Natural Bridge Falls

This afternoon, we drove to the Natural Bridge Falls off of the Main Boulder Road in Gallatin National Forest. We walked around both sides of the river, but did not do all the trails. Our route was about 1 mile round trip with 90 ft of loss/gain.

View upstream from the bridge over Boulder River

View downstream from the bridge over Boulder River, looking to where the river drops into a tunnel through the rocks.

zoom of where the Boulder River drops into the tunnel

View of the falls coming out of the tunnel

After the tunnel the river heads through rock cliffs,

and disappeared from our view under a rocky ledge.

We returned across the bridge and visited a few viewpoints on the other side of the river. Here looking down where the river drops into the tunnel.

View upstream from this viewpoint

At another viewpoint looking down where the river enters the tunnel,

and another view upstream from this viewpoint.

information sign

 

Placer Basin Trail to Saddle

We drove down the Main Boulder Road, south of Big Timber Montana to hike 2 miles up the Placer Basin Trail and back for a 4 mile round trip, 1000 ft gain hike. We didn't see any other hikers on this trail today. From the parking area, it is a short walk to the bridge over the Boulder River.

View downstream from the bridge over the Boulder River

View upstream from the bridge over the Boulder River 

About 0.8 miles from the trailhead, the trail enters the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness.

Another 0.25 miles or so there is a boot path to this overlook of the Boulder River, before the switchbacks going up the trail.

We saw a grouse in one of the switchbacks and it flew up into a nearby tree.

Views across the Boulder River as we gain elevation

zoom of a snowy peak to the southwest

View up to the saddle where we would turn around

Views from the saddle

Hawley Mountain

zoom of a snowy peak behind Hawley Mountain

We saw several caterpillars today, one under a leaf,

one in the middle of the trail,

and one  climbing a stem.

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

 

  

 

 

 

Langohr Creek Trail

 Our second hike was the Langohr Creek Trail in the Gallatin National Forest, a very short (0.3 miles) paved trail that was built to be handicap accessible.
The trail begins with a bridge across Langohr Creek.










The trail then does a short loop before returning to the bridge.

We saw 3 handicap accessible fishing spots along the creek.

There were only a few flowers in bloom along this trail today:

Crescent Lake Loop Hike

Today, we were able to do two short hikes in the morning and one in the afternoon near Bozeman. The first hike was to Crescent Lake, we choose to do the 3 mile loop hike that begins at the north end of Hyalite Reservoir.

We started on the upper part of the loop heading toward Crescent Lake. There were a few downed trees and a couple of snow patches on the trail.

 This is a pretty little lake

 We then walked through some meadows filled with glacier lilies as we took the lower trail along Hyalite Reservoir on the hike back.

















Most of the trail was in the woods, but we did get some nice views of the reservoir.












We saw this icy covered pond near the end of the trail.