Maudlow, Montana, United States
There are many places in Montana named Flathead – a national
forest, rivers, an Indian tribe, and much more. Most of those places, though,
are in the northwestern part of the state. So I was a little intrigued that an
old road over the northern part of the Bridger Range north of Bozeman is named
Flathead Pass. It is listed as a hike in my local hiking guidebook and struck
me as a good choice for slightly different scenery that was probably not so
high that I’d run into snow.
Access to the Flathead Pass road is farther north than I had
been so far in the Gallatin Valley. That’s largely because of some uncertain
information I have received about what looks like a through road in my
Gazetteer. I considered taking it once last
year as a scenic alternative returning from a day trip north to White Sulphur
Springs. A sign at the start of the road in Ringling, though, warned that it
was not a through road, and some online info suggested that a private landowner
along the route had blocked accesses across his property.
I figured that while I was that far already that I’d see how
far I could continue along the road, turn back at the end, and then do my hike.
The unpaved road goes through some very pretty ranchland along Sixteen Mile
Creek (which it’s named after), then through a narrow canyon at the northern
extension of the Bridger Range, and then through undulating open country and
more ranches on the Shields Valley side.
Luckily for me, it had been fairly dry for a while, because the dirt
road became deeply rutted in areas, and I did have to ford a shallow
stream.
And then I ended up at the other
side in Ringling, not my plan at all but a very scenic trip.
Instead of backtracking, I made a loop out of it through Wilsall,
Clyde Park, and Livingston, fully circumnavigating the Bridger Range and
Bangtail Hills. To get at least a little
bit of exercise on what turned out the be a drive day rather than a hike, I
picked a shorter hike from my guidebook for the evening in the southern part of
the Bangtail Hills. The Stone Creek Road is private road gated beyond a parking
lot but open for recreational use, an easy four-mile walk, the highlight of
which was a quite large garter snake along my way.
I went back a few days later to do the hike I originally
planned. The trailhead for the Flathead Pass route is about two miles from the
gravel road on a deeply-rutted track which was fortunately not too muddy when I
got there. The ruts were deep enough, though, to make it slow and tricky. My
Passport’s clearance isn’t that high that I felt safe from bottoming out.
The six-mile round trip hike to the summit rises gradually
about 1,400 feet in altitude on a dirt track that levels out toward the top and
is apparently passable to vehicles on the opposite eastern approach.
But it doesn’t matter; I didn’t see anyone
else all afternoon. What started as a
nice sunny day with a forecast chance of showers quickly tuned overcast, then
rainy, and even some thunder while I was near the broad summit. It wasn’t exactly being on a mountain top but
still a little risky. I took shelter at
some slightly lower elevation until the thunder had ended and then enjoyed a
slippery, muddy trek back down.
Those hard clay rutted roads are hard on a vehicle. The next day when I planned to head out for
another hike, I didn’t get much beyond my driveway when I realized something
was wrong. The tire on my front passenger side was flat. Although I made it home without a hitch the
night before, there was clearly a puncture or something. It turned out those
rutted roads on those two drives did a number on the tire’s side wall and I
needed a new one as well as a wheel alignment. Ouch!
2025-05-23