So it’s turning into a beautiful fall here in western Montana. Fire season is over, the DNRC has laid-off all of the seasonal workforce as of two weeks ago, and school is in full swing once again.
Turquoise Lake & Mount Shoemaker
To celebrate, this past weekend I went on a dayhike into the southern end of the Mission Mountains, to Turquoise Lake. It was about a 6 1/2 mile hike in, with about 2,000 feet of elevation gain from the trailhead to the highest point on the trail before dropping down into the lake. This was the first time since 2003 that I’d been into the Missions, and really the first time in more like 10-15 years that I’d been in the mountains just for fun. The last time I really visited the Missions I was working on several small fires in August of 2003, in the Hemlock basin just north of where I went on this trip.
Holland Peak (Swan Range) seen from Turquoise Lake. (Lace Lake in foreground)
As usual, I was reminded of why I love the Swan Valley (where I grew up) so much. There are very few places in the west where you can be a 2 1/2 hour walk from mountain lakes like this. Where my parents live is only about a 30 minute drive from the trailhead, so my entire journey (once out of Missoula and back home anyway) to the lake was about 3 hours long. The best part? I only saw 5 other people on the hike, and most of them where on the lower parts of the trail, going to Glacier Lake (1 1/2 mile hike) or Crescent/Heart lakes (about a 4 mile hike). There was only one other person at Turquoise, and he was way up the shoreline from where I was, so it was pretty much like being alone.
For more pics, visit my photojournal. I’ll have new pics uploaded today or tomorrow.
