Well, well, well - it is "#1 of 13 trails in Absaroka-Beartooth Wildernes"
Yes, I did sleep better last night in Red Lodge. After a nice breakfast at the Lupine Inn, I headed south for hiking:
(I wound up on the Beartooth Highway because I had missed the turn for "Main Fork Rock Creek Road" because THE ONLY SIGN marking the road said "CAMPGROUNDS". Figured that one out.)
Found a sign for "Glacier Lake Trail":
which was down Forest Road 2421 - A Great Dirt Road:
I reached the trailhead just after 11:
wait - "No Horses" - THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE TRAIL!!
I definitely need to learn how to search trail descriptions with that "no horses" symbol.
Sidenote: When I parked, there were 22 cars (including me) - 18 from Montana, and 1 each from Washington, South Dakota, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Definitely not as "geographically-diverse" as the Wind River Range. I think that's ok - I feel like a local.
20 minutes into the trail, looking backward:
then you get to a really nice bridge:
It goes over "Moon Creek, the stream that drains from Moon Lake and Shelf Lake.
Note to the future: hikes up to Moon Lake and Shelf Lake are well-described, and "look like fun" for a future trip west.
You keep going up (switchbacks), and 1 hour into the hike:
5 minutes later I got my first glimpse of Glacier Lake:
pretty cool country up here:
Glacier Lake is damed, and its outflow goes down into some unnamed little pond:
To give you an idea of the size-of-scale out here, those 3 guys are fishing down there:
Turn around and get a nice close-up of Glacier Lake:
and a group of ladies enjoying lunch:
That white stripe at the top of that photo is the dam. There is a trail across it, and you can explore the other side:
A glimpse of Little Glacier Lake in the distance:
taking the "upper trail" gets me closer:
a side-view:
and eventually looking back, with a glimpse of Glacier Lake in the distance:
You can see from my triangle that I then headed north, to the edge of the canyon/valley (um, I didn't even know about Emerald Lake up there - next trip, maybe?). After you cross the meadow:
you can see the Glacier Lake area to the left:
(due to the lay of the land, I could not get a "good" picture looking right).
I headed back, and had a wonderful hike back down, finishing about 2:30. Say goodbye to the Beartooth Mountains:
and head back to Red Lodge for the night:
It was a fun drive today (53 miles altogether):
Pizza and the SyFy channel tonight. Wow - That was Some Great Hiking on this trip!! Thanks for coming along, and Thank you God for all this natural beauty, and the ability to enjoy it/work with it , and work within it!
Driving music today:
Lou Reed - Rock 'n' Roll Animal, 1974 live album
Santana - Santana III, 1971
Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room, 1969
Ten Years After - Ssssh, 1969
In February 1970, some Wednesday night, I snuck out of the dorm at Dana Hall, hitchhiked to the subway station, went into Boston and saw these guys at The Boston Tea Party, then went back out. Walking in the front door, a senior said "Where have you been?" "Boston" "Yea, right."
Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills - Super Session, 1968
Blogging music - this morning:
Bill Evans - "cd 2 Complete Fantasy Recordings"
Blogging music - this afternoon:
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour, 1967
The Beach Boys - Made In California, 2013
This is a 6-cd set. I have culled 14 songs (post-1966) that I really like, including 2 versions of "Surf's Up" (maybe my favorite Beach Boys song).
Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound, 2008 debut album
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