Hiking Bridger Peaks

Jolie and I spent a weekend hiking two peaks in the Bridger Range near Bozeman in late June. Day one was up to Ross Peak in the background.

Wildflowers were spectacular at Ross Pass. There is a rocky scramble route to top of Ross Peak in this picture, but I was too chicken so we found a grassier, safer and longer route

View from Ross Peak towards Bozeman and Madison Range in the distance

Jolie at the top of Ross Peak - total climb of 3,600 feet. From the top we could clearly see five different mountain ranges (Bridgers, Tobacco Roots, Madison, Crazies and Absarokee's)

A bouquet of wildflowers Jolie picked for our center piece at forest service cabin we rented for the night

Large snowfield on the way up to the saddle beneath Sacajawea Peak, our destination on the second day.

View of the route we took to get to the saddle below Sacajawea Peak (out of view on the right)

Happy at the top of Sacajawea - we took the long way down (Jolie was happy the whole way, Eric not so much when we had to climb an extra 500 feet on the way out - but there was ice cream waiting for us in town, so all was good!)

We saw this curious mountain goat near the top of an peak adjacent to Sacajawea, Naya Nuki (yes, that is the correct name).

This guy was rubbing himself in the snow to get rid of his winter coat.

Glacier in the spring

Jolie and Eric spent a chilly weekend in Glacier to hike and bike ride Going to the sun road. This is a chilly lunch stop after hike to Sperry Chalet

Most of trail was dry but last 1/4 mile had about 4 feet of snow

Avalanche Lily's along the trail

Had to cross this old avalanche slope on way up to chalet

The beargrass was spectacular this year

Sunset from our camp on Lake McDonald

We made it to Logan Pass on our bikes, but the weather wasn't as nice as predicted - it was quite chilly at the top - not much time for pictures. 6 feet of snow at the pass.

Casey Peak hike

Jolie, Eric and Polgara hiked up to old lookout on Casey peak, south of Helena

Polgara got a little tired on the way up and could barely stay awake at the top

The lupine were spectacular along the trail

Spring in the Tetons

Jolie and Eric spent a May weekend at the "barn" in Driggs  to do some spring biking  (and spray weeds) - here is a sunset shot from the barn

Picture of sunset on the barn

Saw these bright red paintbrush on the trail

Wildflowers were great in Big Hole Mtns west of town (Tetons in background)

View of Tetons from trail

Fire Lookout

Jolie, me and Polgara spent a couple of nights at the Granite Butte Lookout near Helena. Cant drive in this time of year so we snow shoed  4 miles in using our backpacks. Lookout has great views in all directions. Wind was howling for most of the time we were there (guessing 50-60 mph) - made the lookout shake the entire first night - made sleeping tough.

Here is a shot of the interior - very cozy once you get the wood stove warmed up.

Morning of the first day at lookout, we saw these fresh tracks in the snow. Not sure what critter it was, but there was a lynx study in this area last year, so we are guessing it was a lynx. We saw these just after Polgara flushed a moose with her babies out of the trees.

Here is the gang enjoying lunch in a windless spot during our day hike - the sun was warm making our little snow pits very comfy

We were lucky to get this sunrise on our second morning.

Skiing Glacier

Jolie and I did some skiing around Glacier in early January. We attempted to ski to Apgar Lookout on west side of park on a very nice day. We only got about 1/2 way up to the lookout, but a great day.

Near sunset with Apgar Mountain in the background

We stayed at Izaak Walton Inn - a cool old Lodge on South side of Glacier National Park. We saw these "snowcats" around the hot tub at the Inn

This was the sunrise view of the hotel from the hot tub.

Crater Lake

The last stop on our trip was to Crate lake N.P. They closed 3/4 of the road around the lake to cars and just let bikes on it. We road the 27 miles around the lake on a beautiful day.

A panoramic of Crater Lake

Sunrise on edge of the lake with Wizard Island in the background - a great end to the trip.