke.

We were lucky enough to find an oasis in Alberta and BC, a thin one at that, with day hikes in the southern Canadian Rockies.  We even had clear skies and no temperature higher than 80 degrees, while Great Falls was socked in with smoke and temperatures hovering around 100 degrees.

We used Pincher Creek, Alberta as our home base, about a 20 minutes drive north of Waterton Lakes National Park, roughly 3 and a half yours from Great Falls.

We've done a number of Alberta provincial parks, we added Beauvais Provincial Park and Chinook Lake Recreation Park to our list and climbed Saskatoon Peak in the Crowsnest Pass area near Coleman's Miners Path Park.  We finished our trip at Waterton Park, hiking to Forum Lake just over the border in the Akamina-Kishinena Provincial Park in British Columbia. 

With the exception of Waterton-Akamina hiking , Crowsnest Peak  (9,137 feet) dominated the landscape.

I was struck by how empty all of these areas were on our visit.  Maybe Chinook Lake had the most people, but even there, I didn't feel crowded.

While access to the Akamina is through Waterton, we found only 10 parties on the trail to Forum Lake.  The scenery at this alpine lake is equal to many alpine lakes, like Avalanche in Glacier.  Forum would be swamped if it were located in Glacier.

Beauvais is a drive up from Pincher Creek.  We took a nice ridge walk of about 3 miles to Piney Point, where there were great views of the southern Canadian Rockies.  We watched a young moose in a pond there. 

At Chinook Lake, we walked along a trail adjacent to a road that paralleled a campground.   Then, we walked around the lake, where Crowsnest Peak seemed to hover over it. Lots of people, but well behaved, unlike what is occurring in Glacier right now, with hordes of people misbehaving, littering and having no clue what national parks are for.

 We had a pretty significant bushwhack through an old clearcut to reach Saskatoon Peak.  But what a flower show!  The Indian paintbrush and pearly everlasting were dominant. The peak provides a nice ridgewalk, with Crowsnest Peak dominating the skyline over massive southern Canadian Rockies peaks.  We descended the Saskatoon ridge line on one of the steepest, rockiest "roads" I had even navigated.

It had been more than 35 years since I visited Forum Lake and found the aftermath of the big burn there from the  Waterton Park Kenow Fire of 2017 somewhat shocking.  The lush forest has been replaced with short lodgepole pines.  It is inspiring to see such forest rebirth, though. Once you hike to the new ranger cabin on the BC side, the trail rises steeply alongside a cascading stream, eventually coming to where the fire stopped.  Then, it's back to the old growth forest all the way to the lake.

We ended our trip with a night with rancher friends, the Websters, near Mountain View.  It is always a blessing to see them and an honor to experience their ranch.  Such hard working people!  

 

 

 

 

Old and new: Alice Creek traverse, Patrol Mountain, state parks

On top Patrol Mountain 

Gordon Whirry at the colorful Patrol Mountain saddle.  See lookout above

The interesting Lewis and Clark Cavern

On Alice Creek one of the biggest blooms of Beargrass I had ever seen

 In spite of blistering heat, we've been getting out visiting numerous state parks for the first time, and doing old favorites like the Alice Creek Traverse and Patrol Mountain.

Katie has been visiting state parks for the past several years, and I've been tagging along.

Recently, that has meant a tour of the Anaconda area parks:  Lost Creek, the Anaconda Big Stack, and Granite Ghost Town.  On that trick we added the Elkhorn Ghost Town as well.  Then it was Lewis and Clark Caverns and Headwaters State Park.

I've been impressed that many of the parks offer hiking options.  I was particularly impressed by Lewis and Clark Caverns that has a variety of scenic trails available. The cavern itself is a two-mile walk that includes steep stairs.  I hadn't been to the caverns in more than 20 years and the trails outside the big cave was a pleasant surprise.

We had also been to Granite Ghost Town before, and when I lived in Helena, I visited regularly to climb Elkhorn and Crow peaks or cross country ski.  There has been considerable, positive development and refurbishment since I moved to Great Falls 45 years ago.  

For a small park, the Big Stack in Anaconda was a surprise for its innovation.  You can't get particularly close the stack, but the park consists of a footprint of the base of the Big Stack with well-done interpretive signage.  Great Falls, which lost its Big Stack in 1982, could certainly emulate this.

Likewise, it had been more than 40 years since a visit to the Headwaters park near BoI zeman, and I was impressed with its development and hiking trails and camping.  It is a beautiful place where the Missouri River is born of the conjunctions of the Madison, Gallatin and Jefferson rivers. 

Lost Creek, west of Warm Springs, is in a gorgeous canyon with a sizeable waterfall.

I hiked the Alice Creek Traverse near Lewis and Clark Pass on the Continental Divide to see the wildflower bloom, and I wasn't disappointed, particularly by the Beargrass.  There's no dout this is Beargrass year. I hiked the 11 miles counter-clockwise from the pass, and once I reached the crest of the divide west of the pass, I was surprised by the amount of Beargrass along the ridgeline.  The Beargrass was everywhere on the way down to Alice Creek, interspersed with the charred and fallen trees from the big fire there about 7 years ago. 

Samsara Chapman the Patrol Mountain Lookout ranger on trail 

Patrol Mountain is a real favorite, located within the Bob Marshall Wilderness, a 12-miler with a 3,300 feet gain and loss.  I've been doing this hike about 45 years, 24 of those to visit the Forest Service lookout ranger, Samsara Chapman. It was her day off, so we didn't meet her at the lookout cabin.  We were very surprised to bump into her coming up the trail as we were headed down.  

One other hike worth mentioning is a short trek at the Sluice Boxes State Park, as far as the new bridge. 

With all my hikes I've discovered that I've slowed way down and my strength isn't great.

But, hey, I'm still out there.  

 

Beargrass highlights an exceptional wildflower year

Blue Penstemon along the trail

The scarlet Indian Paintbrush was eye-catching

Just a glimpse of the Beargrass bloom at Rogers Pass

Our state flower, the Bitterroot 

The awesome summer sky

The Beargrass (lily) is lighting up the forests of western Montana in what has been an exceptional wildflower year.

Over the 4th of July weekend we saw beautiful Beargrass displays, but none better than on the east side of Rogers Pass, an hour's drive from Great Falls.

The Bitterroot is abundant now as well. 

It's past the Forget-me-not display, but lupine, varieties of penstemon, crazy weed, and Indian paintbrush varieties spangle the hillsides.

We spent the weekend between Lake 5 west of Glacier, with hikes to Stanton Lake, Buffalo Lakes, Marias Pass and Two Medicine, before taking a serious hike at Rogers Pass, which had the best wildflower display of all.

The holiday traffic to and from Glacier was not bad, but it was horrible along Highway 200.  Lincoln was an anthill of vacationers.  There must have been 100 folks at the new Cenex convenience store at Bowman's Corner.  Many were from the Indiana University summer geology program traveling from its Tobacco Roots HQs enroute to the Sun Canyon. 

We avoided the crowds on the trails by taking less traveled routes:  Dry Fork at Two Med, the CDT toward Elk Calf at Marias, and a stop at the Buffalo Lakes trailhead.  Stanton Lake's parking lot was full, but the trail did not seem crowded and we had a lake side spot all to ourselves.

I enjoyed the Rogers Pass hike most of all for the wildflowers variety.

At the parking lot we bumped into Gene and Linda Sentz from Choteau.  It was the second time our Rogers Pass hikes coincided.  

High summer is upon us. 

 

 

A Waterton backpack trip

One of many waterfalls on Snowshoe Cabin Trail

It's a good beargrass year

Pointed Anderson Peak accompanied us on the first several miles of trail 

 I wasn't sure I'd ever backpack again after my foot surgery and heart attack last fall, but I put that to rest with a short, one-nighter in Waterton National Park in extreme southern Alberta. 

My pack was extra light and about our only worry was that we could be caught up in the continuing wet early summer rainstorms.

We managed to avoid the rainstorms.

Our trip started at the Red Rocks area Snowshoe Cabin trailhead that parallels Anderson Peak with its sharp imposing spire.  It followed a former two track road to Snowshoe Cabin, still used by park maintenance workers for things like trail clearing. The trail was no wider than many non-motorized trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. 

We were treated to a lovely wildflower show on a trail that rose only 1,500 feet over a bit more than five miles.  The beargrass was out in profusion, particularly in old avalanche chutes. 

Along the way we spied waterfalls coming off remaining snowfields.

The big surprise of the trip was that we hiked that last two miles in deep, dense forest that had escaped the 2017 fire that burned 40 percent of the park.

I've become so used to hiking in burns that the forest came as a pleasant shocker.  

We set up camp and then wandered up the trail toward Twin Lakes, finally stopping and turning around at a massive avalanche chute where there was a large beaver pond at its terminus.

The Snowshoe Trail offers lots of opportunities for side trips like the Twin Lakes.  Another trail from camp would have taken us to Lost Lake.  Goat Mountain Trail junction was at about the two mile mark.

There are impressive loop trails from these sites that offer the potential for spectacular ridge walks. 

In camp we were treated to a visit from the maintenance leader, Shane MacIntosh, who gave us good background on this area.

I thought I was pretty familiar with Waterton, but this hike led me into a part of the park I hadn't explored.  

The day before our Waterton trip we drove the Going to the Sun Highway as far as Haystack Butte and then got drenched in rain hiking the Beaver Pond Loop on the Red Eagle Trail.

After Waterton, we traveled to Drumheller to visit the Dinosaur Museum and then the Dinosaur Provincial Park and were very impressed with both.  The museum rivaled the Smithsonians in the U.S., and the provincial park is a display of the massive Alberta badlands. 

Our backcountry camp at Snowshoe Cabin

The Snowshoe Cabin and work crew

Mount Wright, an annual tuneup ritual

The Beargrass bloom has begun

Gordon Whirry and Mark Hertenstein on the descent from the summit

Tons of Jones Columbine along the ridge line

I was delighted to reach the top

 I hadn't done anything in the Front since last summer, so Friday's climb of Mount Wright in the Rocky Mountain Front/Bob Marshall Wilderness was quite the treat.

Yes, it's dry in the foothills, but Wright, one of the Front's tallest peaks at 8,885 feet, was still sporting its "collars" of snow at the top.

The spectacular view from the top revealed pretty good snow, particularly looking back to the west where Silvertip Mountain was well covered.

I maintain that the view from the top of this mountain are among the best in the Rocky Mountain Front, stretching to the Swan Range on the west, and looking directly into Glacier National Park on the north.  To the east one can clearly see West, Gold and East buttes in the Sweetgrass Hills.

The trailhead is located on the West Fork of the Teton River,  which was hammered by a 2007 wildfire that left timber scattered in burnt heaps on the mountainsides like pickup sticks. The west facing slopes on the Front have not recovered yet, scorched by the fire's intensity.

I've been climbing this mountain, a 7.4 miles roundtrip with a cumulative gain and loss of about 3,600 feet, since 1981.  The gulches adjacent to the mountain are often snow filled early in the season, and the melt creates handsome waterfalls. 

For the first time since I've been climbing, the trail is clear of deadfall, which we used to scramble over.

A real treat are the wildflowers along the trail. Thes white/cream colored flowers were out in full force --- the white pinstamen, the Sego lily, anemonie, the globe flowers.  We saw three beargrass in full bloom and the deep purple silky and spiky phacelia and sticky geranium. 

I was surprised by the Jones Columbine bloom along the Mount Wright ridgeline.  It was the best I've seen there.   

 How fortunate that this year we were able to see two separate Jones Columbine blooms --- the other at its peak on the top of Kings Hill Mountain in the Little Belts nearly a month ago.

Another surprise was how well my eyes are working after cataract surgery.  What particularly struck me were the deep, vibrant blues in the alpine Forget-Me-Not flowers.  I guess I've been missing out all these years without realizing it. 

This was another step in my recovery.  The foot worked beautifully.  

Playing catch up after healing

An early and large Bitterroot bloom in the Scratchgravel Hills near Helena

 

Lady Slipper orchids in Waterton

The biggest bloom of lupine I'd ever seen on the Waterton flats

Crandell Lake in Waterton

Early blooms of Beargrass in a number of areas.  These in Waterton

The best of the waterfalls on our Waterton hike

Okay, I haven't posted for a month, but that doesn't mean I haven't been getting out.

Just the opposite.

I've used that time to get in a lot of hikes and do some final fix-ups on health issues.

Perhaps the most significant fix-up was having my cataracts removed.

That meant having to back off many of the more strenuous hikes I would have liked to do.

But now I see significantly more clearly.  Colors, in particular, pop.  

The flowers during the past month have been ahead of schedule and prolific.  The snow melted off the mountains earlier than usual and copious rain has greened up the hillsides.

I found chocolate lilies two weeks ahead of schedule.  Ditto for our state flower, the Bitterroot.  The high points on both sides of Rogers Pass were spangled with alpine flowers I usually expect around Father's Day.  The fragrant, blue Forget-Me-Not, was the best I've seen in more than 40 years of visiting the Rogers Pass area.  Beargrass also got an early start.  

Wandering the Waterton roadside

We also got in trips to the Placid Lake high trail in the Seeley area for an Arrow Leaf show and Camas, the Scratchgravel Hills, several trips to Mount Helena, the Pioneer Ridge Loop, the Sluice Boxes, Crawford Creek, and  Kings Hills (early Jones Columbine) in the Little Belts, and a climb of Windy Point peak in the Highwoods.

My favorite trip during this past month was three days at Waterton National Park in southern Alberta.  The highlight was a 7-mile walk from the Crandall Lake trailhead back to the Waterton townsite.  It included a side trip Crandall Lake.  The hike roughly parallels the road that goes to Cameron Lake and the Akamina trailhead.  We passed several powerful waterfalls along the way, and were treated to a multitude of wildflowers, with the Lady Slipper orchid being the most outstanding one encountered.  We saw one black bear on this trip. The day before we also walked along the Cameron Lake shoreline to near the U.S. border.  On the Waterton flats near the Red Rocks turnoff we found the largest display of blue lupine I've ever seen.

It appears as though there is pretty good snowpack in the high country, but the Great Plains are super dry. We benefited some with a pretty good soaking rainfall before and after our Waterton trip.

I'm ready to go!  

My surgically repaired foot handled all the hiking quite well, and combined with my repaired eyesight, I'm ready for the hiking and climbing season to begin in earnest. 

A 78th birthday week: Mounts Helena, Sentinel, Hurricane Ridge hikes and Showdown ski

Early Forget-Me-Nots alpine flowers on Hurricane Ridge

The Glacier lilies are out!!

This will have to do for a 78th Birthday photo at Swift Reservoir on Hurricane Ridge hike

A "selfie" on skis enjoying late, Spring snow in the Little Belts 

 I took full advantage of superb Spring weather and snow-starved mountains to celebrate my 78th birthday week and test my surgically repaired foot.

With temperatures climbing to the high 70s just days after a dump of snow, the alpine flowers were out in full force.  I saw flowers that don't usually appear until early June, like Forget-Me-Nots, Yellowstone Draba, Arrowleaf Balsamroot.  The pink Douglasia dotted hillsides. Climate change?

Yet, the snow at Showdown, two weeks after the ski area closed, was good enough that I was able to ski to the top of Golden Goose run, and could have gone to the top of Porphyry Peak had I chosen.

I had put my skis up last April thinking there was no way my foot would be ready to ski in 2026, but the healing has been so good I could get into my boots, climb and turn without much problem.  It portends well for the next season.  The snow was of Spring quality and a bit thick and uneven to turn in, but I was just thrilled to be out in it.

Sentinel in Missoula is my usual gauge for conditioning and I had no trouble handling the nearly 2,000 feet of elevation gain.

I did Mount Helena twice on different routes, just because I love to do Mount Helena and visiting with old friends in the Capital City. On a Thursday the mountain was empty, but on Saturday it was crawling with people. I treated myself to the scenic Frontage/Recreation Road drive adjacent to I-15, leisurely enjoying the Missouri River and Adel Mountains spires.

On a Friday "rest" day I walked along the top of the First Peoples' State Park Buffalo Jump outside Ulm.

On Sunday, it was off to Dupuyer and Swift Dam for a walk up a section of Hurricane Ridge to look for wildflowers. 

It would be tough to have a better birthday week of outdoors adventures. 

 

Mount Acension, Rogers Pass, Many Glacier: lots of flowers

Even Glacier Park lacks snow as this photo of Chief Mountain bears witness

Dear friends Barry and Laura Webster on the Fishercap Lake shore

I found tons of pink alpine Douglasia above Rogers Pass

 We're having a record breaking, beautiful April and the alpine flowers are responding, and so are we with recent hiking trips to Helena for Mount Ascension, Rogers Pass and Many Glacier.

These were all day trips.

My foot continues to respond well as I'm pressing it a little more each trip.

We did a traverse around Mount Ascension, with a climb to the top.  We went to the top of the west side of Rogers Pass.  Finally, a quick trip to see Many Glacier before the crowds descend on it. 

We're told the ticks are out, but we didn't encounter any.

Mount Ascension is about a four mile total traverse, with great views of the Helena Valley and the Big Belt and Elkhorn mountain ranges. 

The Continental Divide Trail on both sides of Rogers Pass is accessible for hiking, but there is more snow on the east side. 

Once on top, we were treated to a gigantic display of pink douglasia alpine flowers.  We were surprised by quite a bit of Yellowstone draba flowers in bloom.

There is still a  lot of snow on the Many Glacier trails.  We hit Fishercap Lake and walked to the mid-point of  Red Rocks Lake with a view of the falls.  We completed our hike with a side trip to Wilbur Falls.

We stopped by to have a look what remains of Babb's Cattleman's Club that was destroyed in a winter fire.

What's left of Babb's Cattleman's Club.  Those are two temporary structures, to get the restaurant going again,  next to the rubble

 

 

An early April hiking window opens: Holter, Glacier

 

Holter Lake with the Sleeping Giant in the background

  

Plenty to point out on our Holter Lake traverse

Two Med Lake is already largely clear of heavy ice

  

We found this scroungy young moose browsing willows on Pray Lake shore

  

Impressive colored rock below Running Eagle Falls

We've just had two of the most beautiful April days for hiking that I can remember.

And, I've taken full advantage with hikes to the Holter Lake area in the Big Belts and the Two Med in Glacier Park.

I'm still testing that left foot and can report it's performing beautifully. 

At Holter, we started the hike at Juniper Gulch, hit a high point, and traversed a ridge on a long loop.

Along the way we got breath-taking views of the Sleeping Giant and Oxbow Bend in the Missouri River and enjoyed a surprising number of early alpine flowers:  Pasque, prairie smoke, kitten tail, yellow bells, larkspur, douglasia, phlox, vetch, shooting stars, two kinds of biscuit root (lomatia) and rock cress.

The fabulous views of a glass-like, mirror Holter Lake were enhanced by bright blue skies and a light breeze.

The weather encouraged us the next day to go to Glacier National Park's Two Medicine area for a hike up the road to Two Med Lake.  The road is blocked at Running Eagle  (Trick) Falls making the trek a round-trip four-miler.

There were only patches of snow on the sides of the road, and no ice or snow on the road.

The north and east faces of the mountains had good snow up high, but there were open slopes on south and west slopes.

After going to the lake, we walked its shore back to Pray Lake where we spotted a scroungy looking young moose browsing willows and unfazed by our presence.  The road in the campground was also clear.

We normally make a late March-early April trip to Two Med Lake, but usually on skis, snowshoes or Yak-Tracks.  Some years at this time of year the snow is piled up well over our heads and cover the restrooms at the lake;  the campground is nearly impassible. 

Because the weather was so clear, Two Med attracted a crowd, many, we found, from the West side.

As we drove through East Glacier Park on the way to Two Med we saw the remains of several wind storms, the most recent March 19, that knocked down thousands of trees.  Many were piled in front of businesses.  There were some areas where formerly tree-covered patches were now reduced to dirt.  The trees in front of the East Glacier Lodge took a big hit and many were stacked in piles.  

I can't imagine what the backcountry trees or the Continental Divide Trail look like.