backpacking

Dunanda Falls

The  Murder Section of Yellowstone

Elevation Gain: ~685 ft

Length: 16.7 mi out & back to the falls

 (varies based on your route / campsite location) 

Difficulty: Easy?

Time: VARIES

Note(s): 

Visited: Aug 11th- Aug 13th, 2023 

Let me start out this writeup by saying I did absolutely no planning or organizing for this trip. So HUGE shout out to Alex, Trey, & Dan for putting this all together. It was a trip of a lifetime. Shout out to all the homies (Alex, Trey, Dan, Meg, Caitlyn, & Will) for being incredible company as always. Much love for you people. Eli you were missed. 


To get into the back country of Yellowstone for camping you need to get a back country permit. The permits are not super hard to get, but if you want to get access to one of the cooler places in the back country of Yellowstone- you need to get in the Yellowstone Early Access permit lottery. It's through the recreation.gov website! A bunch of us put in for dates and the group used the earliest date selected in the lottery. 

Caitlyn, Alex, & Trey got an earlier start on the day and hiked into the camping spot first. It's my understanding they got moderately attacked by bugs, but it was nothing compared to the swarm that Dan, Will, Meg, & I got. Even with thick layers of bug spray and my skin covered with clothing as much as possible I'll be forever traumatized. 


Dan, Will, Meg, & I got a later start on the day because we worked a bit in the morning. We also had some goofin shenangagins in the town of west that just set an unhinged vibe for the trip. Shout out to beat box, subway, & taking pictures by the Welcome to Montana sign. 


The homies set up & booled out for the eve. Dan & Will caught some fish, cribbage was played, and bugs were murdered. Backpacking meals were made & bags were hung for bears. 

The next morning the homies hiked into the falls and spent the day there. The spray coming off of the falls was hecka cold, but the hot spring pools at its base were amazing. Straight up magical place. Some of the homies even climbed up behind the falls. I chickened out because I have a torn ACL. They're cooler than me. 


We then hiked out that evening to our next camp spot. Again I was traumatized by bugs. 


This spot was pretty rad because you could see the Tetons from it. The homies were honestly pretty tuckered out, but a game of cribbage was played & delusion was had. Will, Dan, & I stayed up a lil later to enjoy some of Perseid's Meteor shower. Dan took star pics. He’s mega talented!!!!! His normal gram with star pics is private, but he has a portrait account thats pretty rad too: @dkoepps

 

We all hiked out the next day. It was an amazing trip. I’m thankful for the homies. (I know this writeup feels a little lazy, but it's hard to find the words for how awesome this trip was- even with the bugs). 

Garnet Firetower

Gallatin Gateway, Montana

Elevation Gain: ~2,800 ft

Length: 7.7 mile RT

Difficulty: Medium

Time: VARIES

Note(s): 

Visited:Jun 16th- Jun 18th, 2023 

There are quite a few of these cozy type cabins on top of mountains that are available to be rented through Recreation.gov. I picked this particular cabin because it was the closest one to town and it looked hecka rad. The only tricky thing about booking these cabins is that you have to be on your a-game to snag the reservation. I booked this cabin in mid-december of 2022 for a reservation time in mid June of 2023 (6 months in advance). 

I also failed the first time getting a reservation because I attempted at 8:01am when it became available at 8am. I succeeded the following week by being on the website as soon as the reservation was available (woohoo!!).

 

These old fire tower lodges are pretty rad so I can see why they are so popular. Shout out to all the homies that made the trip: Caitlyn, Kilian, Luke, Ethan, Megan, Katie, & Eli. An even bigger shoutout to all of the pups that made the trip: Nico, Bohannon, & Pumpkin.


Nico is a pretty swagged out pup with his lil sleeping bag & other adventure gear. He has a cute lil instagram if you’re in want of more Nico content (:

 

There isn’t much of a writeup for this bad boy because it was pretty chill vibes once we got up to the firetower. The views were rad. The people were rad. We made glizzies, mac & chz, backpacking meals, & even melted some snow for water. There was some weather & some pretty dope sun shows & rainbows as a result. It was mega good vibes. 12/10 would reccomend.

Bear Basin

Big Sky, Montana

Elevation Gain: ~2060 ft

Length: 6 mi one way

Difficulty: Medium

Time: ~2-3 hours 

Note(s): 

Visited: Aug 26th- Aug 28th, 2022 / Posted: Apr 22nd, 2023

Growing up my favorite childhood memories were almost all from camping or hiking and they are both something I never grew out of loving. In having a little more free time in my adulting I've been wanting to get into more backpacking because it is the combo of two things that have been my fav ever since I was little. I've done a little backpacking in my day, but it was a hope of mine in moving to Bozeman that I would find more homies that would like to do it with me. Last summer  I finally got to backpack for the first time in Montana with some friends around my birthday. Recently I've been starting to plan some of my summer adventures out and I realized it is probably about time that I wrote a lil post about my first backpacking trip in Big Sky country.

I feel pretty lucky to know a few outdoorsy folks in town that have been here long enough to give suggestions on what to check out. In one of my posts on the accountability page I mention that having a word of mouth source is a great way to find new trails to check out. One of the outdoorsy folks I get a ton of recommendations from is my boss at work. He's hiked pretty much every trail in our area being an avid trail runner that has called Bozeman home for a couple of decades. One area he had recommended to me for backpacking was Bear Basin in Big Sky, Montana. Big Sky is just under an hour away from Bozeman so it seemed like the perfect place to sneak away to on a Friday after work.

The hike into the basin is about 6 miles one way with about 2000 feet elevation gain. The trail seemed relatively flat with some gradual uphill for about halfway and then had a bit more incline as we approached the basin. I thought the trail was hecka gorgeous with the surrounding woods and streams to cross. There were a ton of huckleberries lining the trail which was pretty dope too. The trail ends in this basin that is an incredibly green field surrounded by some beautiful rocky cliffs. 

We did see a bear on our hike in that was definitely taking advantage of the huckleberry bloom and also a huge pile of fresh scat on our hike out. However, the only animals we saw near our campsite was a herd of big horn sheep on some nearby rocks. While we didn't have any trouble at our site, I would highly recommend all adventurers to be bear aware and responsible with their food storage when they are in the area. Our group utilized both bear safe containers and hanging items from a tree. 

There was supposed to be a lil lake in the Basin, but it was quite dried up at the end of August. However, there was still a stream running through the basin so we had great access to water for filtering throughout our stay. One of my homies, Anton, had a pretty cool water filter that utilized gravity instead of manual pumping. 

There are quite a few adventure possibilities from the basin. There are a ton of various alpine lakes just over the ridge as well as an option to hike Gallatin Peak. We hiked up to Summit Lake which was about 2.5 miles one way and ~600 ft elevation gain. We had a bit of a slow morning on Saturday and it being a higher elevation adventure in late August it wasn't unexpected that some stormy weather would roll in. We got caught in a bit of a thunder hail storm so we didn't adventure to any further than Summit Lake, but I have a feeling I'll find myself out this way again because there is a lot more cool stuff to check out.  My boss advised that anyone taking the venture up Gallatin Peak would have a better trail if they hiked down into the Valley where Chilled & Thompson Lake are in rather than scrambling up the ridge from Summit Lake. A very rough estimate of base camp to top of Gallatin would be about 4 miles one way, but it definitely has a ton of elevation gain with the peak being the tallest in the Spanish Peak range at over 11,000 ft. 

It’s exciting to know that more adventures await next time I find myself in this area. I’m thankful for the homies for spending their weekend with me in such a beauty of a place. Shout out to Anton for packing in his paddle board, Reese for bringing Althea (just the sweetest pup), Meg & Eli for their hammock life living, and Alex & Trey for making a day trip in!! Definitely was one of  my favorite adventures of the summer- can’t wait to see what this summer brings.