montana

I know most of us don't really want to relive the debacle that was 2020, but this was actually a highlight of an otherwise terrible year. As spring turned to summer and it became that my planned PCT hike wasn't happening, I made other plans. Those plans involved long-distance hiking, but in a...

This is by far my favorite trail in the park. I had this trail for years on my radar and finally made it happen. The views on top of Sky Rim are superb and the entire 20-miles hike with roughly 5,000 feet of elevation gain going along the high ridges of Sky Rim offered an experience I haven't...

We started on this route on a Monday and so we were not expecting to see anyone.... That all changed at the trailhead when we saw a couple campers and a day hiker. That's just the way it has been this year. Jessie from the YouTube Channel HYOY-WU invited me on this trip through the Cabinet...

My daughter and I spent six days in the Beartooths in early August hiking from Island Lake cross country, eventually intersecting the Beaten Path, which we followed North as far as Impasse Falls, then back out the Path to the Clarks Fork trailhead. Flew into Billings on Wednesday late...

In mid-August of this year, I made a trip to the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana to hike El Capitan. I set aside 8 days for this hike and planned to go slow and enjoy the scenery. I made it to Little Rock Creek Lake the first night and set up camp there. The next morning I set...

With @Jeffrey Chandler going off to college and the uncertainty of his future, and the affect this transition will have on my life, we have been looking at this trip as possibly being the last arrow in the quiver. We wanted to make it a GRAND adventure. Our preliminary plans were so exhausting...

Six Days. 65+ miles. Two mountain passes. Two bears in camp. Lots of weather. Lots of solitude. Some pain. Some triumph. We beat the mosquitoes and the crowds at the cost of more snow. My brother Eric and I got to create new friendships with @Mountain Wanderer and @Joey along this...

My wife and I have made it an annual tradition to take an early trip to Yellowstone in May. This year we were planning to spend 2 or 3 nights up Slough Creek with @Joey if we could. However, with the weather forecast calling for a winter storm for the northern part of the park from the...

This report is from a few weeks ago, but I am just now getting a chance to put all the photos together. A friend of mine had never been to the Highland Mountain lookout, so we've been talking about taking a trip up there for a while now. In the summer you can drive to within 1.5 miles of the...

This is my first trip report here, hope you enjoy. Last week a friend sent me a message asking if I could get out for a hike this weekend. We had been trying to hook up for a while, but family and work obligations kept getting in the way. As luck would have it, we were both free Sunday, so we...

@Artemus and his wife Becky graciously invited my family to join them on their backpacking trip across the Gallatin Range in the northwest quadrant of Yellowstone National Park. The trip would include summiting Electric Peak and staying at Sportsman Lake. While my wife was unable to join in, my...

August 4th 2018 Despite the Chandler Family Glacier Trip being a bi-annual affair for a few years now, its also been those few years that I have been working as a seasonal ranger during the summer. I was pretty psyched to finally get the chance to go back. So far it seems to be the one perk...

For the third year in a row, we did a librarian hike. We're down to two of us, but we still went for our three day hike. This year Nancy wanted to get back to a spot where she had hiked with her son, Becker Lake, so off we went. The trailhead is at Island Lake, on the Beartooth Highway. We...

Hopefully you guys don't mind me digging back in the archives a bit. I want to get some of my trips posted so you guys know me better. My son and I did a packrafting trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness with a friend of ours back in 2014. Our route was a 115 mile loop with about 65 miles hiking...

August 5, 2017 The area immediately to the NW of West Yellowstone has been special to my family for a few generations now. This report is from one of their favorite spots up there. @Jessica and I were visiting my grandparents at their cabin near Cameron, and we went on this 8-mile hike with...

[Note - this post was originally written for my blog, in which I wax the purple at great length, boring everybody except my family. Thus the vast amount of background, which may be unnecessary for this audience. Also they're cell phone pictures and I'm no photographer. But figured I'd post a...

On this 3 day backpacking trip into the SBW, me and my girlfriend Erin, hiked up the infamous Big Creek to Big Lake on March 12- 15. A wonderous 18 mile round trip, this trail takes you up another one of the majestic and rugged Bitterroot Canyons of the Montana side of the wilderness. This...

The Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness is in Idaho and Montana. Its an extremely diverse wilderness. High rugged mountains on the east side where the border of the 2 states sits on the crest of the mighty Bitterroot Mountains. This trip took place in one of the 23 deep glaciar carved canyons on the...

This is the Glacier trip I did last summer with Joey, Dave and Matt. Joey does such an amazing job editing and publishing these videos. They're not just highlights, but the entire adventure. While I realize most people won't spend an hour to watch this in its entirety, you have to acknowledge...

Finally posting a very long overdue trip report from a 6-day hike in the Beartooths in August. I've put off making any sort of trip report for this one because it just wasn't a very enjoyable trip for me overall. The route itself was OK, save for one part which about did me in, and that part...