Above Paradise . . . Emigrant Peak anchors the southern finish of Paradise Valley south of Livingston, looming over some of the scenic stretches of the Yellowstone River Valley. Though there are larger peaks in Montana’s Absaroka Vary, for individuals who journey U.S. Route 89 to Yellowstone Park or frequent Chico Sizzling Springs, Emigrant Peak has a big presence – It begs to be climbed.
Pregame plan . . . For my buddy Kacey, the pull of Emigrant Peak was sturdy. Decided to climb it earlier than summer season’s finish, he invited our buddy Tristan and I to hitch him, then discovered a date(s) that might work for all of us – Tuesday and Wednesday, August 4th and fifth (2026). That Tuesday afternoon we drove from Helena, dined in Livingston, soaked at Chico Sizzling Springs, then tent-camped on the Pine Creek Campground. We rose at 5 am Wednesday morning, ate a fast breakfast, packed up, and made the 25-mile drive to the Gold Prize Creek Trailhead. We began mountain climbing shortly after 7 am.
Nice suprises . . . We learn accounts of the climb however weren’t positive what to anticipate. Happily Kacey picked an incredible day to climb – calm, sunny, and never tremendous scorching or hazy like most days the previous couple weeks. One other plus was that there was a discernible path all the way in which to the summit, even up via the steep rocky final half mile to the summit – completely sudden. The path adopted a creek, veered up via a forested drainage, crossed a protracted open grassy slope, then switch-backed up via one other patch of forest, earlier than ascending that steep rocky ridge. The range added a stage of enjoyable to the journey.
Steep, steeper, steepest . . . We knew it was solely 4-miles to the summit, however we additionally knew that the elevation achieve was 5,000 ft! Hikes seldom achieve that a lot elevation over such a brief distance. The path appeared to climb progressively at first after which get more and more steeper because the miles glided by. It took 4.5 hours to finish the 4-mile hike – That’s lower than 1 mph! Regardless of our sluggish tempo, it felt like an incredible accomplishment to achieve the summit the place we spent an hour having fun with views of surrounding mountains and Paradise Valley, over a mile of elevation under us. The hike down on drained legs was no piece of cake both. We made it again to the trailhead shortly after 4 pm with a wonderful comprehension of what strolling up 5,000 ft and again down looks like. After a brief dip within the creek, we headed house – bodily exhausted however proud of the way in which the journey performed out.
Click on on the hyperlink under to take a look at the photograph tour, together with a number of drone pictures taken from the summit.
Under: This map marks hikes which have been featured on bigskywalker.com to date, together with a number of in Glacier Park – Choose full display screen to broaden, zoom in for extra element, or click on on a marker for a hyperlink to the submit.
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