Hyalite Weekend

Terra and I decided that it was time to head to Hyalite Canyon to camp for the weekend.  Despite getting a late start, getting a flat tire at midnight one mile fromt he trailhead and meeting a tripped out travller we found a place to camp and spent saturday hiking to Hyalite Lake and then onto Hyalite Peak we made it all the way back to the car before dark

     We left town late.  It was getting dark as I gassed up the truck at the Town Pump on West Main in Bozeman.  I noticed I had a tire that was running pretty low, we pulled up to the compressed air.  I struggled a lot to get the tire to accept any air at all; this should have set off more of a red flag in my mind than it did.  I finally got air flowing into the tire and after checking it with my new air gauge that I had, I somehow had the confidence to drive into the mountains after dark.

     We drove up into the canyon and painstakingly checked both the major campgrounds and of course they where both full on a Friday night.  We continued to drive up the canyon looking for dispersed campsites.  By the time we passed the reservoir, night had fallen; by the time we were within a mile of the trailhead, my tire went flat.

This was my third time up to Hyalite lake. It was my first time not running the trail so it was nice to have some time to relax and check things out, it sure is cool up there.

Hiking to the lake itself is about five miles; we had already put in a significant uphill effort, we decided to hike to the top of Hyalite Peak anyway, about two more miles.  Hyalite Peak is the pyramid shaped mountain directly behind us in this photo.

Terra took some awesome panoramic photos on this trip and I feel like they add a lot to the blog, I need to get some lessons from her.  Hyalite Peak is visible in the middle of this shot.  Thanks Terra!

Always bring a hiking buddy!

Here you can see where the trail winds up past the tree line, it's always surreal hiking up into the alpine zones!

The mushroom presence was heavy along the entire hike. We saw many varieties of fungus.  I don't know anything about mushrooms, I only know when they are pretty, so I took some pictures.

 

Hyalite Lake is surrounded by a giant horseshoe of mountain peaks and crumbling volcanic walls.

Shrooms!

How do such dainty plants eke out an existence in such harsh environment?

 

The summit register was full of all sorts of oddities

This was not our first summit ever, but we did make it.

When did the Forest Service decide to start leaving summit registers? I imagine that there

We hiked a long way!  The lake is down and to the right and the parking lot is somewhere near the mouth of the canyon.

Mountain climbing is hard work, it is important to take breaks.

Below you can see the saddle where hikers start their final ascent to the top of Hyalite Peak.

These boots were made for yoga...

Mandatory summit selfie.

...and that's what they'll do.

Time to hike back out of the canyon.

We hiked out as the light was just starting to fade in the canyon and drove off to find a good spot to camp.

On the way home, after spending the night up Lead Mine rd, we stopped by crocodile rock for a quick bouldering session.

Someone did an awesome job cleaning out under this one.

I still opted for a standing start, this thing is steep!

I am Sam Milkovich and I approve this message.

Terra also approves.

The butterfly concurs.