I wasn't going to do a write up for this trip, but it was so much fun I decided to share how nice this area was. I will try (and probably fail) to keep this somewhat short. I used to carry a DSLR around with me, and I decided that I missed too much of the trip by taking too much time worrying about taking pictures instead of enjoying everything. I've since sold that camera and I only carry around a small Panasonic LX100. I now don't have pictures of lots of things that I wish I had pictures of, but I saw them with my own eyes instead of via a viewfinder.
The family (wife, son (7), daughter (4)) and I had the week off for the 4th of July so we decided to go to a place I found pictures of and have wanted to go to ever since; Goose Lake outside of Cooke City, MT. This little town on the southern border of MT is only accessible through Wyoming, and we got there by driving through Yellowstone.
Well, that is the short story. I guess I should give a little details on how we got to Yellowstone also, since it could save someone from making the same mistake as I did.
We figured that Goose Lake wouldn't probably be worth a trip by its self (I was wrong about that, we could have easily stayed in that area for a week), and with an entire week, we thought doing two parts of the Idaho Backcountry Discover Route on the way would be a good idea. We could join it off of I-90 and follow it across Lolo Pass. This proved to not be my best idea ever.
We started mid morning on Friday and made it to Cour d'alane or however you spell that. Camped on some place that couldn't have been that interesting since I forgot to get a picture of it.
Next day we got onto the route and did a fair amount of driving. We got to a spot where one of those little side-by-side 4 wheeler things stopped us and said we wouldn't make it any farther than 1/4 mile due to a tree down. Ha! We got to the tree, and pulled it out of the road. We started seeing more and more trees; we kept pulling and winching them clear of the road. We dug a few snow drifts and kept making progress. A mile or so later, another one of those 4 wheeler things came by and said that it gets waaaaay worse for the next few miles, and don't even think about attempting it without a chainsaw. We were very tempted to keep going since we were making progress, but we knew that it would only take 1 tree that we couldn't winch or pull to stop us. Not to mention the snow drifts were taking a while to make passable for our heavy 120 series pulling a trailer. We turned around and I still question if we really needed to. Anyways, we found another route through and started making our way forwards. We stopped for the night at a nice little look out area.
P1010732 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010768 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010789 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
The next day, still trying to find our way around that section and onto the next, we ended up driving through a stream with steep sides that was right in the middle of a camp spot occupied by some Jeeps that found the Lexus fording a stream with a trailer quite entertaining. On the other side, we discovered that we were not where we thought we were since the road signs didn't match the map. Dammit. Back through the stream, this time with all eyes and cell phone cameras watching. A locker would have been really nice there, and I still had to get the trailer at a very uncomfortable angle to get over a large rock on the climb out. I wish I had thought to have them send me a video of that stream...
The campers helped us find where we were, and pointed us in the right direction (we were on a road that wasn't on our Benchmark map). We found a nice place to spend the night with a nice sunset again:
P1010828 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
Next day, we drive out to the nearest "town" that only has one gas pump (regular only) to air up, refuel, and make our way to start the second section we had planned. We drove for a while and made it to another "town" that was oddly the same as the last one. You could tell they don't see people from outside their town very often at all.
Back on the trail of normal FS roads. We start noticing a lot of trees have been cut out of the way. Lots of them. Lots and lots of them. There really must have been a crazy wind storm here. Then, we start noticing the trees aren't cut as wide, and we start having to drive over some of them. Then we come to the $h!tstorm of tree falling down apocalypses. About 50 yards with 100+ trees down. Welp, that ends that... but wait... we hear a chainsaw... After a few minutes, we see a guy on a motorcycle going a few feet, cutting a tree, then going a few more feet and cutting another few trees. We talk to him and he said it looks like that for 3+ miles and it took him all day to get that far. We had no chance. It would take us a week even if we had a chainsaw. We turn around again with our tail between our legs and go back to the main road that goes over the pass (getting lost for about a half hour on FS roads where the map was wrong and the GPS was confusing us). At the top of Lolo Pass, we found a FS road and a nice little campground for the 4th of July night. No fireworks, but we had some packets that you put in the fire and it makes colors. Same physics as the fireworks, but less boom and less fire hazard. Well, less hazard of an uncontrolled fire at least.
P1010842 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010872 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
With our idea of doing the Idaho Backcountry Discover Route a bust (lesson=bring a chainsaw), we decide to go onto Montana and get as close to Cooke City as we can. On our way towards the Yellowstone entry, I hear a noise and my wife speaks up about it too. A minute or two of walking around the rig scratching my head, I find that if I grab my trailer tires, I can get them to wiggle more than they should be able to. Rats! Back to the closest city to get grease and bearings, then off to find a place to camp for the night.
I didn't get any pictures of that camp; it was just a hiking trailhead. In the morning, I got out the tools and highlift, and repacked the trailer bearings. I can't believe I hadn't remembered to do that yet this year. With only a few hours lost, we make our way into Yellowstone and up to Cooke City. The Benchmark Maps have none of these roads in them, so I had downloaded the maps to my tablet. The GPS on my tablet puts a mark on the map where we are, but I'm cautious about relying on that since it can be off. For this trip, it was right on the money, and that was nice. It is raining by now, and we start driving up and up and up. Even in the rain, this place is amazing! We decided to take a side road to check it out. We know we aren't going to Goose Lake tonight, so we do need to find a "basecamp" since taking the trailer to the lake isn't plan A.
We find a nice pond near a good view and decide to make it home for the next few nights. We manage to get up our awnings (two Foxwings) and make dinner. Thunder isn't far away, and we are very happy for the awnings! By the end of dinner, the rain has stopped and we can explore.
It is a nice spot, even in the rain:
P1010979 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
But nicer once it stops:
P1010946 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010953 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
I believe this is my favorite picture of the trip:
P1010920 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
A good view of our set-up. Home sweet home; waterfront property at 10,000' without the taxes!
P1010950 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
You go to all this trouble to get the kids into the middle of nowhere at this nice pond front camping spot, and they want to play in a puddle in the road.
P1010932 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
The night wasn't bad, except it was ball-disappearingly cold. When I got up, all that rain that fell was now frozen. I had to get that all ice off the awnings and tent. There was a lot of ice, and it was heavy.
Breakfast, explore a little more, and off to try to find some lakes leaving the trailer at camp. As much as I love that trailer, it sure is nice to drive without it offroad. Speeds are much better and you have an entire axle you don't have to worry about anymore. For this trail, it was good we didn't bring it as there were some tricky parts that I'm not sure I could have got the trailer through. The drive was amazing though. Every lake was more impressive than the last:
P1020021 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020023 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020025 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
Above my favorite lake, Star Lake, is a hill that had a line that I wish I had a locker for. Luckily, there was an easier route to the left that takes you around it. It looked just as established as the other, so I didn't feel bad taking it. Along this route, there are a lot of obvious go-arounds that are damaging the area next to the trail. I always try to determine what the main road is, and only take that one. I don't want to be part of the problem.
I didn't get pictures of the hard part of the trail, but here is the hill from the bottom, and then looking down from above. You can kind of tell that there are two routes; I'm on the easier of the two.
P1020027 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020030 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
The end of the road doesn't take you to Goose Lake, it takes you to about 1/4 mile from the lake. We decided that it looked like the best way to walk up was on the other side of a stream, so we parked over there and walked up.
P1020039 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020040 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
It is worth parking and walking up to take a look at Goose Lake. We decided to walk around the lake, but it is much bigger than it looks and it took us a few hours (with a 4 year old and a 7 year old who was very mad he didn't have his boots). There is an abandoned mining site at the far end of the lake also.
Coming up to the lake:
P1020043 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020044 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
The far end of the lake:
P1020065 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
Looking down on Goose Lake:
P1020059 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
Looking down on Upper Goose Lake:
P1020053 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
We did end up having to cross the stream twice, so we removed shoes and socks and walked across. To do it again, we would have parked on the trail side of the stream and walked up on that side.
We made it back to camp, and did some more exploring after dinner. There are abandoned buildings and mine equipment everywhere up here. We had fun exploring around:
P1020087 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
The next morning, we packed up and started the drive back home. It was a great trip, despite being skunked by downed trees in Idaho. We will for sure be back to the area above Cooke City. That area is a new favorite!
The family (wife, son (7), daughter (4)) and I had the week off for the 4th of July so we decided to go to a place I found pictures of and have wanted to go to ever since; Goose Lake outside of Cooke City, MT. This little town on the southern border of MT is only accessible through Wyoming, and we got there by driving through Yellowstone.
Well, that is the short story. I guess I should give a little details on how we got to Yellowstone also, since it could save someone from making the same mistake as I did.
We figured that Goose Lake wouldn't probably be worth a trip by its self (I was wrong about that, we could have easily stayed in that area for a week), and with an entire week, we thought doing two parts of the Idaho Backcountry Discover Route on the way would be a good idea. We could join it off of I-90 and follow it across Lolo Pass. This proved to not be my best idea ever.
We started mid morning on Friday and made it to Cour d'alane or however you spell that. Camped on some place that couldn't have been that interesting since I forgot to get a picture of it.
Next day we got onto the route and did a fair amount of driving. We got to a spot where one of those little side-by-side 4 wheeler things stopped us and said we wouldn't make it any farther than 1/4 mile due to a tree down. Ha! We got to the tree, and pulled it out of the road. We started seeing more and more trees; we kept pulling and winching them clear of the road. We dug a few snow drifts and kept making progress. A mile or so later, another one of those 4 wheeler things came by and said that it gets waaaaay worse for the next few miles, and don't even think about attempting it without a chainsaw. We were very tempted to keep going since we were making progress, but we knew that it would only take 1 tree that we couldn't winch or pull to stop us. Not to mention the snow drifts were taking a while to make passable for our heavy 120 series pulling a trailer. We turned around and I still question if we really needed to. Anyways, we found another route through and started making our way forwards. We stopped for the night at a nice little look out area.
P1010732 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010768 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010789 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrThe next day, still trying to find our way around that section and onto the next, we ended up driving through a stream with steep sides that was right in the middle of a camp spot occupied by some Jeeps that found the Lexus fording a stream with a trailer quite entertaining. On the other side, we discovered that we were not where we thought we were since the road signs didn't match the map. Dammit. Back through the stream, this time with all eyes and cell phone cameras watching. A locker would have been really nice there, and I still had to get the trailer at a very uncomfortable angle to get over a large rock on the climb out. I wish I had thought to have them send me a video of that stream...
The campers helped us find where we were, and pointed us in the right direction (we were on a road that wasn't on our Benchmark map). We found a nice place to spend the night with a nice sunset again:
P1010828 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrNext day, we drive out to the nearest "town" that only has one gas pump (regular only) to air up, refuel, and make our way to start the second section we had planned. We drove for a while and made it to another "town" that was oddly the same as the last one. You could tell they don't see people from outside their town very often at all.
Back on the trail of normal FS roads. We start noticing a lot of trees have been cut out of the way. Lots of them. Lots and lots of them. There really must have been a crazy wind storm here. Then, we start noticing the trees aren't cut as wide, and we start having to drive over some of them. Then we come to the $h!tstorm of tree falling down apocalypses. About 50 yards with 100+ trees down. Welp, that ends that... but wait... we hear a chainsaw... After a few minutes, we see a guy on a motorcycle going a few feet, cutting a tree, then going a few more feet and cutting another few trees. We talk to him and he said it looks like that for 3+ miles and it took him all day to get that far. We had no chance. It would take us a week even if we had a chainsaw. We turn around again with our tail between our legs and go back to the main road that goes over the pass (getting lost for about a half hour on FS roads where the map was wrong and the GPS was confusing us). At the top of Lolo Pass, we found a FS road and a nice little campground for the 4th of July night. No fireworks, but we had some packets that you put in the fire and it makes colors. Same physics as the fireworks, but less boom and less fire hazard. Well, less hazard of an uncontrolled fire at least.
P1010842 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010872 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrWith our idea of doing the Idaho Backcountry Discover Route a bust (lesson=bring a chainsaw), we decide to go onto Montana and get as close to Cooke City as we can. On our way towards the Yellowstone entry, I hear a noise and my wife speaks up about it too. A minute or two of walking around the rig scratching my head, I find that if I grab my trailer tires, I can get them to wiggle more than they should be able to. Rats! Back to the closest city to get grease and bearings, then off to find a place to camp for the night.
I didn't get any pictures of that camp; it was just a hiking trailhead. In the morning, I got out the tools and highlift, and repacked the trailer bearings. I can't believe I hadn't remembered to do that yet this year. With only a few hours lost, we make our way into Yellowstone and up to Cooke City. The Benchmark Maps have none of these roads in them, so I had downloaded the maps to my tablet. The GPS on my tablet puts a mark on the map where we are, but I'm cautious about relying on that since it can be off. For this trip, it was right on the money, and that was nice. It is raining by now, and we start driving up and up and up. Even in the rain, this place is amazing! We decided to take a side road to check it out. We know we aren't going to Goose Lake tonight, so we do need to find a "basecamp" since taking the trailer to the lake isn't plan A.
We find a nice pond near a good view and decide to make it home for the next few nights. We manage to get up our awnings (two Foxwings) and make dinner. Thunder isn't far away, and we are very happy for the awnings! By the end of dinner, the rain has stopped and we can explore.
It is a nice spot, even in the rain:
P1010979 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrBut nicer once it stops:
P1010946 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1010953 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrI believe this is my favorite picture of the trip:
P1010920 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrA good view of our set-up. Home sweet home; waterfront property at 10,000' without the taxes!
P1010950 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrYou go to all this trouble to get the kids into the middle of nowhere at this nice pond front camping spot, and they want to play in a puddle in the road.
P1010932 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrThe night wasn't bad, except it was ball-disappearingly cold. When I got up, all that rain that fell was now frozen. I had to get that all ice off the awnings and tent. There was a lot of ice, and it was heavy.
Breakfast, explore a little more, and off to try to find some lakes leaving the trailer at camp. As much as I love that trailer, it sure is nice to drive without it offroad. Speeds are much better and you have an entire axle you don't have to worry about anymore. For this trail, it was good we didn't bring it as there were some tricky parts that I'm not sure I could have got the trailer through. The drive was amazing though. Every lake was more impressive than the last:
P1020021 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020023 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020025 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrAbove my favorite lake, Star Lake, is a hill that had a line that I wish I had a locker for. Luckily, there was an easier route to the left that takes you around it. It looked just as established as the other, so I didn't feel bad taking it. Along this route, there are a lot of obvious go-arounds that are damaging the area next to the trail. I always try to determine what the main road is, and only take that one. I don't want to be part of the problem.
I didn't get pictures of the hard part of the trail, but here is the hill from the bottom, and then looking down from above. You can kind of tell that there are two routes; I'm on the easier of the two.
P1020027 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020030 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrThe end of the road doesn't take you to Goose Lake, it takes you to about 1/4 mile from the lake. We decided that it looked like the best way to walk up was on the other side of a stream, so we parked over there and walked up.
P1020039 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020040 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrIt is worth parking and walking up to take a look at Goose Lake. We decided to walk around the lake, but it is much bigger than it looks and it took us a few hours (with a 4 year old and a 7 year old who was very mad he didn't have his boots). There is an abandoned mining site at the far end of the lake also.
Coming up to the lake:
P1020043 by Shaun Rasmussen, on Flickr
P1020044 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrThe far end of the lake:
P1020065 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrLooking down on Goose Lake:
P1020059 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrLooking down on Upper Goose Lake:
P1020053 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrWe did end up having to cross the stream twice, so we removed shoes and socks and walked across. To do it again, we would have parked on the trail side of the stream and walked up on that side.
We made it back to camp, and did some more exploring after dinner. There are abandoned buildings and mine equipment everywhere up here. We had fun exploring around:
P1020087 by Shaun Rasmussen, on FlickrThe next morning, we packed up and started the drive back home. It was a great trip, despite being skunked by downed trees in Idaho. We will for sure be back to the area above Cooke City. That area is a new favorite!
