Montana: 4/20/2010 Mystic Lake hike

Today we went on another hike that ended much better than the previous two. Shelli was working but Jesse had the day off so we packed up in the morning and headed back to the Bear Tooths. Two or three weeks ago when our mom was out here, Jesse tried to take her on a hike that lead to a place called Mystic Lake. Because of the snow that was still on the trail they were not able to make it all the way to the top, so Jesse wanted to try it again in hopes that the sun had melted enough snow to allow us passage to the top. We got up to the parking area and started walking up the trail. We brought our fly fishing gear and stopped along the river to fish a couple of times.

Once the trail turned away from the river we stowed our fishing gear in the woods and started hiking. Again Erika was in charge of keeping the bears away and that is exactly what she did. She said that the bears were just too annoyed with her to even be interested in eating us, I think that was a pretty accurate statement. We hit a little snow on the trail but nothing that really slowed us down, but after about 1.5miles we started getting into deeper and deeper snow. We just kept pushing on and finally made it out of the woods and above the tree line. Once we got out into the open, the trail switch backed up the side of the mountain which looked daunting but we eventually made our way. The higher up the mountain we got, the deeper the snow was, and since the sun was out in all her glory, the snow was not firm enough to support our large bodies. We were going to bring our snowshoes but Jesse said that we wouldn’t need them, ha, he was wrong. We waded through the hip deep snow for almost a mile before we came to a spot with enough sun exposure to have a firm trail to follow. We got almost to the top and had to stop and shed some layers, so we found a cool tree and snapped a picture.
) No more than 5minutes down the trail we came around the corner and were hit with one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. We were about 200 feet above Mystic Lake and there was no question where she got her name. It was still almost totally frozen over from the winter so the water had an amazing blue tint to it. There were mammoth, almost tooth like mountains surrounding the lake resembling the name of the mountain range… The Beartooths.

Amazing view

We only had a few minutes to take a couple pictures before we had to head back down so we enjoyed the view and turned around to start the 3 mile trek back to the car. We traipsed and tramped down the hill and through the snow until we got to the part of the trail with no snow and then the hiking was much easier. We finally got back to the car and headed back. We stopped and took a couple of pictures of the mountains and how beautiful and vast the landscape is but still had to come back to billings. Falling asleep with the mountains in the side mirror made me realize how truly minute we are compared to this world.

Who wouldn't want to live here

There is beauty in the storms.

We got back to Billings and went out to eat again at a great Italian restaurant. Once we got back we did what we have done every night since we've been here... SLEPT!!