RED LODGE, Montana – Crawl from your warm sleeping bag out the tent door, into the darkness and predawn wind whipping across the plateau. Look up at the cathedral of the sky. Watch the whirlpool of constellations spin overhead. Hold your breath.
It’s hard not to feel vertigo in the majesty of Montana’s wilderness. Whether you seek the rocky heights of a 10,000-foot peak or an endless chain of lakes, pastels in a mountain meadow or the endless catch of trout, trek into the one of the state’s most magnificent ranges – the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness – to find solitude and grandeur.
Don’t be put off by the name of the best way to get in there: the Beaten Path, a 26-mile trail that climbs up and over the Gallatin National Forest watershed divide, wending its way past pond after lake, peak after cliff, meadow after plateau. The trail has a reputation for high foot and horse traffic, but in the five days we backpacked through last summer, my hiking partner Ben Yeomans and I saw just a handful of others and embraced the solitude.
The trailhead sits at the southeastern edge of East Rosebud Lake. Accessible by car from the north via a 14-mile road from Roscoe, the lake’s shores are dotted with cottages and cabins, and make it an easy jumping-off point for the wilderness.
Pika Peak, shown at sunset on Aug. 31, 2016, photo, is mirrored in Echo Lake, one of scores that dot Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, making the region popular for hikers and anglers alike. (Mike Eckel via AP)
In this Aug. 30, 2016 photo, Mike Eckel hikes above a lake along the Beaten Path, a 26-mile hiking trail that crosses through Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. (Ben Yeomans via AP)We decided, however, to access the path via Red Lodge, a tourist town east of the wilderness that is best known as the jumping-off point for the Beartooth Highway, the breathtaking drive that climbs to 11,000 feet while winding along the border with Wyoming.