The town of Whitefish is progressive in many ways. They have built a system of trails in and around the town:
The Whitefish trail is a multi-use, donor supported trail system. A Montana State Lands recreation use permit is required ONLY outside the trail corridor. Dogs are allowed on the trail and must be in your control at all times. Please respect private lands and yield to others. This trail system is a non-motorized recreational trail.
We decided to head west from the center of town and to hike from the Lion Mountain trail head. This area is a little bit south and west of Whitefish Lake.
The trail is an easy to moderate hike through the pine forests common to the area. One of the signs indicated that there had been a fire there in 1931 and so they do selective logging to make the area a barrier to fire going further east into town.
About a mile and a half out, we climbed up to the Skyles Lake Overlook and took a short break on the bench.
We continued on for about another mile. The last half mile traversed across private land and into state land, and had a caution sign that this was steep terrain. The trail was not too steep, but it was rather narrow as it went across the steep side of the mountain. If you encountered someone or some animal, there was no place to go as it was too steep to go up and very steep to go down.
We stopped to take a drink of water and heard some noises below us - there were four foxes moving below, including one with what looked like a rabbit in it's mouth. We also noticed that there were a lot of bushes with a lot of berries along the trail - just the kind of area to attract animals looking for food. We had planned to go another ten minutes before turning around, but the foxes and the berries made us decide to stop and head back towards the trail head. There were a couple of sections on the way back that allowed us to take a part of the trail not taken on the way out, so this gave us some different scenery.
We covered about four and a half miles and then went to find a place for lunch. First, we went to the Whitefish Lake State Park on the southwest corner of Whitefish Lake - they were packed on this sunny and hot day. So we drove to the Whitefish City Beach on the southeast corner of the lake - even more packed. Finally we drove to Les Mason State Park on the east side of the lake - not crowded and a very nice, compact park - several tables in the trees, none more than 30 feet from the water. There was also a nice (but rocky - no sand in this part of Montana) beach. After lunch, I took a 10 minute dip in the lake. And we spent a pleasant couple of hours reading and relaxing before heading back to the hotel for the evening with take out from a nearby restaurant, the China Wall.
The Whitefish trail is a multi-use, donor supported trail system. A Montana State Lands recreation use permit is required ONLY outside the trail corridor. Dogs are allowed on the trail and must be in your control at all times. Please respect private lands and yield to others. This trail system is a non-motorized recreational trail.
We decided to head west from the center of town and to hike from the Lion Mountain trail head. This area is a little bit south and west of Whitefish Lake.
The trail is an easy to moderate hike through the pine forests common to the area. One of the signs indicated that there had been a fire there in 1931 and so they do selective logging to make the area a barrier to fire going further east into town.
About a mile and a half out, we climbed up to the Skyles Lake Overlook and took a short break on the bench.
We continued on for about another mile. The last half mile traversed across private land and into state land, and had a caution sign that this was steep terrain. The trail was not too steep, but it was rather narrow as it went across the steep side of the mountain. If you encountered someone or some animal, there was no place to go as it was too steep to go up and very steep to go down.
We stopped to take a drink of water and heard some noises below us - there were four foxes moving below, including one with what looked like a rabbit in it's mouth. We also noticed that there were a lot of bushes with a lot of berries along the trail - just the kind of area to attract animals looking for food. We had planned to go another ten minutes before turning around, but the foxes and the berries made us decide to stop and head back towards the trail head. There were a couple of sections on the way back that allowed us to take a part of the trail not taken on the way out, so this gave us some different scenery.
We covered about four and a half miles and then went to find a place for lunch. First, we went to the Whitefish Lake State Park on the southwest corner of Whitefish Lake - they were packed on this sunny and hot day. So we drove to the Whitefish City Beach on the southeast corner of the lake - even more packed. Finally we drove to Les Mason State Park on the east side of the lake - not crowded and a very nice, compact park - several tables in the trees, none more than 30 feet from the water. There was also a nice (but rocky - no sand in this part of Montana) beach. After lunch, I took a 10 minute dip in the lake. And we spent a pleasant couple of hours reading and relaxing before heading back to the hotel for the evening with take out from a nearby restaurant, the China Wall.
No comments:
Post a Comment