State Parks, Rodgers Peak twice, Mount Helena, Beartrap Gulch

 

Gordon Whirry on a CDT precipice below Rodgers Peak

 

Scarlet huckleberries lit up the Rogers Pass Trail

The Painted Rocks as Katie walks across the top of the state park dam

We've been chasing October's spectacular colors as well as making progress on Katie's state parks project.

We visited grandkids in Salt Lake City and hit two state parks on the way there and four on the way back.The parks included:  Painted Rocks, Bannack, Clark's Lookout, Beaverhead Rock, Traveler's Rest and Fort Owen.

A week later, two more in the Missoula area, Council Grove and Frenchtown Pond and the St. Mary's Mission (not a state park, but it should be)  in Stevensville, as well as. 

That brings to more than 30 the parks Katie visited this year out of the 53, leaving 27 to go. 

We hiked at each of the parks and then over the past three weeks I climbed Mount Helena and Rodgers Peak on the Continental Divide Trail (twice) .

A highlight of this traveling frenzy was joining the Helena Outdoor Club for an exploration of the Beartrap Gulch trail near York. 

I had noticed the trailhead on our yearly visits to the Trout Creek Canyon at Vigilante Campground in the Big Belt Mountains of Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, and when  the Outdoor Club offered it, I jumped at it.

It follows a tight gulch through a heavy forest of Ponderosa and Doug Fir that opened occasionally into grass.

It was an up and back hike of 9 miles that gained over 3,000 feet in elevation.  We got occasional views of limestone spires that mark this area adjacent to the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness.

Bob Bukantis of York (bearded) was our trip leader

The hike was led by Bob Bukantis, who lives near York and at age 76 has devoted himself to leading hikes in the York area.

I don't think I've seen a better trip leader.  He evenly paces his hikers, keeping them tightly together and grabbing their interest by sharing his deep knowledge of the Big Belts. 

The Beartrap Gulch is interesting in that there was once a road for a distance up its gut that has been converted for a way on a trail that parallels the hikers' trail, to accommodate mountain bikers. 

Despite this being the opening of rifle season, we encountered no hunters and only one other couple, who was known to our party of eight.

The Painted Rocks State Park was the most unusual of the parks we saw during this period, an impoundment of the West Fork of the Bitterroot River.  The "painted rocks" are bright green and yellow vegetation on the headwalls surrounding the canyon and lake.

The drive down the Bitterroot River from Lost Trails Pass was breathtaking for fall colors and wildlife.

We encountered herds of bighorn sheep and near Darby large herds of elk.  Likewise, going up the West Fork we saw numbers of elk that were quite casual about our presence.

I figure I've done Rodgers Peak about seven times this hiking season.  This past week there was good snow on the peak and adjacent bumps on the CDT.  The trail down to Rogers Pass was lit up in spots with scarlet huckleberry bushes. 

The state parks tour with Katie would fill a book, so I'll keep it now to the destination hikes. 

The courthouse at Bannack State Park

 

 

 

  

 

 

The best of Fall: Our Lake, Police Outpost (Alberta), Firebrand

Huckleberries are even better in Fall color

My favorite mountain on the Front, Walling Reef, on our drive to Glacier

We hit a large patch of orange color on the Our Lake hike

At the U.S. border from the Alberta side at Police Outpost Provincial Park

It's real Fall, colors and all.

We hiked to Our Lake in the Front, took a day trip to Police Outpost Provincial Park in southern Alberta, and caught spectacular huckleberries in full red color at Firebrand Pass Trail in Glacier Park.

We've been slowed by Katie's struggles with her blood cancer.  My hiking season will be over soon when I get surgery on my left foot's hammer toe and bunion that will put me out of commission for months.  Sadly, I'll lose the ski season for the first time in more than 50 years. 

Bringing summer to a close: Falls Creek colors, Glacier's Piegan Pass, Mount Aeneas in Jewel Basin, Cold Lake in Missions

Falls Creek

The Garden Wall at Piegan Pass

The Jewel Basin's Mount Aeneas summit ridge

This billy tried to block the top of Mount Aeneas

The huckleberries really showed off on the Mount Aeneas Trail

Brilliant fall color spangled the Mount Aeneas Trail hillsides

Lots of hiking in this final week of Summer.

Katie was organizing and pushing.

I was along for the ride, testing my left foot and its large bunion and hammer toe, that will undergo surgery in November.

The surgery will put me out of commission for 16 weeks to a half year, if I understand my orthopedic surgeon.  Healing for a guy my age takes more time.   I deeply regret that I'll miss the backcountry ski season.

With any luck I may be able to put on snowshoes at the beginning of Spring, and do some moderate hiking when the weather melts the snow.

 We were delighted by a very short hike to see the waterfalls on Falls Creek, and were surprised by the early show of autumnal colors.

It look as though the parking area for Falls Creek is undergoing a major upgrade that may include some camping or picnic spots.  

Then, we took off for Glacier and a 9-mile, 2,000 feet elevation gain day hike to Piegan Pass.  I'm always stunned by the beauty at the pass with the Garden Wall thrusting its jagged points to the sky.  Coming down there are sweeping views of the glaciers around Mounts Jackson and Blackfoot.  Going up ---- Piegan glacier and its several waterfalls.  We saw two immense bighorn sheep.

Instead of going home, we headed for Swan Lake and a two night stay at the Laughing Horse Lodge, a favorite, quirky getaway.  We saddened to find out that the owner, Kathleen Moon, is saying this is her last year of serving meals and may do tapas and cocktails in the future.  She's ready to sell this charming place.

The next morning we traveled to the Jewel Basin, where we hit the Mount Aeneas trailhead for the 7-mile, 2,000 feet, climb of Mount Aeneas that looms above the many lakes in the basin below.  We were greeted by five mountain goats below the summit, a treat that climbers have experienced for many years.  Unfortunately, wildfire smoke obscured some of the views towards Flathead Lake, but Glacier and the Swan Range as well as Hungry Horse Reservoir, were hazy, but viewable.  The ground colors ---- spirea, huckleberry, red osier ---- were outstanding.

On the way home we took a stab at hiking the Cold Lake Trail in the Mission Mountains Wilderness, but only went up about a mile, tired from our multiple days of hiking.

The week was a superb ending to Summer. 

A week's worth in Glacier: Sperry and Belly River country

 

Katie at a Sperry Glacier remnant

Above Comeau Pass

We saw tons of mountain goats

At one of the tarns below Comeau Pass

Getting to the top of the pass was tricky

We had two special trips in Glacier Park designed by Katie:  two nights at Sperry Chalet and three days in the Belly River Valley on a backpack trip.

Both were magnificent trips.  We reached Sperry via the nearly 14 miles route from Jackson Overlook through Gunsight and Lincoln passes.  We used the Chief Mountain trailhead to reach Lake Elizabeth head and foot for overnight stays and a day hike to Helen Lake.

The highlight of the Sperry trip occurred on the second day when we hiked to Comeau Pass to  view the Sperry Glacier.

The highlight of the Belly trip was Helen Lake, something I had only seen from the Ptarmigan Traverse, high above, and the Helen Lake Overlook on the Highline Trail.

We dealt with heat and smoke on both trips, but both abated enough that the hikes were enjoyable.

I had visited Sperry about a half dozen times in the past and had stayed there only one time, in 1985, in the old chalet before it burned in 2017. In my younger years I had done the 20 miles through-hike from Jackson Overlook to Lake McDonald and don't remember much trouble with it.  This time, however, I barely made the chalet because I had so badly dehydrated in the withering heat.  Or maybe becaus

e I've aged significantly since my last try.  I had also been there on a climb of Mount Edwards with the Glacier Mountaineering Society.

The chalet has been beautifully rebuilt in its original style.   The stay there is expensive:  $222 per night, per person.  The food was plentiful, but not particularly delicious. 

The trail through Gunsight Pass looking down on Lake Ellen Wilson is a must-do as it flanks Mount Jackson and offers exceptional views of the many-striped and colorful Gunsight Mountain.

 But it is hard to beat the trail construction on the way up to Comeau Pass that culminates in a stairway cut into the rock headwall.

On top there are amazing views of the glacier, its remnants and mountains in all directions.

The 6-mile hike down 3,600 feet to Lake McDonald is through an old burn and not terribly interesting.

As usual in Montana we bumped into people we knew at the chalet:  Jake Bramante, the Glacier map maker and hiker who climbed Edwards the day we did Comeau;  the woman who runs the Granite Park Chalet, who remembered us, Kathie Larson Aasheim;  and a former colleague at the Great Falls Tribune, Kathy McLaughlin and her sister Beth.  Kathy went on to become a foreign correspondent in China.  Beth was Montana's Supreme Court administrator.

The Belly River ranger

The packs were oh, so heavy

Katie in Helen Lake below Ahern Glacier

We had a group of seven of us on the trip into the Belly.

 It seems as though the Belly has become a regular backpack destination. 

 Smoke obscured our views going into the Belly and a light rain coming out.

I had backpacked into Lake Elizabeth at least a half dozen times in the past 40 years, but had never gotten into Helen Lake.  There are tremendous views of Many Glacier's Mount Wilbur and Iceberg Peak and Ahern Pass.  We hiked just below the mighty Mount Merritt with its Old Sun Glacier and its many waterfalls , viewed Ipasha Glacier on the side of Mount Ipasha and saw Ahern Glacier emptying into Helen Lake.

I was particularly thrilled to see Merritt from this angle, a peak I had climbed from Mokowanis Junction more than  25 years ago and the famed, adjacent and unclimbed Lithoid Cusp shard. 

It was fun to pick out the high mountain goat trail that is the Ptarmigan Traverse high above us.

I was quite pleased I could still handle hikes and backpack trips like this at age 77.

The waterfall melt off Merritt Peak's Old Sun Glacier

 

Below Mount Merritt and Old Sun Glacier

 

 

 

 

Moving too fast to post: North Dakota surprises us with great tourist stops, Two Med away from crowds, Black Sand State Park, Brush Lake State Park, a Front geology tour, Pilgrim Creek and Pioneer Ridge loop

The Des Lacs Wildlife Refuge in Kenmare, ND

The Peace Garden north of Bottineau, ND reminded me of Versailles

The Peace Garden featured an unusual display of cacti

A trip highlight was St. John's University in Minnesota with its fantastic architecture

 The highlight of our recent trips were the tourist stops in North Dakota as we traveled to visit grandkids in Minneapolis.

We had exceptionally good and scenic experiences at the International Peace Garden on the North Dakota-Manitoba border, the adjacent Turtle Mountains State Recreation Area, the town of Kenmare, a picturesque and out of the way town on gorgeous Des Lac Wildlife Refuge, and Rugby, the geographical center of North America.

Unfortunately Canadian fires' smoke fouled the air and affected visibility. 

Since I attend the University of North Dakota I had always wanted to see the Peace Garden and Turtle Mountains, which rise about 800 feet above the treeless plain around them.  I was surprised by the lush vegetation and varieties of trees in this pocket range.

The Peace Garden was established between Manitoba and North Dakota in the 1930s and is a symbol of friendship and cooperation between the US and Canada.

The garden is open entry and you can wander into Manitoba on trails that continue from North Dakota.

The garden itself is reminiscent of the layout of the Versailles gardens in France and is beautifully planted.  

Katie at summit of hiking trail at Black Sands State Park on Hauser Lake

Black Sands State Park/BLM White Sands Campground

 This was a quick trip as part of Katie's quest to get all the Montana state parks.  This is a short distance away on the banks of the Missouri, reached from Hauser Lake.

 

The highlight of this trip was a short hike from a beachfront campground to a high point on a nice trail with great views of the Hauser impoundment.  The campground was wall to wall hard-sided campers, but still pleasant.

  

We followed with an extremely steep hike to the ridge above the White Sands campground adjacent to the Black Sands State Park.  The area was virtually empty.

 

We dealt with high heat and some wildfire smoke. 

 

Katie on trail off Looking Glass Pass in Glacier Park with Two Med in background

Two Med off the grid at Looking Glass Pass

We had a pleasant group hike on both sides of Looking Glass Pass in the Two Med area, going to the former BIA lookout site atop the Two Med Ridge on the Blackfeet Reservation, and then walking an old, rutted road on the other side into Glacier Park through a barbed wire fence to a spot above an unnamed lake at the foot of Spot Mountain.

 

Along the Teton River Canyon on Geology Tour

 Front Geology tour

Nicely lead by the Old Trail Museum, with a ridge walk at the Nature Conservancy's Pine Butte Swamp, usually off limits to the public.

 

I hadn't realized there was an A.B. Guthrie Trail that offered incredible views of Ear Mountain.

 

The trip took us to many places I had already seen, but it was well curated.

 

We crossed Pilgrim Creek several times on our hike

Crossing Belt Creek to reach Pilgrim Creek

Pilgrim Creek in Little Belts

 Very scenic hike not far from where the Sluice Boxes State Park hike ends at the Logging Creek Bridge.

 

It had been years since I had hiked deeply into this area, once included in a Montana Omnibus Wilderness Bill that was pocket vetoed by President Reagan.

 

The trailhead is reached on the Logging Creek Road opposite the Raynesford turnoff on US 89.  It is a 7 miles ride on a narrow and tight rocky road.

 

The trail passes below high cliffs before it drops to Belt Creek, which must be crossed to access Pilgrim Creek, that flows through a very narrow and heavily forested valley.  Pilgrim Creek is unusual for its solid limestone bottom.

 

Outside hunting season it is rarely used.

 

I've backpacked the length of creek to its Divide Road source.

 

We went in three miles and turned around on a scorching, hot day.

 

Very isolated and quiet trail.

 

Pioneer Ridge loop

I took first-timer Mike Smith on this 5-mile, sometimes off-trail loop that I often do when I don't have much time.

We follow the trail near the Neihart Ranger Station for a couple of miles to the ridge line, about a 2,000 feet gain.  We then find remnants of what must have been a trail, but which the Forest Service abandoned to a rocky outcropping high point and then steeply down to an open, grassy elk meadow that circles back to our trailhead. 

 

 

Catching up with a busy summer: Our Lake, Patrol, Bitterroot, Northwest Montana state parks

Visiting with Patrol Mountain lookout ranger Samsara Chapman Duffey

One of my favorite views ---- looking down the ridgeline from Patrol Mountain

 Summer weather has defied my expectations of fire and smoke.

Yes, it's been abnormally hot, but we've experienced periods of cool and wet to off that.

That has allowed us to hike more than I thought possible including recent trips to Rocky Mountain Front/Bob Marshall Wilderness favorites like Our Lake and Patrol Mountain, visits to more Montana state parks in Northwest Montana with an opportunity to enjoy an early and generous huckleberry crop.  And, there's been the pursuit of wildflowers like the bitterroot.

I particularly enjoyed my annual trek up Patrol Mountain, a 3,000 foot - 11.4 mile climb to visit Samsara Chapman Duffey, who is spending her 29th summer as lookout over vast stretches of the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wilderness areas.  I think it was my 26th visit her and her dog, Mae, on a gorgeous and lightly smokey afternoon.  I got to the top, which included wading Straight Creek, in about 3 hours 10 minutes.  I've been climbing this mountain yearly (and sometimes more) for 44 years.

Classic Our Lake scenery

I was surprised to see snow at the bottom of the Our Lake approach waterfall and in the great gully on the lake's south flank.  We tested the snowfield in the gully and found it too icy to ascend.  I make a mistake thinking I could immediately upclimb the adjacent hillside, wasting time and ruining our opportunity to do the Our Lake-Headquarters Pass traverse.  It was still a great day of hiking.

Katie put me on the road to tag Northwest Montana state parks starting with Milltown and Beavertail.  The Milltown Park, in particular, is a fascinating history lesson on dam removal.  Beavertail is really a quiet camping spot just east of Missoula on the Clark Fork.  Despite being high summer we found few folks at either spot.

One of the Buddhas

At the center of the Buddha garden

Then it was on to a couple of U.S. 93 attractions:  the Garden of a Thousand Buddhas and the St. Ignatius Church.  The Buddhist site is quite spectacular, and a real oddity for Montana, not to mention its placement on an Indian Reservation.  I'll return to this spot and spend more time.  There's much to learn here in a large area dominated by Buddhist statues and prayer flags.

Up the road at St. Ignatius we stopped at this mission church, a place I hadn't been in nearly 50 years, and marveled at the more than 50 murals in the church done by Brother Joseph Carignano, a self-taught Italian.

The St. Ignatius altar piece with murals

Then it was on to our overnight stay at Quinn's Hot Springs Resort, a beautiful and pricey spa where we had a spectacular meal and enjoyed the canyon scenery not far from where the Flathead flows into the Clark Fork River.  We had a nice rest.

Onward the following day along the Clark Fork River, we stopped at Thompson Falls State Park with its lovely camping area, sand beaches and tall Ponderosa pine trees.  In the city we also enjoyed the interpretive dam park. 

Katie at Thompson Falls State Park on the Clark Fork

We stopped at the earthen Noxon Rapids dam and power plant  and then, it was on to Libby up the Bull River Valley beneath the towering Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.  The driving here made me a tad uncomfortable with dense conifer and cedar forests right up to the road.  I was fearful of animals jumping out in front of the car.  It was a lovely drive, though I've concluded I prefer the open East Side of the Divide.

I had forgotten how sparsely populated this area of the state is.  All the hype is on the rich out of staters moving in, grabbing up land, blocking access, constructing mansions and sending property values into the stratosphere. 

We got a run down motel in Libby, but had a nice meal in a local brew pub.

The Kootenai Falls cascades

The Swinging Bridge over the Kootenai River

Our final day we hit the Kootenai Falls and swinging bridge county park to stretch our legs. Then we stopped Logan State Park between Libby and Kalispell, not much more than a campground and a gorgeous lake.  No real hiking here.  There was a brief spot at Lower Bitterroot Lake, where Katie's folks once owned a cabin.

On the way home we visited in Pinnacle and friends, enjoyed a great lunch from their garden produce and were introduced to this tiny settlement just west of Essex.  Tons of huckleberries, the best crop I've ever seen, waylaid us.

We rested in East Glacier Park at Serrano's for a Mexican meal and then back home.

We had covered 725 miles over these three days.

We had seen so much it will take me time to absorb it all.

Yes, I enjoyed the trip.

The bitterroot bloom near Rogers Pass

 

 

 

Summer gets busy: Tilinghast, short style Columbine, Canadian Rockies, Blackleaf

A wall of limestone cliffs on Tilinghast Creek

Katie at the U.S.-Canadian border at the Police Depot Provincial Park

Chief Mountain towers over a small wetland at Police Depot Park

 

 

 

The uppermost Southfork Lake at Castle Wilderness Provincial Park

At Waterton Lakes National Park

Mount Frazier in the Front's Blackleaf Canyon

 

 

 

 

The isolated and rare short stem Columbine

 

 

 

 I've been so busy hiking I haven't had an adequate opportunity to post.

So here's the trips:

•  A gorgeous hike on Tilinghast Creek in the Little Belt Mountains with a half-hearted approach to Big Horn Mountain
• Another trip into the Little Belts in search of the rare and isolated  short style Columbine
• A four-day trip into the Canadian Rockies where we finally made it to Barnaby and Southfork Lakes in the Castle Wilderness Provincial Park in southern Alberta near Pincher Creek.  We also hiked in Police Outpost Provincial Park adjacent to the Montana border south of Cardston.  We hiked Miners' Path city park in Coleman, Alberta near Crowsnest Pass, where we also visited the Frank Slide Museum that explores the history of the slide at the pass off Turtle Mountain that buried more than 80 people. 
• When we got back from Canada, Katie had us hike to the divide between Blackleaf Canyon and the East Fork of Teton River

Which of these was my favorite?

I think the Barnaby/Southfork lakes trip because it was challenging and the last time we tried this three years ago we got turned back by fierce winds and I lost my expensive Garmen GPS device.  (No, I didn't find it)

This time the weather was perfect and we enjoyed the 8+ miles hike with a 2,500 feet elevation gain.  There were extremely steep sections of slippy gravel.  I was sore the next day from bracing myself.

This hike offered incredible views of the Canadian Rockies just north of Waterton National Park into the Crowsnest area and beyond to the north.  There must be dozens of Glacier Park quality areas in the Canadian Rockies.

We were charmed by the Police Outpost park out on the prairie on the Montana border.  It was once a spot that policed the border.  The area offers remarkable views of Chief Mountain, the north end of Glacier and south end of Waterton parks.  There are several shallow lakes in wetlands along the way.  Outpost Lake, though, is quite large and fishable, and there's an island with a bridge to it that can be hiked.  The prairie flowers were outstanding.

We enjoyed walking through a small gate through a barbed wire fence to the U.S. border where there were warnings to return to Canada.