Camping
and Hiking in Montana
MontanaHikes.com
MontanaHikes.com
Hike Index
H=Hike
C=Camp
V=VisitLivingston Area
George Lake H
Crow Mountain H
Pine Creek H,C
S. Fk. Deep Creek H
Big Timber Area
Boulder River H,C,V
Natural Bridge Falls H,C,V
Big Timber Creek Falls H,C,V
Twin Lakes H,C
Bozeman Area
Mystic Lake H
Central Montana
Castle Mountains H,C
Central MT Railroading V
Crystal Lake H,C,V
Judith Mountains V
Judith Gap Wind Farm V
Moccasin Mountains V
Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness
Anvil Lake H,C
Crow Mountain
The Mill Creek drainage south of Livingston, MT is a popular forest access area where people enjoy hiking, camping , fishing, skiing, snowmobiling and every other form of recreation. The drainage is fairly large and there are a lot of different areas to explore.
High
sheer mountain faces define the headwaters of Mill Creek
The Crow Mountain trail begins from the end of the road near Lambert Creek. The trailhead is reached by continuing on the main road past the forest service campground. About 5 miles past the campground the road crosses Mill creek and begins to ascend up the hillside to the south. Leaving the creek behind you will continue to climb for about a half mile to a junction in the road take the fork to the left turning sharpley to the East. This entire area of the drainage has been heavily logged in the past and you are traveling on an old logging road as you climb. There are several spur roads leading off but continue to follow the main drainage, always staying to the left. About 3 miles after leaving the creek you will reach the trailhead parking area.
From the parking area the trail begins by following an old logging road. At this point you are near Lambert Creek, far above Mill creek. The trail follows Mill Creek as it ascends into the mountains. The creek is to the left and as you hike it will gradually rise up towards you as the creek climbs fastetr than the hikers. This is an easy trail and a nice gentle hike. After about a half mile the logging road dissappears and from this point on you will follow a standard foot trail.
High in the
mountains, Mill Creek is a small stream in mid summer. This section of
the creek is at one of the crossings.The trail continues to gain elevation as it follows Mill Creek upward. After passiong the pond the trail begins to get steeper and continues upward toward the high mountains to the south. After another mile or so the trail begins to disappear as you enter a large basin that is surrounded by towering sheer rock walls that rise 1,500 feet or more in a near vertical face. This is a scenic area that offers excellent off trail exploring in the basin.
The trail basically ends at this point. There is no practical way to scale the mountains ahead and the basin is a destination for backpackers, hikers, hunters and horse riders. However, it sees few of any of these users. As you explore the area watch carefully for the mountain goats that are said to live in this area.
Small
high mountain ponds like this are rich in a variety of life. They
attract a lot of animals so watch carefully for wildlife when you are
near them.While not one of the more popular hikes in the Mill Creek drainage, Crow Mountain is an excellent hike that takes you into some high country with great views and the possibility of wildlife viewing.
An Interesting Crow Mountain Hiking Experience
On August 11, 2007 we set out for a day hike up to the Crow Mountain basin. The area had been experiencing hot dry days and nights and the fire danger was very high. In fact, just the previous day a fire had broken out in the Mill Creek drainage about 10 miles to the east of where we had planned to hike. Just to make sure that there would be no problem I had called the Livingston Ranger District the prior evening and they told me that there was no problem, that the fire was very small and not spreadingand there was no reason to change our hiking plans.As we drove up the canyon and on towards the trail head we noticed that there was a smoggy look to the skies but no sign of any real fire activity. There were no Forest Service trucks or other vehicles around and all was perfectly normal. We did a round trip up tot he basin and upon returning to the car found a note on our windshield tellingus that there was a full drainage evacuation taking place and that we should immediately leave the area. Needless to say we didn't delay our drive out and when we reached the USFS Snowbank campground we found that the road was barricaded and staffed by two USFS personel. They waved us over and asked if we were the vehicle that was at the Lambert Creek trail head. When we confirmed that we were the ranger replied "Thank goodness. You're the last ones in the drainage and we are really glad that you are getting out."
They proceeded to tell us that the small fire from the day before had blow up and was now raging out of control. We knew that it must have gotten a lot bigger as we could see the plume of smoke rising as we returned down canyon on our drive. This became known as the wicked fire and in succeeding days it burned nearly 25,000 acres in the Mill Creek drainage.
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