Dawson-Pitamakan start

I divided my writeup about my September 28th Dawson-Pitamakan hike into multiple posts. That is because I have lots of photos to share with you - over 80 - and that is too many to have in a single post.

Pitamakan is pronounced: pit - a - MOCK - an

Dawson-Pitamakan Loop:

• Park literature: 18.8 miles
• Trail signs: 17.9 miles

I also hiked an additional .6 miles roundtrip to No Name Lake.

Elevation gain/loss: 2,935 ft

Dawson Pass: 7,598 ft
Highest Point: 8,099 ft


Joyce picked me up before 7 am. Bill had called Joyce and canceled at 6 am as he wasn't feeling well. Since Bill canceled Arnie did also. So it was just Joyce, Sue Ann and I.

Since I was up early I could see the full moon in the western sky. My seeing the full moon in the morning doesn't happen often. Dare I say... "once in a blue moon".

Once we got east of the Continental Divide we were all surprised to see much more snow than expected. The views were gorgeous, but how much snow was on the trail?

The photo is of Two Medicine Lake. Sinopah Mountain is the tall mountain at the far end of the lake. Our return from Dawson Pass was around Rising Wolf Mountain which is the snow free mountain on the right side foreground. See the rightmost snow covered mountain in the background... we came from the right of that mountain.



The trail head starts at the Two Medicine campground at the east end of Two Medicine Lake. There were a few tents here and there in the campground. Even though the weather was cooler, these campers didn't have the summer crowds to contend with.

We started our hike right at 9 am. We were just east of the continental divide. West of the divide the sky was clear and blue. East of the divide it was a continuous cloud. I wouldn't say it was overcast as that implies low heavy clouds, but it was at a level slightly less than overcast. The previous photo of Two Medicine Lake illustrates this. The lake has no sunlight, while west of the mountains is blue sky.

Our route:

The Dawson-Pitamakan trail is a loop and the question was whether to hike up Dawson Pass or Pitamakan Pass first. That is, clockwise or counterclockwise. A friend of Sue Ann's had hiked this loop many times and she recommended to go counterclockwise. That is, hike up Pitamakan Pass first. She claimed a person is more in the trees when hiking up to Dawson Pass while a person has a more open view hiking up to Pitamakan Pass. So that was the route we took.

Going up Pitamakan Pass first was the right decision. It was more open for more of the distance than the Dawson Pass side. While this was a loop, and the elevation gain and loss were the same, the route up to Dawson Pass is steeper once the climbing starts. The distance to Dawson Pass from the trail head is 6.4 miles and the distance to Pitamakin Pass is 7.8 miles. I am not saying both passes are at the same elevation as I don't believe they are.

So... on to part 2.