Beartooth Mountains Trip Reports

“Beartooth Mountains Photo Link

Quinnebaugh Meadows 9-12-02
Senia Creek 9-19-02
Grass Mountain 9-23-02

As a good share of you know, Webshots is limiting the number of photo albums and photos per album a member can have. So, this trip report, and the Webshots photo link, is actually three hikes. The first 24 photos make up the Quinnebaugh Meadows hike, the next 12 are from the Senia Creek hike and the final 20 are from the Grass Mountain hike.

Quinnebaugh Meadows
Roundtrip Distance: 9 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 1000'

This is an out & back hike with moderate elevation gain and a good trip for Malinda's ( Weezr ) second outing of the season. She hasn't been out in over two years and has just recently begun trying to get back into condition to do Canyonlands and Zion this October. Our original goal was to trek in far enough to view Calamity Falls and Sentinel Falls, but she felt so good after reaching Sentinel that we continued on to Quinnebaugh Meadows.
The weather was near perfect for hiking and the raspberries ripe and abundant. There had been reports of bear activity along the West Fork of Rock Creek, but we saw no sign.

Senia Creek
Roundtrip Distance: 7 miles
Elevation gain: 2200'

This route starts at the West Fork of Rock Creek, elevation 7770'. From the trailhead it climbs approximately 1800' before breaking out of tree-line and affording a spectacular panorama of Red Lodge Creek Plateau, the Bighorn Mountains and the Pryor Mountains. If you stay on the trail you'll eventually hit Crow Lake and Sylvan Lake before reaching the Sylvan Lake Trailhead @ East Rosebud Lake. Today, because of time restraints, my hiking partner and myself would take an off trail route in an attempt to find the best way to Grass Mountain, elevation 11,056. After reaching the plateau we climbed another 400' and we were rewarded with breathtaking views of the West Fork of Rock Creek, 2200' below. We also found,what we thought would be a possible route to Grass Mountain, a hike we've been looking at doing.


Grass Mountain, elevation 11,056'
Roundtrip Distance: 12 miles
Overall Elevation gain: 3570'

Today's hike was a continuation of the September 19th Senia Creek hike. I hadn't anticipated doing it today, but after working the previous three days and a forecast of sunshine and mid 60's, I just couldn't sit around the house. The temperature when I drove through Red Lodge was 29 degrees, however this is a south facing trail for the first three miles, so I knew the climb up would be relatively comfortable. I reached tree-line, and the beginning of the off trail route, in approximately 2 hours. Like the previous hike, there was not a cloud to be seen as I started up to Grass Mountain. Unfortunately, what I hoped would be the route up turned out to be a dead-end as it "cliffed out", forcing me to turn back and seek another way. After backtracking, and paralleling the knife-edge ridge that had stopped me to it's end, I was able to continue the ascent to Grass Mountain.
On the hike down to the Senia Creek Trailhead I ran head-long into a sow black-bear and her two cubs. To my good fortune, I apparently frightened them more than they frightened me and they bolted for cover. I reached for the bear spray with one hand and the camera with the other before running the 25' to where they had crossed the trail. Luckily I was able to get a distant shot of the two cubs before they diappeared. I put the camera away, took the safety off of the spray, put my heart back in my chest and then started back down.”

“At first I thought you were some kind of super dude, doing all those hikes in one day. LOL Excellent pics and trip report.”

“Usually when I'm on the road all I think about is getting back home. After reading your trail report and seeing the photos, I had the urge to head west.”

“Hey Geezr - I like the pics..... those pikas can be tough to photograph

Good to hear that Weezr's back on the trail!!”

“So I've got my nose to the screen looking closely and there's a pika right there! A nice surprise. Got a laugh out of that one. 8)

Those were are stunning photos. Mui Bonita. Waterfalls and all. John Muir once said that water falls are exceedingly beautiful, but cascades belong to a higher type of water beauty.

BTW, if you gather enough of those berries, they go great with your hot tea in camp. You gotta pick 'em when they're tart.”

“That's the best way to have a bear encounter. Glad you got a picture of the cubs.”

“bears, peaks, waterfalls - really nice. You live in a beautiful area.”

“I'm envious, I read two trip reports tonight and you both have snow! Can't wait!!!!

Glad Weezr was feeling good enough to continue to the meadows. That's great she wanted to do more!

I still want to see a moose in the wild. Looks like you got pretty close! So you chase bears too? I know what you mean about putting the heart back. . . . done that several times! Thanks!

Nice shots!”

“Very nice pictures, and a cool trip report. The bear cubs were fun! Thanks for sharing your adventure!”

“Tekdude, the problem with picking berries for camp, is getting them back to camp. We ate them on the spot!

Snow Nymph, usually I give bears a wide berth. However, this time they'd already taken off on a dead run and the camera just happened to be at hand. The moose walked up on us as we took a break and was indeed close. No calf, and when we realized it wasn't a bull (rutting season) we weren't too concerned.

To everyone else, Thanks! Glad you enjoyed.”

“You had some nice weather up there. All our Beartooth Pictures look washed out because of the grey skies. Your pictures make me want to go back -- soon!”