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Friday, September 23, 2011
Jewel Basin Hike to Mt. Aeneas Bigfork, Montana
The Jewel Basin is found above the eastside of Flathead Valley.
To find Jewel Basin just follow the signs from highway 83 just outside Bigfork. When you get to the Jewel Basin turnoff soon you will be on eight miles of gravel road that tends to be bumpy and narrow.
The elevation of the trailhead is 500 feet and Mt. Aeneas, just tips over 7500 feet.
The trails in the Jewel Basin are reserved for hiking only.
The hike starts from Camp Misery ranger station parking lot. Camp Misery got it's name from a local tribe that spent a terrible winter there.
We had a great hike. We had bear spray but didn't need it. Saw mountain goats, elk and deer.
The strange building on the ridge of Mt Aeneas is a Microwave Tower.
Love seeing the mountain goats
After standing in 1919 where we stand today, the Reverend Eugene Cosgrove would give a moving sermon on “The Secret of Wilderness” at the Unitarian Church in Helena:
“Hidden away by the Gods, like a necklace of pearls, among the crags and fastness of the [Swan] Mountains, lies the Jewel Basin, the enchanted land of this our Montana. Friends, I have seen the sun set on the minarets of Spain, and make splendid the dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople. I have watched the play of color upon the desert of Egypt, with the Sphinx and pyramids. I have made a trail through the hinterland of the Canadian Rockies, to where the Aurora Borealis from the polar skies make the northern night glorious... but for kaleidoscopic lights and shadows, for octaves of tone and color, for unending variety of the moods and forms of Nature, Jewel Basin is the most charmed and charming spot in all the world.” Found HERE
Some history how Jewel Basin became a hiking only area. Cliff Merritt helped secure Congressional Wilderness protection for many areas in Montana in 1964, including the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and helped form the Montana Wilderness Assoc. to advocate for more wilderness in Montana. Found in the Lake Shore Country Journal.
- Latitude: 48.148569
- Longitue: -113.919275
Monday, September 19, 2011
Glacier National Park Packers Roost Trailhead
As you driving up the Going to the Sun Road you will see an unpaved road to the left that leads to Packers Roost Trailhead. The gravel road is very narrow and goes about 2/3 of a mile and ends in a small clearing with areas for parking. This road is used by trucks carrying horses that pack up supplies to the Granite Park Chalet. When you on the Packer's Roost Trailhead you will come to a fork to the right that will lead to "The Loop" of the "Granite Park Chalet." The trail to Flattop and Granite Park begins to the right of the patrol cabin.
The area is still forested nicely until you get to the burn from the Trapper Creek Fire of 2005.
We always see a lot of caterpillars on the trails. I will try to ID them.
Trapper Creek Fire of 2005
Nice red berries along the way
Looking up at Heaven's Peak in Glacier National Park is just beautiful!
It's lunch time along the way. Great place along the creek to rest and eat lunch.
Looking up at the Garden Wall
Tree fungus
Also I read somehwhere "back in the day" the McDonald Creek Trailhead was a popular way to reach Fifty Mountain and eventually Goat Haunt. That trail has been abandoned sine the late 60s and is no longer passable by ordinary humans. I heard there was also a trail up Mineral Creek past a creek called I believe Cattle Queen Creek to the Highline Trail.
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