I have always wanted to hike down to Beartooth Falls in the winter. There is no actual trail and few people even attempt the trek in the summer despite the fact that thousands of visitors drive by and marvel at the sight off the Beartooth Highway.
I don't know of anyone who has hiked to the falls in the winter. Really it is not surprising considering that the only way to get there is to drive for several hours over the snow packed Chief Joseph Highway to a dead end at the closed highway 212. From there it is necessary to switch to snow machines for a ten mile ride to a spot where you can park the machines and strap on snowshoes for the steep hike down to the falls.
On Monday, with fresh new snow in the mountains and a bluebird looking day, we decided to give it a try. We were a little concerned about the winds, visible on Red Ridge in the first photo, but they had abated by the time we unloaded our machines. Despite the fact that spring has arrived on the plains, the snow load in the mountains is amazing to see. In Ken's photo of me, above, you can just see the tops of the guardrail along the road. Not much protection against going over the steep cliff to the side!
Once we got to a spot where we felt we could get down to the falls we put on the snowshoes and took turns hiking to a safe spot to wait for the other person. The snowpack is finally extremely stable but there is no use taking undue risks. One of the surprises of the trip was the discovery that the hike down to the falls off the bridge is actually easier right now than it usually is in the summer months. The snow is firm and with 10' on top of the large boulders the going is pretty smooth.
Once we reached the bottom of the cliff we were in a world of giant snow pillows.
We hiked on top of the frozen river, taking care to avoid the open areas caused by fast moving water. As we rounded the cliff the frozen falls came into view.
It really is a spectacular sight at any time of year. In reality the photographs would probably have been better with a little more cloud cover but the complexity of shapes and textures made up for some of the high contrast between snow and shadows.
We decided to exit the falls by hiking up and following the river out. Ken took this shot of me as I was climbing from the bottom.
The river at the top was alive with dippers but we saw no other tracks of any kind in that part of our journey.
On the way back we stopped the snow machines to look over a bridge about a mile from the car. There we found evidence of otters who had been through within a day of our visit.
All in all an amazing day on which to end the winter of 2014!
