2023-10-02, 07:38 AM
Brice, you made it to some of the areas I hike in regularly, out of Bozeman, in Montana. I really love the Crazies but the bigger peaks, like Crazy itself, are out of my range. I've gone in a number of the areas with trail access from the west side and all is beautiful. We climbed Table Mtn, an off trail walkup for us but an evening's stroll for you, this summer.
The Gravelly Range (Black Butte) is really beautiful and easily accessible high country but would not want to be up there in bad weather. Black Butte was of course the first place I went up there, and as you perhaps saw, it is rather popular (as "popular" goes in that part of the world). I saw a huge herd of elk from up there. A couple of years ago I tried to get up the northern Bald but the smoke was bad so I lost motivation.
I'm sure you're no longer in the area, but if you are, the Sphinx is a great little peak. Also Ramshorn, but access might be limited as I heard about some closures on the west side of the Paradise Valley, up in Tom Miner Basin, due to bear activity.
The Gravelly Range (Black Butte) is really beautiful and easily accessible high country but would not want to be up there in bad weather. Black Butte was of course the first place I went up there, and as you perhaps saw, it is rather popular (as "popular" goes in that part of the world). I saw a huge herd of elk from up there. A couple of years ago I tried to get up the northern Bald but the smoke was bad so I lost motivation.
I'm sure you're no longer in the area, but if you are, the Sphinx is a great little peak. Also Ramshorn, but access might be limited as I heard about some closures on the west side of the Paradise Valley, up in Tom Miner Basin, due to bear activity.