Serious isolation: Scapegoat Massif via Welcome Pass

Scapegoat Peak above the Wall

Our Half Moon Basin campsite

Smith Creek Falls

Katie and me at base of Wall (Camille Consolvo photo)

This was a spectacular 33-miles, 5-day trip into the Scapegoat Wilderness Area west of Great Falls to share with my wife, Katie, and friends Mike Dannels and Camille Consolvo.

It will probably be the high point of the summer.  While other premier outdoor destinations in the national parks and wilderness areas have been crowded during the Covid 19 pandemic, the only people we saw during the five days came a couple of hours into our trip when four people on horses passed us coming out.  Nobody for five days in high summer!

The highlight of the trip is a wall that rivals the Chinese Wall in height, with a dramatic sweep, if shorter in distance, only 5-miles or so, compared to the Chinese Wall's 13-miles in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area.

This wall is crowned by Scapegoat Peak at about 9,200 feet.  I've climbed it twice, but we passed on this trip, opting to spend a day hiking back and forth along its base.

We hiked in via the Smith Creek Road, four miles south of Augusta.  It is a great gravel road that flanks the north side of Haystack Butte and ends at a Forest Service parking area and trailhead about a mile beyond the Goss Ranch, which you must pass through to reach.

The 5.5 miles hike to Welcome Pass is a spectacular destination itself.  The first 1.5 miles pass through a working cattle ranch and logging operation.  This area was hammered by the historic 1988 Canyon Creek Fire, but the thick, luxuriant green lodgepoles, Doug Fir, aspen and spruce trees that have sprung up since is testament to the healing power of time.  In 10 years I'm not sure you'll be able to tell there was a fire here.  The area reminds me of how well Yellowstone Park, which burned the same year, has come back.  Yes, there are still slopes where the trees haven't come back, but for the most part, the area has regenerated.

Be forewarned that there will be five Smith Creek crossings before reaching the pass.  We took our boots off and waded them all.

At about 1.5 miles there is a spectacular waterfall and a cave that flanks it.  It is well worth pausing here.  Then Smith Creek descends into a deep canyon of dark, igneous rocks.

Just beyond the confluence of Jakie and Smith creeks the trail follows Jakie and climbs steadily up a grassy slope and onto a plateau that brings the Welcome Pass ridgeline and high mountains adjacent to Crown Mountain to the west into view.

The trail drops into a grass next to an aspen grove before ascending to the pass through a high canyon before reaching the low, grassy Welcome Pass.

Just below the pass is the Continental Divide Trail.

It climbs above Welcome Creek before descending to its confluence with the Dearborn River, really a small creek here.

We stopped at the Forest Service Welcome Creek cabin and camped in the area coming and going.  There's a terrific camping site in a grassy area about a third of a mile beyond this cabin just after a stream crossing to the north side of the river.

The next morning we opted for a route to the wall via the Telephone Creek cutoff to Half Moon Creek trail and then our campsite, really a horse camp at the base of the Wall's north terminus.  This camp is an embarrassment, more like camps one might find near the Chinese Wall in the Bob, horseshit in nearly every square inch.  The best part of this hike, excluding scenery, were the ripe huckleberries along the trail.  The meadow at Half Moon bottom below Half Moon Peak is a green, grassy, and willow-plain.

We stayed there two nights, and on the first night took a short walk to the top of the ridge to the north that overlooks the Green Fork of Straight Creek.

Katie with huckleberry treats

On Day 3 we hiked along the base of the Scapegoat Wall in high heat, but enjoying the extraordinary visibility and deep blue skies.  This walk of about 5 miles out and back was the trip's highlight for its spectacular scenery.   The wildflowers, particularly the red and coral Indian paintbrush, were a visual feast that rivaled flower shows we have seen in Preston Park in Glacier National Park.

On Day 4 we awoke to brief thunderstorm that hastened our departure and cut into our breakfast.

We arrived in the early afternoon in our Welcome Ranger Station area campsite and spent the rest of the day enjoying a cloud display and an approaching thunder and lightning storm, that started dropping rain about bedtime and continued through the night.

On Day 5 we awoke to bright, blue skies and a cool wind that soaked up the rain that had fallen the night before, making our departure preparations and takeoff quite pleasant.

Then it was back through Welcome Pass, the stream crossings, the Falls, the fabulous views and we were at the trailhead at 4 p.m., and back in Great Falls before 6 p.m.