Glacier: Red Eagle Pass and Norris Traverse

At Red Eagle Lake 

Crossing tributary of Red Eagle Creek

Split Mountain from camp at head of Red Eagle Creek 

Me, after cresting Red Eagle wall

Walking the traverse at steep angle

Old Park Service map showing where the trail went before being abandoned during WWII

This excursion covered two trips I’d been wanting to do for years: the search for the Red Eagle Pass via the St. Mary trailhead, and the Norris Traverse.
After reaching Red Eagle Pass we continued on east and did the Norris Traverse in reverse from the classic way.
This was my Glacier Park Centennial trip, and a very satisfying one at that.
The trail through the Red Eagle Pass was discontinued by the park during WWII, taken off maps and not maintained for nearly 70 years. It is now only a trace in spots, overgrown by alders, willows and other brush and further disguised by several wildfires.
At one time it had been a main thoroughfare through Glacier connecting Two Medicine to St. Mary via the Nyack and the pass. Horse parties regularly went through the pass on this trail.
Some of that part of the park is now seen on the trail between Cutbank Creek campground and St. Mary on a route now referred to as Glacier’s “Inner Passage.”
Just using the map measurements I estimated the Red Eagle Pass portion from St. Mary to be about 15 miles, but a very rugged 15 miles with hurdles such as fire blowdown, brush tangles, multiple game trails, extensive marsh and wetland with plenty of unpredictable and potentially lethal moose randomly patrolling it. The pass sits about 2,700 feet above St. Mary, but those are 2,700 hard-gained feet.
We encountered a seasoned Glacier mountaineer on the Norris Traverse who, when told that we had made it “up the Red Eagle gut,” said he hadn’t heard of anyone in recent memory who had done so.
The first traces of the trail can be found about a mile and a half south of Red Eagle Lake where Red Eagle takes a deep bend not far above where Medicine Owl Creek enters it.
The creek must be waded twice, once on the current trail. Off that trail and just beyond a heavily wooded section there is a second crossing, this time just east of where the first traces of the old trail can be seen in a burn. We followed it some distance past a triple headed waterfalls, down into a deep gully and back to a ridge of red argillite rock. Here is where you’ll lose the trail and see only pieces of it unless you get lucky.
We followed the band of red argillite toward the creek, picked up a trace and followed it to the first of what seemed to be a never ending series of large beaver ponds. We crossed the stream and followed its east side until forced to cross again, where we encountered even larger swamp ponds.
There were animal trails and traces for a couple of miles in and out of burned forest while we watched for two forks of the creek to come together, a sign that we were nearing a great valley that contains a gigantic waterfall that drops down a massive cliff face.
While we were now out of the burn and the blown-down trees, our biggest obstacles became willows, alders and thimbleberry bushes that were up to our shoulders and over our heads.
The massive cliff curves around the valley and culminates in a point just west of the valley.
Luckily, we found good game trails through the brush that allowed us to navigate to that valley using occasional glimpses of that point for navigation.
We had started hiking at 8 a.m., and began our slog through this jungle about 1 p.m., finally arriving in the valley at 8:30 p.m., with impressive views of Split Mountain to the east, the waterfall in front of us, with the massive cliffs wrapping around to the west with Clyde and Logan peaks on the plateau above the cliffs, but in full view.
Our reward was one of the prettiest campsites I had ever seen, at the foot of one of the small beaver lakes.
The next morning we were awakened by bugling elk and the alpine glow of sunrise on the peaks.
REACHING RED EAGLE PASS
Our goal this day was to find where the horse trail breached the 1,000 feet cliff band. One would think that an easy task, certainly after looking down on the cliffs later in the day after we breached them with our own route. We could see in the dense brush from a far distance the faint 'former' switchbacks.
We sure tried to find the old trail and the switchbacks. That would have saved us the immensely hard and dangerous route we clawed out up the cliffs. Looking for the old trail we got sucked up into the cliffs. It became too late to turn around. My climbing buddy Mark Hertenstein kept reminding me not to look down as we struggled with tenuous hand-holds and incredibly steep pitches. I knew what the consequences were if we slipped and were hurtled downward with heavy backpacks fastened to our shoulders. We were fortunate to find another opening in the wall.
When I walked across I tried to find where horses had ridden a trail down this wall and once again found traces at the head. I’m not sure the route through the cliffs on that trail would be very pleasant for all the brush. Certainly, no horse could pass through now.
Once on top we were in the alpine basin below Clyde and Logan peaks that guard Red Eagle and Logan glaciers. It is a vast meadow full of alpine wildflowers and grasses, a meadow much larger than the one encountered at Logan Pass. My mind wandered about the great glacier basin just west of there on the other side of Almost a Dog Pass.
We dropped into the Red Eagle Pass meadows, a place of small trees, a couple of small lakes, lots of grasses and jaw-dropping scenery that included yet another spectacular unnamed waterfall cascading down from the alpine meadows.
After setting up camp we went hunting for the pass itself and within a mile found it in deep woods we cut through on what must have been the old trail. As the pass gave way to the Nyack and Mount Stimson to the south we could catch a glimpse of that massive 10,000 feet peak.
BEGINNING THE TRAVERSE
The third morning we began the Norris Traverse in reverse, mounting the rounded mountain that rose 1,400 feet from our camp. This began a day of mountain ridge-line rapture.
We were lucky enough to have strung three clear and sunny days together and our views were amazing along the ridgeline that varies from 6,500 to 8,800 feet from Red Eagle Pass to Norris Mountain in the Triple Divide Pass area.
It follows goat trails most of its 4-mile length and includes climbing Mt. Norris (8,882 feet) and Triple Divide Peak (8,020 feet) before dropping down a treacherous gully into a basin above Medicine Grizzly Lake.
Along the way we got marvelous views of Glacier’s remotest backcountry and glaciers no one can see from a car or from one of the popular trails. We also saw mountain goats and bighorn sheep. At one point I could see five of the six park 10,000 feet peaks with only Kintla out of view (or my identification capabilities). There were a number of high mountain alpine lakes, and powerful views of the Nyack-Coal Creek valleys that constitute Glacier’s “wilderness” portion of the park.
I found only one part of the traverse slightly tedious, and that was the stretch from the saddle west of Norris to the foot of Triple Divide Peak. It amounts to a slog across talus and scree and side-hilling below cliffs.
We encountered only one party of five hikers/climbers on our trip, a group from Kalispell/Browning/Cut Bank doing the Norris Traverse through the Gunsight Lake, but that was brief and pleasureable.
We finally got back to Triple Divide Pass about 7:30 p.m., and hoofed it out to Cutbank Creek Campground by 10:45 p.m., exhausted but exhilarated by the Traverse and the trip, generally.

The goats do this traverse every day!

A look at Split Mountain up close 

Did we just die and go to heaven? 

Split Mountain, the king of the hills in these parts

Wind Peak without the wind

Profile of Wind Mountain from the road

H. Wayne Phillips relaxes on top

On the summit

I took a quick climb of Wind Peak (elevation: 6,917 feet) on the Rocky Mountain Front northwest of Choteau on Tuesday with friend Wayne Phillips.
We were looking for something that wouldn't take much time, but would give us a mountaineering experience. This offered both.
We took it from the South Fork Teton side. The main Teton Canyon Road offers better views of this peak, that looks pointed and inaccessible from that side.
I had climbed this once before with Ralph Thornton, the late John Carr and Mark Hertenstein, during an especially open winter.
I remembered that we had to wrap around the mountain to attain the summit, but didn't remember how.
Luckily, I had Wayne with me who has a good sense of these things and helped choose a very direct and simple route that kept us out of the cliffs.
The top offers sweeping views of the high Teton peaks on the Front.
We had an unusual windless day, made all the more unusual in that we were climbing Wind Mountain.
The keys to climbing this peak include aiming for a saddle from the road at a point located about three-quarters of a mile beyond the Lewis and Clark National Forest sign, and looking for a good gully to scramble up to the northwest side of the large cliffs. Once above these cliffs the top is gained by following a small path at the base of the summit cap to the south and popping up on top!
It is about a 1,600 feet climb from the road.

Mount Wright: green, flowers, hollyhocks

I came to see Hollyhocks and see them I did

View from top of Mount Wright

The purpose of my trip Thursday was to get some exercise climbing Mount Wright in the Front (elevation: 8,875 feet) and see the mountain hollyhocks that Steve Taylor and Elton Adams had tipped me off to.
The lavender hollyhocks seem to appear a couple of years after a fire.
That happened two years ago in the St. Mary's/Red Eagle Valley of Glacier National Park after the 2006 fire.
The fire in the Mount Wright area was a hot one that burned in 2007.
The especially wet year has kept things green on the Front and the flowers in the Mount Wright burn area are spectacular.
The mountain is a good grunt, rising more than 3,200 feet from the parking area.
The views from the top are as good as any on the Front.
There's a cold front moving through, so there were plenty of clouds coming and going off the peak that obscured the views into the Bob Marshall.

A week in Paradise --- Glacier's Belly River

Jim Tarvin of Chicago departs the Cosley Ranger Station in the Belly

Tarvin crosses the Belly River

Other-worldly Dawn Mist Falls

Me with brother Dan at Cosley Lake campsite

I’m back from a week in Glacier Park backpacking and day-hiking.
During that period my younger brother Dan, his wife, Kristin, and friend Jim Tarvin, all from the Chicago area, did a five-day backpack trip up the Belly River to Stoney Indian Pass and back to Goat Haunt via Waterton National Park.
We also hiked the Siyeh Pass trail from the bend to Sun Rift Gorge and topped off the week with a climb of Divide Peak (elevation: 8,660 feet).
We saw no bears, but plenty of bear sign. The Belly River trail looked like a grizzly bear solid waste site.
Our weather was quite changeable throughout the trip and included a rain shower all but one of the days. The insects were thick as well as the vegetation on the west side of Stoney Indian Pass. Likewise, the huckleberries were thick, and juicy.
We were treated to a tour of the Belly River Ranger station, deep within the Glacier backcountry, where I got to see Joe Cosley’s cabin and a section of one of the famous Cosley aspen trees where he carved his initials. This one bore a 1910 date.
Cosley was the renegade Glacier rangers who ran afoul of the law when the Belly was included within park boundaries when Glacier was created by Congress 100 years ago.
Cosley, who had been trapping in the area as a forest ranger couldn’t make the transition from forest to park, and began a notorious scofflaw as he continued to trap.
Many of the lakes in the area bear the names of his various girlfriends ---- Sue, Elizabeth, Helena, Margaret.
We camped two nights at Cosley Lake, one at Mokowanis Lake and one at Stoney Indian Lake.
I was surprised to bump into people I knew along the way, and enjoyed sharing camp with people from around the country.
The backcountry, as well as the park, was as full of people as I can recall. Perhaps the park’s centenary celebration is bringing folks in.
I was fascinated by the various gear my brother and his party brought in with them --- the innovations, such as camp cooking gear, and lightweight clothing and sleeping gear.
The Belly country is quite remote, even for Glacier Park. Its entrance, Chief Mountain sits feet from the Alberta border. It is littered with a progression of sizeable lakes, Cosley, Glenn, Mokowanis, Elizabeth, Helen, Sue, Margaret, and bordered by two of the park’s six 10,000 feet mountains, Merritt and Cleveland, the park’s highest. There are waterfalls worth seeing on day-hikes, as we did when we spent more than one night in camp --- Dawn Mist, Gros Ventre, Mokowanis, and many unnamed others.
I highly recommend a short climb we did to the site of a former fire lookout site, Bear Lookout Mountain, that sits on the first buttress of Bear Mountain above Cosley Lake. It is a rise of about 1,500 feet.
From Mokowanis Lake to Stoney Indian Pass it is a 2,400 feet climb, but one that reveals a landscape similar to Glacier’s most famous pass, Logan, but without any of its creature features, highways, and people.
At the pass we dropped our packs and climbed about 500 feet up the side of the unnamed peak on the Stoney ridge to get in some scrambling.
The Goat Haunt side of the pass is an overgrown jungle of shoulder-high vegetation.
Although some 2,000 feet down to the main Highline Trail to Goat Haunt, it was an enjoyable walk that offered views of the most northern portions of the park and Waterton park, and the backside of the spires of Porcupine Mountain.
We had a reservation at the Waterton backcountry campground, but having already experienced changeable and wet weather with more threatening, we decided to grab the boat ride back to the Waterton townsite.
This proved to be a good decision as we enjoyed a good meal and beer at Zum’s restaurant and a congenial, arranged custom ride to the Chief Mountain border station from the Tamarack sports store folks.
One thing for those who do this trip to anticipate is there are two ways to arrange shuttles over the border ---- the Tamarack way or the Glacier Park Inc., shuttle. Tamarack leaves daily at 2:30 p.m. from Waterton or by special arrangement. Reservations are desirable. You are dropped just before the U.S. border, where you cross by foot and go through Customs.
The Glacier Park Inc. hikers shuttle requires that you go into Canada and back out with them. You can’t pick up the shuttle in Waterton if you haven’t taken the shuttle there.
Best option: Tamarack unless you shuttle your own cars.
We got back into Montana just in time to put up a tent in the Johnson’s Red Eagle Motel camping park in St. Mary’s, that unlike the park camp, wasn’t full. It was quiet. The views were wonderful. We had a real western breakfast at Johnson’s restaurant the next morning.
It was clear enough on Sunday morning that we went up Divide Peak, about a 2,000 feet elevation gain and despite the smoke of fires obscuring views in the park’s valleys, had a good climb.
The trip was yet another week in Paradise.

Our cooking area at Stony Indian Pass campsite

Reaching summit of Divide Mountain after the backpack trip