Royal Lake

The sun was still shinning so we decided to make a weekend trip to the Olympics. Destination Royal Lake. Royal lake is a 14 mile round trip hike gaining 2650 ft in elevation. The lake itself sits in the Olympic National Park, but the trail head is outside the park boundaries so a permit from the park and a northwest forest service pass are required. We headed out early in the morning, stopped to borrowed a bear canister from Wild Birds Unlimited near Discovery Bay, and hit the trail.

Our campsite above the lake

The hike in was nice and we arrived at our camp site with several hours of daylight left. We had planned on exploring the upper basin beyond Royal Lake, but ended up abandoning the idea. We did explore around the lake a bit and discover a nice waterfall west of the lake. Now this was our first fall backpacking trip in Washington and we greatly underestimated how cold it would get. As dusk approached the temperatures plummeted below what we were prepared for, forcing us into our tents for an early nights sleep.


Royal Lake (I didn't realize my clothes were in the picture until I put these on my computer)
In the morning, we awoke to frost and ice on everything and decided to make an early departure back to the car and warmth. It was a really beautiful area and I would have loved to explore it more. I hope to one day make it back, but this time with a few more layers!



Map of the hike

A close up of the Royal Basin

To get to this hike head west on 101 from Discover Bay. Turn left onto Louella Road (just before reaching the Sequim Bay State Park entrance). In 0.8 mile turn left on Palo Alto Road, continuing for 5.7 miles. Bear right at a junction onto Forest Road 2880. At a fork in the road, continue straight (not left). In another 0.2 mile, turn right on the dirt and gravel road. The road descends and crosses the Dungeness River, passing Dungeness Forks Campground in 0.9 mile. In another 0.8 mile is a junction, where you continue straight (left) on FR 2870. In 2.6 miles bear right at a junction to continue on FR 2870 (formerly called FR 2860). Travel another 4.8 miles, then go straight (not right) at another junction to stay on 2870. In 1.7 miles drive across the bridge to the Upper Dungeness trailhead parking lot on the right.

Fairy Lake - summer 2009

This is really more of a drive than a hike, but an exciting drive none-the-less. I headed up here to explore a part of the mountains, I'd really never seen before. The lake sits at the base of Sacajawea in the Bridgers. There's a campground near by and a short loop trail along the lake. It's a peaceful area with nice views all around. The road is quite bumpy but my civic was still able to handle it. No fairies were found.

Sacajawea

Fairy Lake

Mount Blackmore - Summer 2009

Mount Blackmore is probably my favorite hike I've done yet in the Bozeman area. With it's high elevation, it definitely wasn't an easy one for me. I headed out on this adventure with Nate and Gina. You can reach this peak a couple of different ways. We chose to start at the Hyalite Reservoir and head up the Blackmore trail. It's a beautiful route, starting first in the trees passing the slightly swampy Blackmore Lake and then begins to climb, gaining 3,400ft in 5 miles. With a summit of 10,154ft, I was starting to feel the affects of thinner air. Once on top the views of the surrounding peaks and valleys are stunning.

Great views to be had

Views from the pass just below the summit

Summit cairne

Me at the pass

Nate up on some lingering snow

Two ways down

One last view

Lava Lake - Summer 2009

A group of us headed out for a relatively short but beautiful summer hike, destination Lava Lake. The trail is 6 miles round trip and gains about 1,600 ft. It's pretty popular on a summer day so you definitely won't have it to yourself, but there's plenty of room to spread out and explore.

Lava Lake

Lochsa River Adventure

For the last weekend in May we planned a 3-day camping, hiking, hotspringing, and rafting extravaganza. We left early from Bozeman and made the scenic drive out to Highway 12 where we set up camp along the rushing waters of the Lochsa. We found a nice campground between Weir and Jerry Johnson Hotsprings which we had basically to ourselves. We explored around a little, made dinner, and headed to the Weir hotsprings. It was a short walk in along a rushing creek to a nice set of springs with a few campsites along the way. We shared the spring with one other group and soaked until it began getting dark.

The next day we headed over to the DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove where we checked out the giant trees. Then it was across the river to the Jerry Johnson falls which we really impressive at the high water level. After that we looped down to the hotsprings for some more soaking. The lower springs (the ones closest to the river) were completely submerged, but the upper springs were nice.

Now that's a big cedar!

We found this super creepy hand stuck in one of the trees

Crossing the Lochsa

The Falls

Jerry Johnson Hotsprings

Reflection in the springs

Then the next morning it was up early for our adventure down the raging Lochsa. The river was running nearly at peak and created an exciting ride. Lochsa Falls was especially roaring. Luckily our group managed to stay in the raft. Can't say the same about the group before us. They had a wave surge on them and the entire raft flipped. Everyone was fine though. It was a great weekend.

How to raft the Lochsa

How not to raft the Lochsa

Humbug Spires - spring 2009

The Humbug Spires is a wilderness area filled with large granite spires off of highway 15. It doesn't hold snow like many parts of Montana making it a great spring destination. With a warm sunny day predicted, Derrick and I decided to go check it out.

We entered via the Moose Creek Trailhead. It's about 6 miles round trip to get into the main spire area. There's plenty of places to just explore. We spent several hours just climbing our way up the different rock slabs enjoying the area.

Derrick up on one of the spires

One of the larger granite spires

Spanish Creek Snowshoe

The Spanish Peaks are a sub range of the Madison Range in Southwest Montana. One of the main entrances to the Spanish Peaks is the Spanish Creek trail head accessed by driving on a public road through Ted Turners ranch. There is a large campground and a forest service cabin at the trail head making this is a very popular area in the summer, but in the winter it's pretty quiet. We decided to take advantage of this and plan a little winter getaway. Luckily the cabin doesn't get too many rentals in the winter and we were able to take our pick of weekends. You can drive the road to the trail head until about 4 miles before the cabin. Then it is very easy to follow the rest of the snow covered road to the cabin and other trails.

This was going to be Derricks first backpacking/snowshoeing trip so an easy four miles was about all we were looking for. The nice thing about the cabin is that it has beds and a wood fired stove so we were able to pack pretty light. The road climbs slightly, but at a gradual grade. The weekend we chose turned out to be on the warm side which was nice, but also caused the snow to become a bit slushy. It was fine when we started out in the morning, but as the day warmed up we found ourselves hiking through a slushy mess. Luckily the snow on the road wasn't too deep so we were able to manage.

Breaking Trail

The hike in was nice. It is very open giving you beautiful views of the mountains looming in the distance. We only saw a couple of ski tracks, no people. On the way in and as we neared the camping area we were breaking fresh trail. It was amazingly quiet. The cabin was nice. It stayed pretty warm once we got the stove going. It was a real treat to be able to cook a meal with real dishes and not on a camping stove. Many people had left behind little additions (candles, cards, whiskey) that made the cabin very homey.

Looking out at the Spanish Peaks

Approaching Spanish Creek

The one downfall of the night was discovering my newer shoes had given me some nickle sized blisters on the back of my heels. Unfortunately my feet had gotten wet and cold in the slush and I hadn't realized how bad it was getting until I stopped. I did my best to bandage my wounds the next morning, but needless to say the hike out was slow going. Every step seemed to hurt my now raw sores. Eventually the pain subsided but we took almost twice as long going back to the car as we did coming in. Minus the blisters, it was a nice weekend. Really good to get out after such a long cold winter.

Our little home for the night

To get to the cabin: Head south on Highway 191 from Bozeman. Turn right on the Spanish Creek Rd (about 13 miles after Four Corners). Take the gravel road for about 5.5 miles. At the end of the gravel you hit a paved road going south. This is where the snow usually begins.

Map of the Hike

A Frozen Grotto Falls

Grotto falls is the first of a series of waterfalls along the Hyalite Mountain trail. They're quite popular in the summer, but are possibly more spectacular in the winter. Only 2.5 miles round trip, this is an easy snowshoe. When winter temperatures are cold enough the falls freeze creating a cove like affect. You can cross the creek on a large downed tree and explore the frozen grotto.

Behind the ice

Hanging out in the grotto