Sundance Pass to Beartooth Highway

Monday, August 27, was the last day of our backpacking adventure. The relaxing nature of our trip had seeped into Darrel and Susan Raye as they were laid back about eating breakfast and packing up camp for our departure - and they were the ones with a long drive ahead of them! I was happy they weren't in a rush to leave. This is a sign of a good hiking partner, when you are on the same page about enjoying the moment.

I did not want the trip to end. The feeling I had was the typical feeling I've had when near the end of a fun hiking/camping trip. I was happy to be there, happy to be doing something out of the ordinary, and sad to be leaving, for which it seemed so soon. Why can't it go on? Why can't we stay another day? Yes, we had accomplished all we had planned to do, but there was more we could do; more trails to follow and sights to see all without moving our campsite. My emotions were a rolling mix of happy and sad. Bittersweet and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The morning had an empty feel from having accomplished all we had set out to do, and from the lack of other people. No one was around; no one was camping nearby or passing through on their way out. It was Monday morning and much of the world was back at work. We had the place all to ourselves. While I like the back country experience to get away from the crowds and to be alone in nature, I also enjoyed seeing the people on the trail and in their camp sites. Not only did I enjoy chatting with them, I felt a sense of community (loose as it was) and a shared purpose in being there.

I have structured my life so I don't have to have a 9-5 job. So why did I feel a little twinge that I was 'playing hooky' and should be at work? Perhaps because I had accomplished my hiking goal and now was casting about for my next purpose. Just because I no longer have "change the world, make money, have a great job, travel around the world" as life goals doesn't mean I don't have purpose in my life. It is just that my purpose(s) are smaller and more transitory. They are more like stepping stones through life.

I resolved to return to this area and hike Sundance Pass again, the mountains whose tops I did not reach, and the side trails I had not time to hike.

Darrel took photos of the previous night's moose tracks as they were undisturbed. One track is between Darrel thumbs in the photo to the left. Darrel also found some moose scat.

Across the stream and bridge was an area where many people have camped. The night before, and this morning, no one was there.

We all wandered around the area, no one in a hurry to leave.

Eventually we left. Per usual Susan Raye took off ahead with Darrel and I to follow once we finished the last of our packing.

We caught up to Susan Raye at Broadwater Lake. We all lingered, resting and refilling our water canteens.

Several people had tents at the foot of the lake and were in the process of taking them down to pack them up.

The parking lot was far different than when we had arrived. Susan Raye's car, my car, and one other car were the only vehicles there. A big empty parking lot.

Did my car start? Nope. Susan Raye and Darrel pushed my car and I popped the clutch to get it started. I didn't realize the car's clock had reset because of the battery. Therefore I thought it was noon when it actually was 1 pm. I didn't discover this until much later.

In the map, Sundance Pass is located between the two left ends of blue that branch out south of Red Lodge, near the words "Beartooth Area". I hiked along the lower blue branch (Rock Creek) to the Pass.

After getting gasoline back in Red Lodge I headed up the Beartooth Highway. There was almost no traffic so I could slowly drive and enjoy the scenery.

Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! (Disregard my camera's photos as this was the cheap camera and it could not capture the area's beauty.)

The photo to the left shows on the horizon the area where I had hiked on Sundance Pass. I *think* Sundance Pass and surrounding mountains are near the center of the photo. I am not sure if the Pass is just left or center or just right of center.

I stopped at a rest stop/overlook. A dozen other cars and motorcycles were there. Because my car does not start, I left it running while I went to the end of the overlook to look at the road far below, and to look out over to Sundance Pass far away. There were so many people around, who'd steal a running car?

A couple of the motorcycle guys asked me to take a photo of them with the scenery behind them and I did. I got chatting with them and learned they were from British Columbia, Canada. They were on a road trip from Canada to Yellowstone Park via western Montana. It was the 50th birthday of one guy and he had a brand new Harley motorcycle. Even though they were dressed head to toe in black leather they acted like typical tourists taking in the sights. I later noticed that quite a few of the vehicles on the road were motorcycles.

No one had disturbed my car.

(Note: the "Beartooth Highway" links are to different web pages.)

The top of Beartooth Highway - the Pass - is on a high, treeless, plateau. So high I thought some of the clouds weren't going to clear the top. Usually a mountain pass is a narrow low spot between two taller mountains. Here it was hard to see where the pass was located as everything looked high and relatively flat, and it seemed to go on for miles.

I felt like I was on top of the world.

The Beartooth All-American Road passes through The Beartooth Corridor. It is one of the highest and most rugged areas in the lower 48 states. It contains 69 of Montana's 100 tallest peaks; 29 of these are over 12,000 feet in elevation. In the surrounding mountains, glaciers are found on the north flank of nearly every mountain peak over 11,500 feet high. The Road itself is the highest elevation highway in Wyoming (10,947 feet) and Montana (10,350 feet), and is the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies. At roughly 3,000 square miles, the Beartooths are one of North America's largest land masses rising above 10,000 feet.

I stopped a number of times to take photos. I found that after three days of hiking and photo taking my camera's batteries were getting weak. I had to limit the number of photos I took at a time in order to conserve the batteries.

In the following two photos you can see the Beartooth Mountain the road is named after. It is located just left of center in the first photo.

When it came time to head down, the road steadily went down for miles and miles.

I stopped at Beartooth Lake to take a photo of Beartooth Butte in the sunlight. Just as I was getting ready to take the photo the clouds came and blocked the sun. *argh*

I waited, and waited ...and waited. I didn't have time to waste as I planned to drive all the way home this day. Finally I got some sun on the butte, took the photo, jumped into my car and took off down the road again.

A side road went up to the Clay Butte fire tower lookout. I could see the lookout from the Beartooth Highway and decided to drive the short distance to the tower. I found the road curved around more than going up. Just as the road decided to make the final push up to the tower the road was closed. *argh!* Why didn't they say the tower was closed back at the sign along the Beartooth Highway?

A few cars were parked along the road where a few hiking trails started. One car had Minnesota license plates. I can't get away from those Minnesotans no matter where I go!

Once I passed the junction of highway 296, and as I drove along the Clarks Fork river, I could see Pilot and Index peaks ahead of me. It was fun to watch them change as I drove towards them, then around the peaks as I made my way to Yellowstone Park.

As I approached the small town of Cooke City, Highway 212 was being improved. Parts of it had been, and parts of it were in the process of being, widened and re-paved. It was a pretty nice road for such little traffic on it.

Cooke City looked to be a typical small totally tourist town, albeit a nice looking one. I had miles to drive so I didn't stop.

Sundance Pass: Day 2

Sunday morning, August 26, Darrel, Susan Raye and I hiked to Sundance Pass.

The following photo was taken from near our campsite. I traveled to the Xs on each side of the pass.


During the night I had heard noises outside my tent. Squirrels? Something else? Who cares, I was tired and quickly fell back asleep. Later Susan's shriek woke me up. Huh?! Then once I heard Susan and Darrel laugh over her being startled I fell back asleep. In the morning I learned that both Susan and Darrel had gotten up for a bathroom visit. Their tent was next to a very large rock - well over 6 ft tall. Stumbling around in the darkness they met each other on the other side of the rock startling Susan who hadn't realized Darrel had gotten up after she had left the tent.

I heard two versions of their story. In Darrel's version, Susan Raye sounded disappointed when she learned it was him and not me she met in the darkness. Susan Raye said that was not how it was.

Before I had gotten up I heard (very!) early morning squirrels chattering in the trees. Are they near my hanging backpack? I hope not as it was too early to get up for the day. Once I got up I found my backpack was unmolested by squirrels. Good!

As I ate breakfast a man and woman came ambling down the trail on horse back with a third horse carrying their gear. Seemed to be leaving awfully early.

After a nice leisurely morning of breakfast, and with the contentment and peacefulness that comes from camping outdoors, Susan Raye took off up the trail while Darrel and I brought up the rear a few minutes later once we finished hoisting our backpacks up the tree to keep our food safe.

Darrel has studied tracking at the Tom Brown School of tracking. Earlier he had made note of Susan Raye's shoe print and along the trail he spotted her print numerous times. A few times we had seen her up ahead on the trail resting but she would take off when she saw us coming. We never caught up to her until at the foot of September Morn Lake.

As we hiked along the trail we climbed above Keyser Brown Lake. We were able to see up the valley to the First and Second Rock Lakes. A trail to them led from the head of Keyser Brown Lake.

Photo 1: Keyser Brown Lake
Photo 3: First and Second Rock Lakes

Susan Raye had told me September Morn Lake was famous for a painting of a nude woman bathing in the lake. After the hike I searched the internet and found that while there is a famous painting called "September Morn", it had nothing to do with this lake, unless someone decided to later name the lake after the painting.

Speaking of the painting... here is a link to the story behind the painting and the controversy over the painting.

A pair of tents were in the meadow south of the lake but no one was around. We rested at the foot of the lake. I filtered water to refill our water bottles and we then ate our lunches. A gust of wind blew my hat off into the lake but I quickly moved to retrieve it before it sank or floated away.


The lake was scenic with sheer rock cliffs rising from the western end of the lake. The second photo is the lake when Darrel and I later returned from the Pass.

The view and day were exceptional and it was easy to just lay around. However I noticed the clear morning sky was getting clouds. Knowing how afternoons in the mountains can quickly cloud over, I urged Darrel and Susan Raye to continue to the Pass in case we lost the sun.

Darrel and Susan Raye hiked past the tents and found the trail south of the meadow. I decided to follow along the lake. When I was nearer to the western end of the lake I had a steep climb up a trail-less incline to reach Darrel and Susan Raye now high above me on the trail. After catching up to them, Susan Raye suggested I hike ahead of her and Darrel, and I agreed. This would give them time to chat on the hike.

The trail passed through a large boulder field. Beyond was a high, mostly treeless, and rocky valley. The Pass lay ahead and up. It reminded me of my hike this past June to Firebrand Pass in Glacier Park.

I occasionally looked back to check on Darrel and Susan Raye. The longer I went the further they fell behind. I decided not to wait for them until I reached the pass. In the far off distance below I could see Susan Raye was a good distance ahead of Darrel.

Near the bottom of the switchbacks I met three 20-somethings: two men and one woman. They had camped overnight at Sundance Pass and this morning they had climbed to the top of Whitetail Mountain. I wasn't sure which mountain that was and they told me to look to my left and it would be the mountain with a long vertical slice of snow.

Later as I climbed the switchbacks I heard three voices above me. Two women and one man - in their 30s? - were jogging down the trail. (photo 1 below) They had started at the other end of the trail and were running the entire length. This is about 21 miles. They looked to be long distance endurance runners. I stood off to the side of the trail and let them pass by. I was impressed at how well they looked as they passed by. They didn't show the effects of how far and how high they had come so far.

The second photo looks back down the valley I hiked up. The lake on the left is September Morn and the one on the right is Lost lake.

The view from Sundance Pass was tremendous. To my left was Mount Lockhart and Whitetail Peak. To my right was - unbeknownst to me - the first ridge of Silver Run Peak. Ahead - west - was a deep valley running north and south. Across the valley were a line of massive mountains as far as the eye could see.

Darrel and Susan Raye were well behind me, and no one else was at the Pass, so I decided I would climb the mountain on my right (Silver Run Peak) as it didn't look too tall or hard to climb. Heh, heh. When I reached the "top" I discovered it was a false summit and the summit was further up. I hiked up to the second summit along the curving western edge and marveled at the vertical drop to the valley far, far below.

The second summit was also a false summit. I now could see yet another summit well ahead. It was doable and by now I was determined to reach it having put in so much effort already to reach the "summit". I was sure this was the true summit as the top extended flat for quite a distance to the NE.

A is the "summit" I saw from Sundance Pass.
B is the second "summit I saw from A.
C is the third summit I saw from B.
I never saw the pointed peak - the true summit of Silver Run Peak - until I later climbed Mount Lockhart and took this photo.
The stream (in the foreground) I'll mention later. The red Xs was my route.

I had to go around an area that was a start of a draw to the valley far below. By draw I mean the side of the mountain was no longer vertical and had a slope to it. An extremely steep slope though, and one a person could not safely climb or go down.

I was a little less than halfway to the next "summit" when I had to readjust one shoe as a few of my toes felt smushed. As I readjusted my shoe and looked back from where I had come, I realized that more time and distance had passed than I realized. While I wanted to reach the summit, Darrel and Susan Raye most likely were now at Sundance Pass. I reluctantly turned back.

As I came down the scree slope back to the Pass I saw Susan Raye below. (She is in the middle of this photo). She was performing a ceremony to honor her dead husband. As I came down the slope she beckoned and called to me to come over and join her. We hunkered behind a large rock to be out of the wind coming from the western valley.

Susan Raye said she saw Darrel go down the west side of the Pass. Our goal was the Pass and not beyond so we figured Darrel went down a short distance to take some photos and give Susan her time alone to perform her remembrance. Later Darrel told me that he never saw Susan Raye nor I at the Pass and he thought we might have gone down the west side a short distance for the view.

While Susan Raye and I sat and ate our lunches I got interested in climbing the left side of the pass on Mount Lockhart. Susan Raye wasn't interested but encouraged me to do so. I didn't think it would take too long to do as I had seen the top of the mountain and a route when returning from climbing up part of Silver Run Peak.

Off I went. This time I left my day pack behind to lighten my load.

My route was along the spine before the point in the middle of the first two photos, then I went along the left side of the mountain crossing over to keep relatively level. The third photo shows the view from the top looking back down. Do you see the trail? (and I am not talking about the switchbacks far below )

Again, the western side of the mountain was a near vertical drop to the valley far below. Initially the trail was near the western side before moving back away from it.

At the west side of Mount Lockhart was a pile of large rocks stacked on each other. It looked as if God had reached down and stacked the rocks. A very unusual site as one doesn't normally see such large rocks near the top of a mountain, and certainly not stacked on one another. I just had to climb the pile of rocks - so I did. The view from the top was fantastic! The third photo shows my climbing route.

I decided to hike closer to Whitetail Mountain. My route - as the trail disappeared in a rock field - was on a high plateau. This plateau was a boulder field with grasses scattered about. I had not seen grass since before I started up the switchbacks. I hiked over this plateau until I reached the point where Whitetail Mountain rose up.

I could see the trail go up through the rock towards the top along its spine. The view reminded me a little of when I was at the base of the Matterhorn in Switzerland, though the Matterhorn was much more impressive and steeper. I so wanted to climb to the top of Whitetail Mountain. It was doable and didn't seem that hard. *sigh* Next time. Time had passed and I had to return back to Sundance Pass, and Darrel and Susan Raye.

On the way back down Mount Lockhart I heard... running water? On top of a mountain of rock? I investigated and found in the grass a small narrow stream of water. It wasn't moving fast. The source of the water was a mystery as there was no visible snow on this mountain.

As I slowly hiked down to the pass I looked for Susan Raye and did not see her. At the trail I saw my black day pack and the rocks I had found so far. Susan had moved my pack and rocks to the trail before she left. I opened my bag to get food as I was hungry.

Did I hear a whistle? Nah. Just the wind in my ears.

I continued to look for food when I heard the whistle again. Huh?! I looked around expecting to see a marmot or some animal making the sound and there was Darrel not far off blowing a whistle to get my attention. (Note: buy a whistle and bring along on my next hike as a whistle is a better way to make noise to get someone's attention than shouting.)

Darrel had seen my black bag so he waited for me. Susan Raye had left before Darrel had returned from the west side of the Pass and he had no clue where anyone was other than my bag. Darrel was trying to burn sage given to him by a friend some years past. It was for a ceremony of his own. It was difficult to keep the sage burning as it was hard to find a place out of the wind. He performed his ceremony while I ate.

Following are views as we headed back down from the Pass.

On the way down the mountain, in a stream near the bottom of the switchbacks, Darrel earlier had left a bottle of Mountain Dew. Susan Raye's husband - who was also a friend of Darrel's - loved Mountain Dew. He said when he hiked to Sundance Pass he would leave a bottle in the stream to cool for drinking when hiking back down from the Pass. Darrel remembered this and did the same. We each drank a swig of the cold Mountain Dew and toasted Dave's memory.

The tents we saw earlier at September Morn Lake were gone. Another tent was set up elsewhere and a lone man was fishing in the lake as we passed by.

As we hiked Darrel stopped and took lots of photos of flowers, trees, and butterflies. Here are a few of his photos.

At the Keyser Brown Lake trail junction I decided to go for a visit to the lake to look around some more. Darrel was tired and went straight back to camp to cook supper.

At the lake the guys I met the previous night were gone. I continued past their campsite on a trail to the west end of the lake. There I found another large open meadow and signs of past campers. The trail continued from the lake through the woods to First Rock Lake. The trail was also near, but not next to, the stream that came from that lake to the Keyser Brown lake. I followed the trail a short distance until I realized it would not go to the stream. Then I found trails others had bushwhacked between the main trail and the stream. I followed them, slipping through trees and brush and hopping over small side streams of water. I was unimpressed by this stream once I reached it.

Photos of Keyser Brown Lake: The middle photo is looking back to Mount Lockhart (middle) and Whitetail Peak (where sun is) and the ridge I had hiked along earlier. The third photo is of a mountain next to the lake (Thunder Mountain?)

When I returned to the camp Darrel and Susan Raye told me about two moose that were in the swampy meadow south of our campsite. Darrel attempted to get photos of them but they moved faster than he could focus his camera. The moose left hoof prints in the trail between our camp and the bridge and Darrel marked off the prints so we would not accidentally step on them. He planned to get photos of the prints in the morning when there was more light.

Earlier our plan had been to hike partway back to the trail head that evening with the goal of camping near Broadwater Lake. That meant we would have a short hike the next morning and Darrel and Susan Raye could get an early start for their long drive home. But we were all so tired now we decided to stay here rather than pack up camp, move, then set up camp again. A good decision, though that meant a longer (6 miles) hike out the next morning.

This evening I cooked my supper on Darrel's camp stove in addition to eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich among lots other food I had. I made one of those 'Campbell soup in a Styrofoam bowl' meals. They provide a meal and are very lightweight to carry.

Once supper was over it was getting dark. This evening Darrel and Susan Raye hoisted their food bags up the same tree branch as my backpack. My branch was sturdy enough that it held all of our food's weight.

Darrel and Susan Raye went to bed and I remained up. It was only 9 pm - very early for me to go to bed. I stood in the meadow and watched the mountains fade into silhouette and the stars come out. It was close to full moon and I could see its glow from behind the mountain ridge to the SE. I decided to wait to see the moon before going to bed. However while the glow grew brighter, the moon followed the ridge as it rose, and the ridge went up as it went west. Eventually I grew tired of waiting for the moon to appear - and the night was starting to grow chilly. And all my hiking and climbing of the day was catching up to me and in the darkness I found my tent, crawled into my sleeping bag, and quickly went to sleep. Who knows how early Darrel and Susan Raye would be up the next morning, and I had a long drive home.

Here is my souvenir rock that I brought back from the top of Sundance Pass. It is white and black and looks like Africa to me. The image may look odd and that is because I scanned the rock using my computer's scanner instead of photographing it.