Mountains
Southwest Montana is home to a massive collection of mountain peaks and ranges, sometimes rising over 12,000 feet. The ranges that make up southwest Montana do more than name the state – they define it.
Tobacco Roots
The full moon arched above us in the cold night sky, brightening the surrounding hillsides. As we peered into the shelter, shadows danced through the windows and lively chatter leaked out into the frozen landscape beyond the fabric walls of the yurt. Read more >>
For the past several years, my mother and I have been seeking out new places and spectacular Montana views that even an 89-year-old with limited mobility can enjoy, thanks to my trusty Subaru. Recently, our friend Chuck organized a “codger tour” for us to a corner of Madison County. Read more >>
It’s not hard to understand why most people don't take ski-camping trips in the winter. It can be uncomfortable: alternately sweating and freezing, then more freezing. It takes some skill, and nature discriminates against the unprepared. Read more >>Crazies
With soaring peaks that remain snow-capped much of the year, the Crazy Mountains have drawn me like a moth to flame since I arrived in southwest Montana six years ago. So when my friend Bob said he’d like to do a ski trip in the Crazies, I jumped on board. Read more >>
The Crazy Mountains run north to south through Montana in a seemingly perfect angular form, like the bottom of a carnivore’s jaw. And though highways run parallel to the range on two sides, no road traverses them. Read more >>Gallatin Range
The Gallatin Range is home to large numbers of endangered species and ancient petrified forests. Read more >>
The second-highest point in the Spanish Peaks is neither named nor assigned an elevation on any National Forest or USGS map. Read more >>
Winter’s just around the corner, and it’s a given that dedicated skiers in southwest Montana will hunt down a few turns before the season gets started. Read more >>
The Porcupine Creek Trail begins near the Gallatin River and climbs nine miles up to its headwaters in Onion Basin at the Gallatin-Yellowstone Divide. En route, the trail gains more than 3,000 feet to the basin and Gallatin Crest Trail along the ridge. Read more >>
After a successful ascent of Mount Blackmore in 1872, members of the Hayden Survey were very intrigued by the craggy gorge at the head of Middle Canyon, which is today’s Hyalite Canyon. Geologist Albert C. Peale, best known for his exhaustive study of Yellowstone geothermal features, wrote: Read more >>Bridgers
Every so often, a blue light flashes on top of the Baxter Hotel, alerting anyone within view of the tallest building in Bozeman that snow is falling at Bridger Bowl. Read more >>
Super Bowl Sunday of 2011 was an unpredicted snow day, and I woke up to a ringing cell phone. It was a close friend looking for a ski partner. Before fully awakening, I’d left the house and was heading toward the northern Bridgers. Read more >>Winter’s just around the corner, and it’s a given that dedicated skiers in southwest Montana will hunt down a few turns before the season gets started. Read more >>
The forest, once too thick to ski through, had thinned and opened itself up, granting us the opportunity to explore its altered terrain. Standing on top of the ridgeline, we look down at the burn, toward the ruins and all of the subsequent hillsides that fell victim to the fire. Read more >>Beartooths
Located just northeast of the Yellowstone National Park in south central Montana and parts of northwest Wyoming, the massive Beartooth Range is home to Granite Peak, Montana's highest point, and sits upon the highest true elevation plateau in the US. Read more >>
On a Friday morning in early February, 1971, George Claggett called up from Bozeman, just over the hill from where I lived in Ennis, to inform me that we were getting too fat from sitting behind our desks all winter and it was time to go on a trip. Read more >>
Like the fabled mountain man Jim Bridger once quipped, “I can’t ever remember being lost, but I do recall being considerably confused for a few days.” Read more >>
The Beartooth Pass typically opens in late May, after sufficient melt-off for plows to clear the snow-laden Beartooth Highway (U.S. Highway 212). Read more >>
A good map is a beautiful thing. You spread it out on the table, friends gather around, and together you marvel at the vast terrain that will soon host your next adventure. Read more >>Absarokas
The Absaroka Range makes up the eastern boundary of the Yellowstone National Park, and was named after the Indian tribe of the same name. Read more >>
Montana is graced with jaw-dropping mountains aplenty. But you can’t have mountains without valleys—and Montana’s valleys are as stunning as they come. The Big Hole, the Ruby, the Flathead, the Centennial… but only one is called Paradise. Read more >>
It’s springtime in southwest Montana, but for those willing to work for it, ski season isn’t even close to finished. We’ve handpicked a few of our favorite spring ski locations so that you to can enjoy what’s left from a long winter. Read more >>It’s easy to extol the virtues of Bozeman’s unequivocally badass back yard—but don’t rave too loudly, lest ye drown out the sweet, seductive song of our wind-scoured neighbor 22 miles to the east. Read more >>When I first saw it, I became haunted by this dog-toothed rock, jutting up on the west side of the Mount Cowan massif in Montana’s Absaroka Range. It was a remnant of the ice ages, its steep walls pounded by wind, rain, hail, sun, and ice over eons of time. Read more >>Bangtails
Ask about twelve-hour workdays stacked up, sometimes in blistering hot or numbingly frigid weather, continuous fatigue, or aches in the body, and Terry Johnson will still insist he has the best job in the world. Read more >>Madison Range
Winter’s just around the corner, and it’s a given that dedicated skiers in southwest Montana will hunt down a few turns before the season gets started. Read more >>
With its blocky shape, truncated summit, and unique color, Sphinx Mountain has drawn more people climbers to its summit than any other major peak in the Madison Range. Read more >>
“Where ya headed?” I asked. He turned, occupied with the task of saddling his horse, and said simply, “up-valley.” “Well,” I said, “have a good ride.” Read more >>
Select Peaks
Open this book and embark on a trail toward one of Greater Yellowstone's most spectacular peaks. This book acquaints the uninitiated and dazzles the veteran with a treatise on mountain climbing and skiing in one of Earth's most unique and spectacular regions.
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