Lake Louise, FitzPatrick Wilderness

We drove to the end of Trail Lake Road in the Shoshone National Forest near Dubois Wyoming to hike up to Lake Louise in the Fitzpatrick Wilderness, a 5 mile round trip hike with 1,000 ft of overall gain. This is a beautiful trail to a gorgeous lake, we enjoyed the views and the fall colors.

Viewsfrom the parking area looking towards where the trail will go.

Beginning of the trail: 

Another view of where the trail will go

We enjoyed the colorful mountains along the trail.

The trail soon enters the Fitzpatrick Wilderness.

The trail goes from steep ups, to level, to down and up and level and repeat many times.

The fall colors added accents of beauty along the way.

One of the steep up sections of the trail.

More fall colors as we continue up the trail:

Torrey Creek flowing downhill near the lake outlet

Mountain views as we continue up near the lake.

First view of Lake Louise

A little further along the trail:

We found a nice spot to sit and eat our lunch while enjoying the view.

By the lake shore

Near the outlet of the lake

Views as we hiked back down the trail:

Close to the end of the trail, we went a very short ways along the Glacier Trail to this bridge over Torrey Creek. 

From the bridge looking upstream at the waterfall

From the bridge looking downstream 

some of the wildflowers and fall color we saw along the trail today:

 

 

Basin Lakes

We drove down the West Fork Road near Red Lodge Montana to hike up to Basin Lakes in the Custer Gallatin National Forest, 8 miles round trip with 2,100 ft of gain. We saw 5 other hikers when we were coming back down the trail.

There are several cascades along the creek next to the trail.

Most of this trail is in the forest, but there is an open area near the beginning of the trail.

Another cascade where a low bridge crosses the creek further up the trail.

Lower Basin Lake

A small pond between the two Basin Lakes

Our first view of Upper Basin Lake

wide angle view of Upper Basin Lake

Another view at Upper Basin Lake

An old cabin near the trail, we didn't see the boot track to the cabin until we were hiking back down the trail.

With the sun higher in the sky (and less shadows) on our hike down, I was able to get photos of the surrounding mountains when we returned down the trail.

some of the fall color, wildflowers and fungi seen along the trail today: