Jeep Trail Ride Photos & Stories

This was a day trip late last September west of Pony, MT in the Queens Hill/Windy Pass area. There are all sorts of artifacts from mining scattered throughout. We were in first gear, low range for some of this but that could have been avoided taking a slightly different route-but no fun in that.

Mill remains with Hollow Top Mountain for a backdrop.








1920's-1930's railroad tank cars presumably used for fuel storage and just pushed over the edge at the A&P Mine.


View to east from near the A&P. Cataract Lake. The Bridger Range is hiding in that smoke filled background.


More debris.








The Queens Hill area burned about 5 years ago.


A nice way to waste a really pleasant fall day.

 

An early October logging road foray in the Storm Castle Creek-Swan Creek area south of Bozeman, MT in the northern Gallatin Range.


We almost always see moose in this area.

 

Didn’t see a Walmart in any of the picture

 

This was another October logging road cruise south of Bozeman in the Gallatin range-Little Bear/Wilson/Mica Creeks.


Bridger Range from Wilson Creek.


Tobacco Root Mountains (my favorite sandbox) from near the same place as above.


My friends Willys wagon has Scout II axles, custom springs, sbc/SM465/doubled 203/205 T case.


Gallatin Peak-Madison Range.

 

Flathead Pass, Bridger Range. This area is only about 15 miles from our place. Another mid October run.

Pass Creek area on the west side approach.


We met up with other friends for this one. The Willys was put together from a pile of parts, including a stainless steel tub. It is mostly 2A, including Go Devil power. OK, very little power----




Tobacco Roots again.


Top of the pass.


The road on the east side isn't any challenge except for a few mud holes.


East side Bridger Range.


On the Bridger Canyon side, we took a side excursion up the Fairy Lake Road to see how far we could get. I think the JK could have made it up to the lake with both ends locked but the Willys was struggling with the open diffs and those NDT's.


On the west side of the pass (South Fork Flathead Creek), we disturbed an amours affair.




Another perfectly wasted day-----

 

It was a seduce the canine day yesterday and a friend, my wife and I did a little wheeling on the mild side of North Meadow Creek (the only side you can get to right now).

Revenue Flats


Ennis Lake, Lone and Fan Mountains


Ward Peak


N. Meadow/South Willow Creek divide and as far as we could get. A LOT of snow on the north aspect.


Potosi Peak for a background


Sureshot Lake. One may need some weight forward line for this.


Stopped by the remains of the Revenue Mine on the way home.


This was what the Revenue looked like in the mid 1960's. The operation was shut down by the War Production Board in 1942 and was still completely intact at least to the mid 50's.

 

A few last summer photos from two trips up Dry Boulder Creek (out of Twin Bridges, MT), the first early August and the second a couple weeks later. The destination was Upper and Lower Boulder Lakes. There was a lot of smoke for the first trip and quite a bit less for the second.
Southwest side of the Tobacco Root Mountains.


It is a pretty easy trail into the lower lake but the stretch between the lakes is actually a bit of a challenge.
Lower Boulder Lake.






Without lockers, my friend had to pull some rope.




Upper Boulder Lake.




There is a lot of mining debris near the upper lake.






I needed a longer lens for the goats.


A little graupel with breakfast.

 

No Jeeps in this but it was a decent 3 day trip.
Last week my wife and I met friends at North Meadow Creek to run some 50" trails with the RZR's.

Ward Peak below lower Sure Shot Lake on FS 160.


Our first obstacle was a couple hundred crap producers which we got to greet twice-once on the road before we got to the Forest Service and again as we sat and waited for our friends. A lot of tent campers near the FS boundary were no doubt in for an unpleasant night's surprise.


The meet up spot pre-bovine.


Our first "run" was up FS 1225 which is open to 4x4s. It has a good view up the South Willow Creek valley-our destination on day 2.




Lone Peak (think Big Sky ski resort) and Fan Mountain from FS 1225.


We got stopped on FS 1225 by snow at about 9000'.


Lower Sure Shot Lake as we retraced our path back to FS 160 and over the pass into South Willow for the second half of the day.


A wet meadow with Mine Peak in the background. We saw a nice bull moose here but I didn't get a photo.


Left to right, Horse Mountain, Mount Jefferson, and Hollowtop Mountain from FS 1252 (50" trail).


Camp Creek Reservoir, or at least what is left of it, with Branham Peaks for a backdrop. More than a few brookies in that pond.


Past the reservoir on now FS Trail 6308, things got a little interesting. It doesn't look steep but it definitely was.




From there we headed back to camp for the evening.

 

Day 2. We again retraced our path over the divide on FS 160 and dropped into South Willow Creek. We were on several miles of typical FS road here.


Mine Peak with Granite Peak to left.


And of course we couldn't get out of this without a couple of "kid" photos.


Granite (left) and little Granite Peaks at the start of 50" trail, FS 9605 to Granite Lake.




Granite Lake.






You can't get too good of view of this, but the cascade/falls from a small cirque pond above Granite Lake falls about 350'.


The trail below Granite Lake is a bit wet. Again, the photo doesn't come close to showing how steep this really is.


Wet meadow/bog below Granite Lake. In years past, there was a LOT of goat sign present.


I think this is a massive blowdown (microburst) rather than avalanche debris. It happened about 15 years ago.




Day 3. This was where we camped, just south of Sure Shot Lake on FS 1600.


A parting shot of Potosi Peak from the end of FS 1600, about a mile and a half from camp.

 

Truly God‘s country. Beautiful thanks for sharing.

 

Another Tobacco Root Mountains trip from last fall, this one to the South Meadow Creek drainage.
We camped at South Meadow Creek Lake. The trail into the lake (FS 1221) is nothing too exciting unless you meet someone going the other direction. It is sort of a shelf road with very limited passing opportunities. The road dates from about 1972 prior to which time the 4x4 trail proceeded up the creek bottom to the headwall below the lake and just a hiking trail switch backed up to the lake.


South Meadow Creek Lake.


The following day we took FS 9649 up past the remains of the Missouri-Mckee workings. This is a more challenging trail-probably 4+ on the 1 to 5 rating scale. The mine output was trammed to the Missouri-McKee mill in the canyon bottom. Remaining tram tower. The cables are still laying on the ground.




Debris.












South Meadow Creek Lake from FS 9649.



View to north from top. Mine (AKA Alpine) Lake about center.


The bowl above South Meadow Creek Lake. Our favorite lunch spot is on the peninsula of that upper puddle.




Certainly above timberline. Out on top and the highest point one can drive to in the Tobacco Roots.


We took FS 9648 and FS 1224 to get back to South Meadow Creek Road. FS 9648 has a few spots that are pretty tight for a JK Unlimited.

 

A few photos of the Missouri McKee mill from my archives.

The mill in 1970:


Most of the out buildings were still in at least sort of decent shape.




All those out buildings are now gone along with most of the mill. Mill in 2011:

 

Another 50" trail adventure from late last summer, this one in the Pioneer Mountains north of Dillon, Montana. It was a "beat the rush" 3 day Labor Day outing on Birch Creek.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Mountains_). Contrary to the usual Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest travel plans, the Pioneers appear to have been neglected thus far. We did not find any definitive documents to indicate what was open to what mode of travel. I suspect most of what we did in the UTV's could be done in a Jeep. In general, no pucker factor involved in any of this. A lot of tight, narrow, twisting trail though, portions of which are pretty steep.

Looking west from just west of Apex and I-15. Birch Creek is the canyon on the lower left.


Day one, after meeting friends at Apex (just a name on the map in reality), we proceeded up Birch Creek a few miles and set up camp off an old logging road. Torrey Mountain (second highest in the Pioneers) for a background. Our friends' Nash RV.


We headed up the main fork of Birch Creek on FS 98 in the afternoon. There are seven named lakes in the upper reaches and we drove by four of them, Boot, Pear, May, and Tub. All of these are messed up a bit with small damns but the vegetation suggests none of them have been at full capacity for maybe several years.

The start of "Jeep" trail on FS 98.


Boot Lake:


"Cabin" remains near Pear Lake. These were likely housing when the damn was constructed, possibly by the CCC's.






Pear Lake.






Above Pear Lake is something identified as May Lake-----


The upper most lake (9091') is Tub Lake and it is without any doubt the most scenic. The trail from May to Tub did get a bit interesting.


There is another lake, Anchor, that is a little higher than Tub and sits about a mile north. That one is likely hiking access only. From Tub we headed back to camp arriving about 7 pm.

 

Birch Creek, continued.
Day 2. Bond Creek
We spent day 2 off FS 7470 and 7471 in the Bond Creek drainage. Bond and Deerhead Lakes were the objectives. These trails were a little rough and the skid protection did get used.

Torrey Mountain.


Bond "Lake". Tweedy Mountain (highest point in the Pioneers at 11,154) lies directly behind the bowl in the un-named mountain behind the lake.


Typical granitic outcrops, this one right at the end of the Bond Lake dam.




Heading to Deerhead. The trail here traverses along ice marginal channels and lateral moraine.




Deerhead Lake was nice. The two people we observed there were the only people we ran into on Day 2.


Cabin remains near Deerhead Lake.


Glacial kettle near the trail.


From there it was back to camp for grilled brats and adult beverages.

 

Day 3. The only destination for the day was the Birch Creek CCC camp, back down the canyon several miles from camp. I wasn't expecting much as most CCC camp sites I've been by were just empty fields. Surprisingly, Birch Creek is pretty complete.


















And an obviously newer addition.

 

Awesome picture. Have you ever made it up to the Kintla lake area? We camped up there a few years back and it was spectacular.

On a side note..my niece and nephew tried to kill me skiing Bridger….

 

No, I've never ventured there. It's a long drive from Bozeman. Scenic without doubt, along with Glacier and the Bob. My favorite place in this state is the Beartooth's but I doubt I'll be backpacking in there again. Sure was fun for the 5 decades I did that.

Yep, Bridger has some really decent runs, very similar terrain to Alta and Snowbird. Another place I spent 5 decades enjoying, including working there on the ski patrol. I still prefer it to Big Sky and think it's the best skiing in the state-if the actual skiing is where your priorities lie.

 

Yeah.. they don’t call it big sky country for no reason. Like texas, “just around the corner” is an hour a way. Had family and still have friend in Bozeman. I’d like to head back up there and do some trails/hiking. I’d have to trailer the jeep.. a bit too far in my rig.

I had been skiing for years and was pretty good while living in Colorado but a couple of runs at Bridger kicked my butt.

 

There are more than abundant kick butt runs there, including most of the stuff off the ridge. Good memories for sure.
https://skimap.org/data/375/2520/1668222059.pdf

 

On page 1 of this thread, C2T posted a trip to McKelvey Lake in the Tobacco Root Mountains. Before about 2000 and the most recent travel map, you could drive on up past McKelvey by Mine Lake and then to Cliff Lake. The latter has some really good skiing that lasts into August some years.




Strapping on the skis---


Foster kid and 3B at Cliff 1996


My wife and I at Cliff 1995. The chute in the first photo is the one coming off the ridge directly behind the Willys. You did not want to screw up that first turn----