Hike on Sepulcher Mountain's Ridge

I'm still feeling pretty worn out with all the things that need to get done this spring.  I try to make sure that I have some time just for myself so that I don't get burned out more than I already am.

After work on April 21 I decided to hike up the ridge that connects to Sepulcher Mountain.  I can see this ridge from my back window at home, and I've never bothered to hike up it until now.

Sepulcher Mountain's ridge.  Electric Peak is behind it.

I drove from my house to Gardiner and then took Old Yellowstone Trail as close to the base of the ridge at the far right in the picture above as I could possibly get.  I had to hike through sagebrush for a good portion of the lower part of the hike.  While I was in the flat area in front of the ridge, I found an old pronghorn's shed horn.

I like the scent of sage brush, but it's a pain in the neck because it harbors deer ticks.  They're sneaky little arachnids because you don't have to even touch a sagebrush for them to get on you.  I'm not kidding--they actually leap on to you from the sagebrush.  The sagebrush out here is pretty tall, so ticks get a pretty good opportunity to make a flying leap onto you.  When I got home, I took a bath and made sure that I didn't pick up any hitchhikers.

Anyway, it was a pretty steep climb up that ridge.  You can even see how steep it is from this picture.  It's no exaggeration to say that I had to walk up a slope of 30-45°.

Before I got too far, I came across a small herd of bighorn sheep.  They didn't really like my presence, so they decided to beat it.

Bighorn sheep retreat from me.

About halfway up the slope, I came across a cliff area.  I had to especially be careful here because it was very steep and the volcanic rock was very crumbly.  I don't normally hike by myself, so I especially didn't want to get hurt with no one else there.

There are a lot of neat outcroppings on the ridge.  I decided to "name" three of them after trolls in The Hobbit:

Bert

Tom

Bill Huggins

Once I was at the top of the ridge, I was able to see Gardiner pretty clearly.  Also, in this next picture you'll be able to see where Mike and I hiked around the Rescue Creek Trail:

Gardiner, Montana

Grandma's and Betty's old houses were easy to spot.  Grandma's house is green and Betty's old house is yellow:

Grandma's and Betty's Houses

I hiked for another half a mile before turning around.  From my end point, I could clearly see Malcom Forbe's old cabin, now owned by Royal Teton Ranch.  Scott and I have a lot of fond memories at that mountain cabin while our dad was its caretaker.

Malcom Forbe's Old Cabin

Looking up toward Sepulcher Mountain from my end point.  Sepulcher Mountain is at the left; Electric Peak is at the right.

I wanted to get back home in a reasonable amount of time, so I hoofed it back down the ridge.  It was certainly a lot faster getting down than up.  In total, I hiked three miles.  I spent about two and a half hours hiking out there.  I think some of the best things on that ridge were the rock outcroppings.  It's a very volcanic ridge, and the rocks really portray that.  At the bottom of the ridge are smooth pieces of travertine.  This part of the country has some very interesting geology.