My Journey

YukonMontanaTannerTrapper · Oct 30, 2024

There are so many things that I am not.....I've mentioned in the past that I'm not an archeologist, and not a geologist.....and I am also not a historian.....

So, much like Buffalo, Montana, I don't know a thing about Utica, Montana either.....

Some blogs are informative in that they'll tell a bit of history of the places that they've visited.....I don't think you'll ever find that here.....the best I have to offer is to suggest a Google search.....

I suspect that we spent a good hour here.....walking with the dogs.....then walking alone.....reading the numerous informative signs that lined the main street that ran it's way south through town.....

My interests.....my loves.....are outside of the towns. It's the places where you'll find the old, weathered buildings.....

And the forests that lead me to the mountains.....

Foy · Oct 30, 2024

Thanks for checking about the rock hammers, but I'm happy to say I still have the last hardrock rock hammer/pick that I earned a $ with before 1984, so I'm good.
Given the typical lag between your days afield and when you post, plus the spectacular cloudless skies in your pics, we may have been in the Little Belts on the same day. Our day was Sunday, Sept 22, the day before our 46th wedding anniversary. I'd bought my wife a ring with Yogo sapphires as an anniversary gift in Bozeman a few days before so we set out from White Sulphur Springs to visit Sapphire Village and Yogo Gulch, those being the only two places on Earth where Yogo sapphires are mined. We had a great time in the Little Belts and will spend more time camping there in July 2025.
You might have noticed lack of flowing water in the South Fork of Judith River if you headed back into the Little Belts from Utica, through Sapphire Village. There's a decent flow further upstream, but the river flows over a wide outcrop band of the good old Madison Limestone as it approaches the outer rim of the Little Belts. There, the extensive karst cave/cavern plumbing system found almose everywhere in the Madison swallows it up as it flows downstream. The good news is that the Madison spits it back out around Sapphire Village. All entirely typical of the Central Montana "Island Ranges", including the Big Snowies, where our paths crossed in 2022 as we visited the Crystal Cascades from the trailhead at Crystal Lake before descending all the way from the Cascades down to the paved road enroute back to the campground. Bold water flow at the Cascades which disappears entirely a mile or so downstream. The remainder of the canyon is as dry as toast.
Bravo, and encore!
Foy

YukonMontanaTannerTrapper · Friday at 7:59 AM

Foy.....we passed through Utica, Montana on October 8. Clear, blue skies have been the norm around here this year. I don't remember it ever being so dry. Last night we finally got our first dusting of snow in the valley. Soon enough we'll be back on the road looking for warmer climes.....

We drove out of Utica, Montana along Pigeye Road.....driving southwest.....now headed back to explore more of the Big Belt Mountains.....

The Judith River follows the meanders of the roadway, or maybe better said, the roadway follows the meanders of the Judith River.....

The variations of the fall colors along the river were absolutely stunning.....

As I was driving down Pigeye Road, along the meanders of the Judith River, I recalled a conversation that I'd had with a fella in the Teton Valley several weeks prior.....

YukonMontanaTannerTrapper · Friday at 8:27 AM

This guy.....he was commenting on the lack of colors in the fall foliage in Montana.....he said that he was leaving soon to view the fall foliage in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan.....cause that's where fall really happens.....

Now, I'd say that it's true that everything is yellow (& green of course) in the Teton Valley during the fall.....that'd be difficult to debate otherwise. But here I wondered.....had this guy ever wandered along the roads that meander along the meanders of the Judith River in the fall.....

I suspect not.....we stopped often along this stretch of road.....not just for the exercise and not to just stretch the legs.....I wanted to take in the colors.....to remember this experience.....this beauty.....

It was all too soon that we left those wonderful fall colors along the Judith River behind.....and we drove back into the Little Belt Mountains and the Lewis & Clark National Forest.....

Once again we were teased with the thoughts of interacting with a bear.....

The scenery changed drastically as we slowly.....began to gain elevation.....

The South Fork of the Judith River now became a part of our landscape.....not quite as stunning as what we had viewed earlier in the day.....

the deputy · Monday at 2:08 AM

Funny, just had a similar discussion with my wife yesterday, UP vs Alaska. Was trying to convince her to go west, even offering to buy a Sprinter van if that's what it took to travel with the dogs. Anyhow. She loves the UP, and rightly so, and me too...being my home state and having an inherent pride or patriotism to it. But, during our discussion, told her...on a scale of 1 to 10...the UP is a 2, maybe a 4/5 in the fall, or right along the Pictured Rocks coastline, or when you factoring in that you can hike without the notion of being eaten or tore to smithereens by a grizzly

...but Alaska is a 10.

YukonMontanaTannerTrapper · Monday at 6:51 AM

the deputy.....it's all good.....so much good.....and so little time.....

Now the road took us to an entirely different landscape.....not only different from what we'd seen from our earlier travels along the Judith River.....but also different from the northern parts of the Little Belt Mountains.....

The river had cut its way through cliffs bands maybe several hundred feet in height.....and the road followed through those same openings through the cliff bands.....it was beautiful.....all that stone.....

The stone here appeared to be very porous.....I constantly thought that I saw caves in those walls.....but I'm not for certain of that. I did see one significant arch way up along a mountain ridge.....

We didn't make any stops on this portion of the road until we came to a highpoint in the road where I spotted this signpost that peaked my interest.....

Once again I found myself amazed that people came here.....long ago.....truly in the middle of nowhere.....to live their lives.....

It just so happened that there was a trailhead here.....so off we went......to see what we could see.....

YukonMontanaTannerTrapper · Monday at 9:37 AM

Further down the road we encountered an area that had been developed with homes.....

The homes appeared to be large estate type properties.....absolutely stunning estates I thought.....and a bit further on.....as we climbed higher.....

.....we passed by an airstrip.....

And then there was nothing.....but a road and a forest.....

At a "Y" in the road, we took a right, now looking for a suitable spot to spend the night.....

The road passed through a dense pine forest.....much like what we saw in the northern parts of the Little Belt Mountains.....

.....and it became steeper and steeper.....

Eventually the road broke out of the dense pine forest and we passed a small log cabin.....as we continued to look for that perfect spot to spend a night or two in the Little Belt Mountains.....

We continued on.....climbing higher and higher.....and the higher we climbed, the more excited I became.....I was liking this a lot.....

Foy · Monday at 12:52 PM

Sweet!
From the "Y" where you'd gone straight, we'd come in from the left. We also stopped and walked around at the picnic table beneath the huge lodgepole pine at or near the Russell Point sign.
Great country, those Little Belts!
Foy

YukonMontanaTannerTrapper · 2024-11-06T07:40:45-0800

Foy.....picnic table ?

We found our Shangri-La once we reached the highest point in the road.....this place turned out to be our little heaven in the Little Belt Mountains.....

The fact that nobody comes here.....well, initially that was what most appealed to me. But soon enough.....it became something so much greater than that. As the evening approached.....and our stomachs were filled.....we set out to explore the highlands of the Little Belt Mountains.....

There was this calmness about here.....a certain feeling of serenity.....there was definitely something special about this place.....

So we walked, and we walked, and we walked some more.....and at some point in our walks, I decided that I wanted time alone here. The poor dogs.....probably hated me for this.....but they were left to protect the camper.....while I then explored alone.....

Everyone knows that I love my dogs immensely.....but when you're truly alone.....no distractions.....that's when you can allow yourself to wander into the other world (so to speak). Even the smallest of things.....the most insignificant things.....can be a truly amazing discovery. Such as the tree stumps shown here.....so simple yet so beautiful.....not a single one alike.....