Alp Lake Valley

The forest service office in West Yellowstone told me the trail I was planning to backpack up would disappear before reaching the top of the Alp Lake Valley - but they said only in the last quarter mile. I found the trail was so little used it became hard it to follow a mile and a half before the Alp Lakes. It was gone entirely at least a mile from the lakes. I was on my own to bushwack the rest of the way - not an easy thing to do with a full backpack on. I made plenty of noise as I travelled, particularly going through dense trees. Many grizzlies inhabit this valley, and I was worried about disturbing one on its day bed.

I stayed high on the north side of the canyon and eventually found some heavily used animal trails that went along the ridge. I followed them all the way up to the head of the valley, just below 10000 feet, and circled across to the Alp Lakes.

About 15 ponds and lakes sit in this high timberline basin. At midday they are brilliant blue from the reflection of the clear mountain sky. Me and Ben and Maggie went around and walked the shores of each one of them. We came back to camp when the sun hung an hour or so above the ridge, to prepare for night.

I don't take any chances in such wild country, and roped my food twenty feet above the ground, a good 400 yards from camp, on the other side of a hill. I could see the food bag from 200 yards away. The idea was that I would be able to spot its absence and any bear hanging around before it became dangerous.

Sleep comes easy up there, after such active days. Unfortunately I don't stay asleep very long. The apprehension of what may come wandering by causes me to wake every hour or so and listen for noises in the dark. A couple of times I heard deer or elk going by, before dropping back off.

Summer mountain mornings are always bright and hopeful, but become more so in Montana high country, after having made it through an uneventful night. What lies before you is a day in a place few get to see, so peaceful and beautiful that words don't do right by it.

Add the freedom of solitude, and the companionship of two good dogs, who love the mountain like they do me, and. ..

Well, you stand at the top of that valley, with wild Montana spread out below, and know that something has been added to your heart in coming up here alone, that will remain as you go back down. I don't know what it is for sure, but has to do with authenticity, courage, individuality.

I will remember the peace of those quiet nights, calm mornings, the timberline winds blowing through the whitebark pines, and know they are the edge of the divine, the well and the heights, as close to God as I may ever be.