A Fall to remember: Coopers Lake, Windy Point in Highwoods, Scratchgravel Hills

The golden larch along Coopers Lake north of Ovando

I guess you can say Katie is a real tree hugger as she takes on this 130 foot larch

Larch showing off

Surprising late, aspen color in the Highwood Mountains

Some of the blowdown along Thain Creek in the Highwoods

 It's the final weekend of October, and while still colorful, I think my autumn colors treks are over.

I can feel winter looming.

In the past week I've taken two hikes in the Coopers Lake north of Ovando on the edge of the Scapegoat Wilderness, and a hike to Windy Point in the Highwood Mountains.

I expect the western larch to be in full color until the end of October, so I wasn't surprised to see the lovely display near Coopers Lake.

I was surprised to find the bright, yellow colors in the aspen and cottonwoods in the Highwood Mountains.  In normal years these would have been gone by now.

My wife has observed that it is rare to see the aspen and cottonwoods on the east side of the Continental Divide in bright color at the same time as the larch on the west side.  But there they were.

I had been invited to Coopers Lake by my friend Wayne Phillips, who was leading a hike for the Montana Native Plants Society, and who was interested in the giant larch trees in the area.  We parked at a gate on the east shore of the lake and walked a trail on that side that parallels the lake. It is a trail that can be taken to the North Fork Blackfoot Road Bear Creek trailhead, something I'd like to try someday.

We only went a mile and three quarters, and stopped to measure larch trees, which we estimated to be some 130 feet high and more than 5 feet in circumference. 

The larch were in such golden glory that I returned with Katie a week later to enjoy them again, only this time in better, sunnier weather that made the larch really stand out against the blue sky.

It must be at least 30 years since I had been in the area and didn't remember the lake or the trail, or how I managed to climb to Windy Pass and then Echo Peak.  But I do remember the late Sydne and Charley Abernathy on the trail.  They had a cabin on Coopers Lake.  The trail there was particularly poignant to me in that Sidney had died only two weeks previously.  These were two of the kindest, community-minded folks in Great Falls.

Phillips is convinced I accessed the pass and peak via Bear Creek trailhead.

Anyway, Thain Creek, which is the main drainage to Windy Point in the Highwoods, has been very affected by uprooted and downed trees from recent high wind storms.  The Forest Service has done a remarkable job clearing the trail. 

Oops!  Scratchgravels

I've returned here because I forgot to add a wonderful hike we did in the Scratchgravel Hills in Helena, accessed on the range's east face by way of the John G Mine Road.

Usually we come in from Green Meadow on the south.

We worked our way up a narrow mining road and eventually got to a small, grassy summit with fabulous views of the Helena Valley and the surrounding mountain ranges, the Continental Divide, Prickly Pear Pass, the Big Belts, and Elkhorns.

Up the Scratchgravels

An old mining road

The steep rise to the top