Montana 2011

Matt, Ben and I left first thing Thursday morning to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in south central Montana.  We car camped by the trail head Thursday evening and then headed into the wilderness Friday morning returning Sunday morning and then back to ND.  Trip went off without a hitch.  A big snow season and a trip a bit early kept us from going over 10,000 ft, but man did we have a blast.  It was big time hot back home and we were nice and cool in the high alpine meadows taking in all of the beauty.  I took a ton of photos and will keep the words brief.

We camped close to the trail head Thursday night.

The actual trail head was 1.5 miles up the road but due to high water we had to hike the distance, all good.

Looking down on Mystic Lake.

Mystic Lake is responsible for generating 11MW of power down to Billings.  From what I learned by asking questions, the lake started flowing just over a week ago.  Prior to that it was still ice.  Highly unusual for the middle of July.

Due to the high snow levels over 9500 ft, we camped at the Huckleberry drainage close to Mystic Lake.

Saturday morning we hiked a 1000 ft up the drainage to Huckleberry Lake.

The next lake up the drainage is Princess Lake.  I have climbed up and past this in the past, but from what I learned the routes up and to the next lake, Avalanche were all either blocked by water or full of snow so we settled for this being our highest point.  Beautiful!

We had to work our way around a couple of peaks, but we were able to sneak a view of Granite Peak, the highest in Montana at 12,800 ft.

Looking down from Princess Lake to Huckleberry Lake.

Matt and Ben took it all in and loved it.

One of our last views as we were marching out Sunday morning.  Photos or words cannot explain how beautiful this area actually is.
I consider myself extremely lucky to make a trip like this with my sons.