The Beaten Path

Thanks to the generosity of our friend David, Mark and I were able to have an amazing weekend, and make a bucket list item become a fantastic reality! David has a family cabin in Cooke City, that he opened. up to a group of IFTR people for the weekend. The cabin is literally right at the start of 'The Beaten Path,' which is a 28 mile point to point trail near the Beartooth Highway in Montana. I heard about the trail last year, and have wanted to figure out how to do it ever since. The logistics are hard, because you need a car at both ends, and it's a 2.5 hour drive over the pass from one trailhead to the next. With the cabin being our home base, we were able to have a group start from both ends of the trail, and do a key swap in the middle. It worked out perfect!

The drive to Cooke City is about 4 hours, and is gorgeous. You go through Yellowstone, so we took a couple scenic breaks to give my back a break from sitting in the car. We stopped at Tower Falls to show Steph the waterfall. We had a hike planned, but right as we got close to the trailhead, a storm came through with rain, thunder, and lightning, so we skipped it.

 

Tower Falls

There was a gorgeous rainbow in the Lamar Valley during the rainstorm.

On Saturday we did 'The Beaten Path' trail, and it exceeded all of my expectations. Pictures will never do it justice, but I sure took a ton of them! 😄 I have done a lot of amazing adventures, and this is definitely one of the top ones now. Ashley and Lindsay started from the East Rosebud Trailhead, at the other side of the pass, and the rest of us started from the cabin.

We passed about 16 mountain lakes, and too many waterfalls to count. Get ready for a picture overload!

We started off with this spectacular scene just down from the cabin as we crossed the Broadwater River.

A cold water crossing right at the start is a great way to wake us up!

Just a little ways up the trail was Kersey Lake. It was gorgeous as the sun was coming up over it.

I love this picture, because it depicts how I hiked the entire day. I was just turning my head in every direction, trying to take it all in. Every where we looked was amazing!

We started in the Gallatin National Forest, in the Absaroka Wilderness.

We had a group of twelve start from the cabin. Nine of us went the whole way, and three did an out and back with different distances.
Mark-Joyce-Steph-Tricia-Amanda-Ed-Jenn-David-James-Steve-Steph-Eric

We stated off going through a beautiful forest for the first few miles.

We saw the cutest pine martin in a tree. He was so curious about us,  so we got to watch him for quite awhile.

This was our last group shot before we started separating.

The terrain was very rugged with big granite mountains surrounding us. 

Our first glimpse of Russel Lake.

I smiled like this the whole day.

Russel Lake
It doesn't get much better than this! Check out that reflection.

We had waterfalls, both big and small, the entire way. We basically heard flowing water for the majority of the hike.

If we weren't passing a mountain lake, or walking along a river, we were passing ponds like this. It reminded us so much of the wind rivers.

Ouzel Lake
This was one of my favorites. The lake was tiny, but the backdrop was just gorgeous!

Bald Knob Lake

We were all amazed at how great the wildflowers still were.

💜💜💜

The trail split the two sections of Bald Knob Lake.

Skull Lake

This big cairn marks the border between the Gallatin and Custer National Forests.

Fizzle Lake in the background.

Going along Fossil Lake.

Fossil Lake isn't super big, but it would take almost a day to hike all the way around it, because it has so many fingers coming off of it.

Mark at one of the Fossil Lake fingers.

I love that I get to share all these amazing experiences with him.

This is where we stopped for lunch.

We had lunch at the high point of the trail. It was all downhill from here.

We passed Ashley and Lindsay right after lunch and made the key swap. These ladies cruised!

So dreamy!

I can't even get over this trail.

Another great pond.

Dewey Lake
This is another one of my favorites. It was gorgeous! I can't even get over the sky the whole day too!

I knew I wanted to get in at least one of the mountain lakes, and Dewey was so beautiful, we couldn't pass it up!

So refreshing!

More waterfalls!

I'll look like a drowned rat from this point on, but the lake dip was so worth it.  😅

Twin Outlet Lake

Another part of Twin Outlet Lake.

This waterfall was so powerful!

💖💖💖

Looking down at Duggan Lake.
This is the lake that Impasse Falls flows into. Pictures and videos just don't capture it. It was amazing!

Impasse Falls

Big Park Lake
This lake was a little different than the others. It was surrounded by lush green grass, and looked like it should have a moose in it. It had a cool green reflection to it.

Lake at Falls had two big waterfalls flowing into it.

One last picture before we left Lake at Falls.

This section between lakes was filled with wild raspberries and huckleberries. It was a little slow going, because we picked and ate a lot of berries. 😋

So good!

Rainbow Lake

Amanda, James, and Steve coming around Rainbow Lake.

Looking down at Rimrock Lake.

Mark walking along Rimrock Lake.

We were starting to get into the section of trail that was wiped out by the 'Yellowstone flooding' last year. It made national news, and I can see why now that we got to see the devastation first hand. Mother Nature is so powerful, and it was humbling to see whole landscapes changed from one event.

The bridge to cross Rimrock Lake right at the outlet was washed away, so we had to cross these sketchy logs. I had to give myself a pep talk all the way across. I just kept saying, "If you fall in, do it on the lake side." What you can't see in the picture is the waterfall on the other side.

I loved this part of the hike so much! It was stunning!

This is the part of the hike where things started to get rough. There was no longer a trail. The entire valley was wiped out. Elk Lake wasn't even really a lake anymore. All the water must have washed right down in the flood, and the rest just filled with sediment.  We had to do a lot of bushwhacking, crossing the river where there wasn't supposed to be a river, and guessing on how to get to our next point. It probably added and hour and a half to our time.

This used to be a lush green valley with a river meandering through it.  It was so crazy to see it!

Trying to find the best way over all the debris.

We crossed back and forth over the river, that was in places where the trail used to be.

So crazy!

We did it! Twenty eight stunning miles that I am still giddy about!

That little guy they are holding up is James. He's 10 years old, and a total rockstar! He is an amazing kid, and he went all 28 challenging miles with us. He set out thinking he'd do an out and back, just far enough to get his farthest distance (which previously was 15 miles). He must have gotten so wrapped up in his surroundings like the rest of us, that he just didn't turn back. He completed an ultra marathon on The Beaten Path. So freaking cool!

We all piled in David's Suburban that was at the trailhead waiting for us. We had dinner in Red Lodge, and then Mark drove us back over the Beartooth Pass. A storm had rolled in, it was raining, and the fog was so bad on the pass that we couldn't see a thing. It was so scary! At one point Mark had to completely stop because we could see nothing but white. He had to roll down his window to try to see the center line. It was slow going, but Mark did amazing. We made it back safely, and it was so nice to have a cabin to shower and sleep in.

We all pitched in Sunday for a yummy waffle bar breakfast.

The Beartooth Pass is named one of the most beautiful roadways in America, but it was too dark and foggy to see it on the drive back the night before. It was still stormy, but Mark and I drove up it before we headed home on Sunday to see what we could. We made it almost to the top before the fog started to roll in. We didn't want a repeat of the night before, so we turned around and headed home. I guess that means we'll be taking another trip over there to drive and explore the pass. I guess there are worse things in life. 😆

Beartooth Falls

Beartooth Lake

Beartooth Lake

Another lake along the highway. There were so many!

Another waterfall along the highway.

I can't wait to go back on a clear day and see the whole thing!

On our drive back home through Yellowstone, we finally saw our first grizzly bear in the wild. There is a carcass out in Lamar Valley that the bear has been feeding on. It was there on our way back through, and luckily we had the binoculars with us.

See that dark spot in the meadow. That's the bear. That's how we saw it with the naked eye, but it was much better with the binoculars.

Watching the bear.

The buffalo are in the rut, and they sound really cool. We rolled our windows down when we drove by so we would hear them. It's an intimidating sound.

We had such a great weekend! We have the best running friends, and any time we get the chance to share a weekend, and especially a trail like that with them, we jump at the chance. Mark and I have another big weekend coming up to round out our summer with. We're headed to Glacier National Park, and I'm so excited about it! Stay tuned!