Making Tracks on Sheep Mountain

I've hiked to the top of Electric Peak a couple times since I've lived in Gardiner, but I hadn't hiked to the top of Sheep Mountain yet.  They have similar altitudes: Electric Peak is 10,969 feet above sea level, and Sheep Mountain is 10,547.  They're both mountains that neighbor me in quite the literal sense.  Both mountains used to be volcanoes at some point in ancient history.  Electric Peak is definitely the favorite mountain to hike in this area for many people, but no one realizes that Sheep Mountain is just about as challenging.

On September 7, Jaret, Tony, and I hiked to the top of Sheep Mountain.  We started about 9:50 am and got back to the car about 8:30 pm that evening and hiked about 9 miles.  That sounds like a slow hike, but you have to remember that we were climbing about 4,500 feet in altitude to get to the top.

We hadn't hiked for more than ten minutes before we were surprised by a bull snake.  Everyone jumped out of the way since it was pretty angry.  Fortunately these guys aren't poisonous, but I still didn't feel like getting bitten by it.

A bull snake coils and hisses at us.

The trail meandered along Little Trail Creek, crossing it at least five times on our way up to the summit.  Sometimes we could go across on rocks, and other times we had to carefully cross downed logs.

Little Trail Creek

Tony and Wayne cross a log across the creek.

Sheep Mountain's forest is really beautiful, surpassing that of much of Yellowstone because it didn't get burned.  However, there is extensive pine beetle kill in the area, but it looks like the worst of it is over.

Jaret hikes through the thick forest on Sheep Mountain.

Once we got close to the top, we were able to see for a really long way.  Nearby was Monitor Peak, Ash Mountain, Emigrant Peak, and Electric Peak.  In the distance we could Index and Pilot Peaks, all the way at Cooke City.  We couldn't see the Tetons from our vantage point, but maybe on some days it might be possible.

Ash Mountain

Cutoff Mountain, Index Peak, and Piolot Peak

Mammoth Hot Springs

Emigrant Peak

At the top of the mountain, we could see down into the crater of the volcano at Five Lakes.  It wasn't as apparent from the top of the mountain as it was after I looked at Google Earth that Sheep Mountain used to be a volcano.  From where we were, we simply saw ridge lines around us.

Five Lakes

Jaret and Tony relax at the top of Sheep Mountain.

The way back down the mountain was quite the adventure.  I saw that we were about to get rained on very soon, and so we tried to hump it back to the bottom.  We were suddenly hailed on.  It felt like we were losing at paintball since the hail was about pea-sized.  Strangely, the hail lasted for at least fifteen minutes, which is pretty long for a hailstorm in this part of the country.

We continued to hike down the mountain as carefully as we could since everything was now wet.  We went down the steep side of ridge through a rock bed as gingerly as possible, and got back down to Little Trail Creek.  From there we were able to keep a fast pace back to the truck, making it there just about at dark.

We were all a bit sore from the hike that day as it was a very strenuous hike, but we felt very accomplished.  Jaret had come from Livingston to hike, but he didn't feel up to going back to Livingston that night, so he stayed at my place until the next day.

It was an amazing hike, and I'd enjoy doing it again.  I want to take advantage of everything around me, and the reasonably good weather to do it in.  It generally means that everything gets crammed into each summer, but what summers!