What a beautiful day! Time to explore Jewel Basin, 15,349 acres in the Swan Mountains, west of Glacier National Park in northwest Montana. The Jewel is dedicated to hiking–no bicycles, no horses, and nothing motorized–boasting 27 alpine lakes and 35 miles of trails. Twin Lakes is a five-mile round trip excursion that I can’t resist, so let’s go!
Yellowstone Association, a non-profit partner of the National Park Service, is dedicated to educating us all on this amazing place called Yellowstone National Park. They offer seminars on a wide range of topics at their Yellowstone Institute, located at Lamar Buffalo Ranch. Not only do we get to learn surprising and interesting things about this vast land, but we get to stay at an historic location in the Serengeti of the West, Lamar Valley in the Northern Tier of Yellowstone. What an adventure today as our seminar group heads up into the mountains to see the only remaining wolf pens used for the 1995-96 reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone. Come, explore with us.
Lost Creek Falls is a 40-foot waterfall in a steep, narrow box canyon behind the historic Roosevelt Lodge, a log structure built in 1920 to commemorate a visit by Theodore Roosevelt. The narrow canyon is home to Douglas and Subapline firs and moss-covered hillsides offering a pleasantly cool walk.
This short walk meanders along the creek that blissfully cascades over and around granite boulders on its way down from the falls.
Heading into the wilderness takes a combination of love, mindfulness, caution, and knowing and respecting your physical limits. Montana and Yellowstone are places of glorious big sky, mountains, and many trails with awesome elevation gains. So I stand on the edge of wilderness, knowing beautiful Lost Lake lies ahead, with a willing heart, mind, and feet but lungs that make me reevaluate the wisdom of every trek.
