Bear Basin Hike

Off the North Fork trailhead in Big Sky lies Bear Basin, a hike that connects other hikes in Gallatin Canyon to Big Sky. I had been interested in hiking across the canyon through the mountains since I came out here, and Bear Basin looked to be the connection. I admit though, yesterdays aim was Wilson Peak, and not Bear Basin, I just went the wrong way and, well, kept going....Above: The Sphinx in the distance to the south.

This is coming into Bear Basin. I had vague ideas of distance coming into there, but the entire time I was underestimating how far I'd gone. This is close to 10 miles in I would say now in hindsight, when I first started coming into the Basin, with cliffs surrounding me and open grassy meadows. The Basin itself (which i contemplated swimming in) wasn't even worth going much closer to- very small....

I stopped and took a photo of this chute because I marvelled at riding it in the late winter when it had more snow on it.

These are the backsides of the spanish peaks, to be somewhat vague about it since i really am not exactly sure which peaks were which names. I knew i was behind Beehive, and somewhat close to Summit Lake, but how close I couldnt tell while up there. At this point I was so intrigued at where I was and what was around that I almost kept going. It's a good thing I turned back at this point because at it was I got back to my car around 7:30pm.

Click on the above image and you should be able to discern ski tracks. Snow has an odd way of recording history. In no way were these ski tracks recent, but they were from this season at some point- probably late season and we never got additional snow to fill them in. We kept receiving such late snow falls this year that someone must've gone up there fairly recently to ski. I remember thinking about the idea of having all my snowboard gear with me and laughing at getting 3 turns at this time of year, basically becoming the obigatory bar story about how gnar i get. No, im not carrying my stuff back up there for 3 turns, no sir.

There it is, Bear Basin from the top of the ridge. To look that far and not see a soul in either direction is pretty sweet, but then you just start looking for mountain lions harder. I listened to my ipod most of the hike, noises can mess with you when solo out in the wilderness.