Hiking Near Red Lodge, MT

A little over a week ago, Jeff and I were in Red Lodge, MT for a family reunion. We had a fantastic time in Red Lodge, which is a quaint mountain town near Yellowstone Park. We really enjoyed spending time with family and exploring the great outdoors.

A major highlight for me was the big group hike we took on the West Fork Trail in Custer National Forest, near Red Lodge. If you liked my post from a few weeks ago about hiking in Refrigerator Canyon, this one will be right up your alley, too. Lots of photos! Enjoy!

 The above photo is of our group gathering in the parking lot of the trailhead. We had 22 people in our hiking party, all family! I like the contrast in scale of seeing the people in the foreground as compared to the surrounding mountains.

The hike was interesting and fun. It was a fairly gentle uphill, nothing strenuous, and started off through an area that appeared to be recently burned in a forest fire. All the old treas were dead (which meant limited shade! Thankfully it wasn't hot that day!), but the forest floor was covered with tiny baby pine trees, and also lots of raspberry bushes. We were actually a little glad that we were there early in the season before the raspberry bushes were bearing- this place will be Bear Central when those berries are ripe!

 With so many people in our hiking party, the group strung out rather quickly as people adjusted to the pace they were comfortable with and grouped up accordingly. It was neat to look back and see the family along the trail.

After a while, we reached the first waterfall/rapids of the creek that the trail followed. We stopped for a while and took a bunch of pictures. Jeff snapped this one of me:

Photos of waterfalls never come close to doing justice to the real thing! It was really pretty.

After this first waterfall site, more than half of our group had decided to turn back and head to the car. A few of us decided to go a little further and see what else we could see. The trail itself went for over twenty miles, and we didn't plan to go that far but just to go for a while and then turn around. Soon, we were rewarded with a view of a nice wide spot in the creek. Very peaceful and idyllic as the water pooled up here. It would have been a nice spot for backcountry camping.


After stopping briefly here, we decided again to go just a little further and see what we could find. At this point, Jeff and I were hiking with his cousin and her husband. The four of us had a great time hiking together and catching up.

Again, we were rewarded for hiking onward. This time, with an even bigger waterfall!

We stopped here for a while and took a ton of photos and had a snack. Soon we were joined by another group of our family members who had also decided to press on. We had no idea there was anyone left but us, so it was nice to see them. After a rest, we decided to head back to the car. In all, we guessed we had hiked about five miles. It was great to be active in the outdoors and reconnect with family. Jeff and I both agreed that this hike was really nice. It was cool to see a wide variety of cool natural features, including the creek, forest burn, waterfalls, mountain forest, and, of course, wildflowers! We did also see a mama moose and her calf, but didn't linger as moose can be aggressive, especially when they have a calf nearby. 

If you're ever in Red Lodge, you won't have any trouble finding things to do, but definitely consider the West Fork Trail as you explore the area! 

COMING SOON! Harvey, our Vizsla, wants everyone to know that he is working on a guest blog post about going for a run in the country with me. Obviously, I'm helping him out with that. Should be ready to go this weekend! :)