Pine Creek Lake Trailhead, Montana, United States
My second visitor of the late summer was my friend Todd from
San Francisco. Todd was one of the people I met during my first year in Colorado
in 1992. For several years we did quite
a lot of outdoor activities together, including skiing and hiking. He was working in the travel business at the
time and sometimes got good buddy deals, including some that were transferable. It was through Todd that I got a cheap ticket
on Continental to Ecuador in 1995 and then with Todd that I traveled to
Thailand in 1996, whetting my appetite for more world exploration. Todd moved to San Francisco in the late 1990s
and has lived there since. I saw him on
visits to California in 2003 and 2012 and a few times on his visits back to
Denver.
Todd recently noticed all my Daily Montana posts on Facebook
and inquired if I had moved there. When
I told him I had, he immediately asked if he could come visit. As quick as I’ve always known him to be to
jet off to distant places on a whim, I knew he was serious. Like my other recent visitors, Todd had
already been to Yellowstone and wasn’t interested in going there again.
He
suggested a hike and said he really likes waterfalls.
Pine Creek Lake is a popular hike I had high on my summer
hiking priority list and met him interests including a waterfall, high altitude
lakes, and at least according to many posts I had seen, spectacular scenery for
most of the trail. Wednesday was
forecast to be a great day weatherwise so probably the better of his two full
days in town for an adventurous hike.
Pine Creek Lake is located in the Absaroka Range about ten
miles south of Livingston, so not very far from Bozeman. The trailhead is located at a campground on a
paved side road a few miles east and only a few hundred feet above the valley
floor. That means there’s a quite low starting point and a very great elevation
gain to get to the alpine lakes at the top, approximately 3,500 feet in
fact. That’s about as much as you
usually climb to get to the top of a mountain peak! With a rather late, slightly hungover start
to the day, we didn’t get to the trail until about 11:30 for a ten-mile hike I
predicted would take about six hours.
The first mile of the hike to Pine Creek Falls is relatively
level through thick forest. The falls are reasonably impressive and the end of
the journey for many less ambitious people.
From there the trail climbs steeply through the forest in switchbacks
beside the falls, then up into a valley along the creek along what one hiker
called a “plateau”. “Are we almost there
yet”, I wondered as we hopped across the creek on slippery rocks. Another hiker informed us, quite accurately it
turned out, that the creek crossing was only the half way point. The trail kept climbing relentlessly through
forest and open meadows and many stands of burnt trees from a forest fire in
2010 that look like stands of telephone poles. Each time I thought I could see
where the top would be, it turned out there was much more to go.
“The lake is at the top of the waterfall” someone told
us. And when we got there, yes there was
a little lake in a very rocky landscape that looks a lot like Yosemite and the
Sierras. We stopped for pictures and to
have the remaining half of our lunches.
Somehow it didn’t see right to me, though. The pictures I recall of the
lake made it look much bigger than the pond we were lunching beside. Two young women moving at top speed who
passed us informed us we were only almost there; the main lake was just beyond
the next boulder field.
Yes, Pine Creek Lake is stunning! And there were still snowfields in the
shadowy slopes on Black Mountain above.
Being after 4:00 already, though, we just took some pictures, dipped our
feet in (not that you’d want to dip much more in the frigid lake), and turned
around after a short rest. That’s what
happens when you start a hike near the crack of noon. The return trip down the steep trail took a
good long time too, getting us back to the car around 7:30, not a problem but
it could have been if it was later since I had not brought a flashlight with
me. Overall, Pine Creek Lake was one of
my most strenuous hikes of the season.
We celebrated our conquest with a dinner of Mexican food and beer in
Livingston.
Deb
2019-09-19
Spectacular !!