Montana Hikes
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- Toni Marie
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Montana Hikes
Hey all! Just made the move to Great Falls, Montana and was wondering if anyone knew of some great hikes. Mostly looking for high-elevation hikes and/or hikes with amazing scenery. Happy trails!
Toni Marie
"I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky. The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby. Rocky Mountain High, Colorado."
"I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky. The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby. Rocky Mountain High, Colorado."
- TravelingMatt
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Re: Montana Hikes
All of them!
Hiking in Montana is a lot like doing Colorado 13ers. You figure out what the nearest TH is, start going up, then the trail ends at some lake or other feature near treeline. From there you go cross-country on grass/scree to gain the ridge and follow it to the summit. Occasional scrambling required.
Outside of Glacier NP there's not a lot of info out there, but figuring it out yourself is part of the fun.
Hiking in Montana is a lot like doing Colorado 13ers. You figure out what the nearest TH is, start going up, then the trail ends at some lake or other feature near treeline. From there you go cross-country on grass/scree to gain the ridge and follow it to the summit. Occasional scrambling required.
Outside of Glacier NP there's not a lot of info out there, but figuring it out yourself is part of the fun.
You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough. -- William Blake
- Vincopotamus
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Re: Montana Hikes
Welcome! I currently live in the Little Belt mountains, just southeast of Great Falls, but spent the summer living in Choteau/Augusta so I got to see some cool country out here.
I'll echo what Matt said about hikes here being like CO 13ers. Far fewer people, and usually pretty sparse trails above treeline. About an hour to 2 hours west of GF is the Rocky Mountain Front which is pretty spectacular. Just west of the Front is the Bob Marshall Wilderness with great opportunities to get into some deep backcountry and spot a grizzly.
Here is the best guidebook I've found for the Front. I think it is out of print, hence the high price tag, but I bet you might be able to find it in a bookstore, or for sure at the library. The author, Tom Kotynski, runs an active blog pretty cool trip reports of his Great Falls-area adventures. SummitPost has some good info on their Bob Marshall Country section too.
A nice easy hike my girlfriend and I took was to Our Lake, a short little jaunt up to an alpine lake frequented by mountain goats.
Another good hike is up the Patrol Mountain Lookout (detailed in Kotynski's book), which is an active Forest Service fire lookout, staffed from late June to late September by a friendly woman who would love to host you for the afternoon. The views from the top are pretty amazing. On a clear day you can see to the Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall.
We tried to hike Mt. Wright over Memorial Day this year, but got turned back by blizzard conditions, but it is probably comparable to Mt. Bierstadt in good conditions. It has a good trail all the way to the top to service a Forest Service repeater, and even used to host a fire lookout. Steamboat Mountain southwest of Augusta also has an old lookout site, which was at one time accessible by horse. We also successfully climbed Rocky Mountain, which is the highest peak on the Front at 9,300' some feet.
Alternately, Glacier NP's eastern entrances are less than 3 hours from Great Falls.
Lots of good country out there if you're willing to try a little harder to find it!
I'll echo what Matt said about hikes here being like CO 13ers. Far fewer people, and usually pretty sparse trails above treeline. About an hour to 2 hours west of GF is the Rocky Mountain Front which is pretty spectacular. Just west of the Front is the Bob Marshall Wilderness with great opportunities to get into some deep backcountry and spot a grizzly.
Here is the best guidebook I've found for the Front. I think it is out of print, hence the high price tag, but I bet you might be able to find it in a bookstore, or for sure at the library. The author, Tom Kotynski, runs an active blog pretty cool trip reports of his Great Falls-area adventures. SummitPost has some good info on their Bob Marshall Country section too.
A nice easy hike my girlfriend and I took was to Our Lake, a short little jaunt up to an alpine lake frequented by mountain goats.
Another good hike is up the Patrol Mountain Lookout (detailed in Kotynski's book), which is an active Forest Service fire lookout, staffed from late June to late September by a friendly woman who would love to host you for the afternoon. The views from the top are pretty amazing. On a clear day you can see to the Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall.
We tried to hike Mt. Wright over Memorial Day this year, but got turned back by blizzard conditions, but it is probably comparable to Mt. Bierstadt in good conditions. It has a good trail all the way to the top to service a Forest Service repeater, and even used to host a fire lookout. Steamboat Mountain southwest of Augusta also has an old lookout site, which was at one time accessible by horse. We also successfully climbed Rocky Mountain, which is the highest peak on the Front at 9,300' some feet.
Alternately, Glacier NP's eastern entrances are less than 3 hours from Great Falls.
Lots of good country out there if you're willing to try a little harder to find it!
The only time I lower the bar is après
- Vincopotamus
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Re: Montana Hikes
Oh, and go visit the good folks at Statriot Designs and get yoself some swag
The only time I lower the bar is après
- ChrisinAZ
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Re: Montana Hikes
I'll cast my vote for Granite Peak via the SW Couloir, though it's a few hours from you, I imagine. It's as high-elevation as you can get in the state (12800') and is an absolutely stunning peak in an incredible area! From the north, it's an easy rock climb, but from the southern approach, it's generally a two-day trip with class 3+ scrambling; think Snowmass with much more solid rock. I'd recommend going in August or early September; the climbing season for this one is short unless you like steep snow climbs, and the weather can be fickle.
"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason."
— Jack Handy
Mah peaks
— Jack Handy
Mah peaks
- spiderman
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Re: Montana Hikes
I have to agree with you Chris that Granite Peak via SW Couloir is a true classic. I would also rank it class 3+ but it might reach a Colorado class 4 depending on the particular path. Maybe I just had different route than you did, but I was launching a steady stream of 5 lb rocks down the couloir. It was like the section above the hourglass on Little Bear, but 100 times the amount of rocks to knock down. It was a tragedy waiting to happen if there were two separate parties in the Couloir; quite a rare event though in Montana where we saw 5 other people in three days.ChrisinAZ wrote: think Snowmass with much more solid rock.
- PatsSox09
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Re: Montana Hikes
Cedron Jones's Peakbagging Montana is pretty good. It's peak focused, specifically towards prominence peaks/range highpoints. (though it does not contain only prominence peaks, nor does it contain all of them). The beta's pretty good too, recent as well...i did a few of these this past summer and they pretty much were as he described.
http://www.amazon.com/Peakbagging-Monta ... ng+montana" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.amazon.com/Peakbagging-Monta ... ng+montana" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- Toni Marie
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Re: Montana Hikes
Thanks so much! Definitely looking forward to doing some of these hikes once we get settled here.
Toni Marie
"I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky. The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby. Rocky Mountain High, Colorado."
"I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky. The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby. Rocky Mountain High, Colorado."
- nyker
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Re: Montana Hikes
Get to Glacier NP and Waterton lakes NP across the border. Both awesome place with great walking even on the road! Wildlife galore including grizzlies, mountian lions and wolves and from last i recall tons of raptors around.
- Mark A Steiner
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Re: Montana Hikes
There are some good descriptions in Summitpost about other prominent peaks on the Beartooth Range such as Silver Run Peak and Mount Rearguard if you are not technically competent for Granite Peak. Regardless, any hike in this range provides stunning views.
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Like it or not, I am a slow driver. Putt ... putt ... putt ...
Good day.
- Matt Lemke
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Re: Montana Hikes
I would highly recommend the West Fork/Lake Fork Rock Creek trails and Sundance Pass. From the pass you can scramble up either Silver Run or Whitetail Peak. The Beartooths are a fantastic range with hundreds of beautiful high lakes and superb alpine scenery.
Lemke Climbs
The Pacific Coast to the Great Plains = My Playground
"Take risks not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping"
"When you come to face what you fear, let the creator guide you"
The Pacific Coast to the Great Plains = My Playground
"Take risks not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping"
"When you come to face what you fear, let the creator guide you"