Exploring Yellowstone and the Bearthooths

By Wilderness Adventures July 17, 2013

As we near the end of our adventures in Montana and Wyoming the days been long with excitement and anticipating of our final activates.

For Eric’s birthday we spent an early morning at the iconic Old Faithfull and Yellowstone Lodge.  Our cool stroll down the boardwalk was punctuated by long gazes into the many geologic oddities of the area. Riggs was curious to learn some of the park’s lesser known facts from passing tour guides and signposts. After a casual morning capped off with ice cream cones and a second eruption of Old Faithfull we left Yellowstone by way of the Park’s lesser traveled Northeast entrance, ending the evening with sunset fishing at Fox Creek in Montana. As a capstone on long day of sightseeing, travel and fishing, Eric caught a nice Rainbow Trout to celebrate his Birthday.

After crossing a 10,000 foot mountain to beautiful Red Lodge, Montana we staged our final backcountry excursion at Beartooth Lake Campground. Before dinner, Stark was bold enough to dip into the cold alpine lake and re-warm in the strong evening sun. The following morning we woke up early, drove to our trailhead and entered the backcountry for our long anticipated exploration of the ruggedly beautiful Beartooth Wilderness. Despite an afternoon thunderstorm, our first day on trail concluded with very productive fishing in the wilderness’ mountain lakes and streams. Our next day brought us further into the mountains and, as we crossed a high ridge overlooking the Beartooth range, Evander could be over heard saying “This is why I come out West.” That afternoon we dropped into the 10,150 foot high Farley Lake. By late evening the water looked as if it was boiling from the number of trout rising and Sean fished until the bitter end of daylight and a group dinner of Mac and Cheese and fish. We ended our backpack trip by descending to the warm, wide and winding Big Moose Lake and a night of sleeping under the stars.

Our time in Montana grows short but we are in no short supply of good spirits and excitement for our final days. Evan has been extolling his excitement for the Madison River drift boat trip to the rest of the expectant group.