Last July, Jason and I visited Montana. It was a trip of extremes. We went high into mountains and far underneath them. Below I explain the above.
Although the lodge was quirky, I’d definitely recommend it.
Jason and I love exploring new places. Our curiosity often gets the better of us, and adventures suck us in. In 2021, we bid on a stay at a lodge in the Bitterroot Mountains near Hamilton, Montana during a charity event and won. Did we know where Hamilton was? Nope. Our Hamilton visit turned into a six-day voyage encompassing Missoula and Butte as well; what mushroomed out of a short unknown was pretty fantastic.
That red-roofed structure way up the mountain is the Downing Mountain Lodge.The lodge has some unusual features left over from its restaurant days like this sliding kitchen window.
Two nights at the Downing Mountain Lodge, located 2,000 feet above Hamilton and not far from the top of Downing Mountain, were our above-mentioned winnings. The Downing Mountain Lodge was built in the 1970s from wood and stone. Its yurt-style circle encompasses a 40-foot diameter. The building was a restaurant at several points in its 50 or so years and as recently as 2008. It felt odd for just the two of us to occupy this space constructed to host 20 or 30 people, a little like The Shining but more peaceful. Being axed to death might not be so bad in such a beautiful, serene place.
Blodgett Canyon was created by a glacier and has 2,000-foot walls of solid granite.
The lodge’s interior seemed unchanged by the last half a century with eccentric, quirky, surprising, and rustic vibes. It smelled of leather (source unknown), old wood, aged rope, and fresh air. There were enough musical instruments about we could have made our own woodland band featuring a piano, guitar, ukulele, drums, flutes, and whistles. We didn’t become mountain musicians, but Jason figured out how to operate the 100-year-old Brunswick phonograph, which had accompanying records.
Hamilton is in the Bitterroot Valley, which stretches 95 miles from Idaho to Missoula.
After leisurely rising the next morning, we hiked the Blodgett Canyon Overlook to a cliffside above Blodgett’s granite, U-shaped valley, which required 531 feet of elevation gain and 2.8 miles of exertion roundtrip. Blodgett is just one of more than two dozen impressive gaps carved through the eastern side of the Bitterroot Range.
Being immersed in a thunderstorm high on Downing Mountain was an unreal experience.
Following this hike, we were hoping to do another, but the weather was iffy with forecasts for showers that kept shifting. In the end, our evening hike got thwarted by three rainstorms. Yet, these were awesome to behold from our perch on Downing Mountain. The hammering rain, pelting hail, zipping lightening, and booming thunder displayed nearly 360 degrees around us were mystical, so we didn’t pout over our missing trek.
The next day, we were off to Missoula and the second segment of our hodgepodge trip, which will be the topic of my next post.
While I’m habitually behind on posts, my website maintains chronological consistency, except in this case. This should have been posted prior to my birthday ramblings, but here it is regardless.
For many years now, Jason and I have believed experiences matter more than things. That’s why we decided to give my family members a long weekend getaway as all their birthday presents for the year instead of wrapped gifts. I did some research and came up with a few location options, and we put them to a vote. In the end, my family picked Bear Lake.
Our rental had slides between floors as an alternative to stairs.
Although Bear Lake is a major tourist destination in the summer, Garden City, the main town on the Utah side of the lake, isn’t usually too crowded in early June, which was the timeframe for our visit. The tourists were trickling in, but most restaurants had reasonable waits, and the water wasn’t cluttered with boats.
The tube rides were much mellower than normal, but the kids still giggled and screamed.
Jason and I rented an enormous house that could comfortably fit my mob of relatives with an indoor trampoline, indoor basketball court, indoor swing set, poker table, pool table, ping-pong table, movie theater room, nine bedrooms, and six bathrooms. Each time a new batch of kids arrived, they would instantly disappear to explore the mysterious and captivating features of the home.
According to employees, these two ropes represent the hardest part of the entire course at Bridgerland.
Sadly, one of my sisters caught COVID through a coworker who came into work sick with a “cold” right before our trip, so she couldn’t join us. Miraculously, with how much COVID was circulating at the time, she and her husband were the only ones absent due to it.
I feel no need to prove I’m a fan of heights.
With so many activity options, including the ones inside our rental, what was first on our agenda? Hit the lake. Jason and I had reserved a two-hour boat tour with a guide in a brand-new pontoon for that morning. While we were envisioning this as a low-key lake wander with some informative discussions on history and ecology, the kids got too distracted by the towable tube, and our tour turned into a watersport montage.
Beaver Creek Lodge has about 40 horses, enough to accommodate larger groups like ours.
As the water in Bear Lake was currently just shy of 50 degrees, most of us were not enthusiastic about accumulating wetness acquired from it, particularly the adults. I was the first grownup to volunteer for the tube. Since I was dealing with a case of prepatellar bursitis at the time and knocking my knee against the tube was repeatedly painful, I didn’t last long. However, my distinguished valor convinced, or shamed, other adults to brave a ride. Our driver skillfully kept all but one of the group from sliding into the water while tubing, but then the kids decided to all jump in anyway.
Tough was, well, tough on Jason as he liked to bite riders and herd members alike.
We had seen the Bridgerland Adventure Center on a hill as we were traveling into town. Its complex jumble of crisscrossing lines and bright orbs intrigued us, so we spent a chunk of the afternoon climbing through this four-story rope course. As each increasing level at Bridgerland gets progressively harder, most of the party focused on levels two and three for more robust challenges. I made it through level one in its entirety and a small fraction of level two before closing time. I may not have slid upside down across a duo of rope strings, but I conquered the course in my own lame phobic way.
The poker skills were lacking but the laughter was not.
That evening, we entertained ourselves with some epic games of dodgeball, poker, and “monster” along with a screening of Avatar in the movie theater room. Boredom did not occur even amongst the grumbly teenagers.
Dodgeball is a vicious sport, just ask any participant’s face.
The next morning, we headed out for 90 minutes on four legs at Beaver Creek Lodge. Some members of our group had never ridden horseback, so there was a mix of excitement and fear amid them. Beaver Creek Lodge was able to accommodate our large troop, but as it was early in the season, the horses were flabby from winter inactivity. They huffed and puffed as we climbed rolling hills and grasslands. My steed, Smokey, was mellow and only seemed worried about getting left behind. In contrast, Jason got the second alpha of the herd, Tough, and he liked to ensure his status by staying in the front and biting other horses… and occasionally Jason.
Moments like this are our motivation for planning family outings.
After our ride, we lounged around the cabin and napped until one of the kids who had arrived too late for our tubing escapades mentioned they didn’t want to visit Bear Lake without actually visiting the lake. So, the entire clan headed to Rendezvous Beach, which is typically packed in the summer but was nearly deserted in its current nippy form. That nippiness didn’t inhibit our sandy endeavors though. One of the kids found a shovel and started digging while others immediately set to fishing. The adults thought there was zero chance anything would be caught, but a sizeable trout was hooked briefly before it dramatically wiggled away.
I find fishing incredibly boring, but I’m glad others have the patience for it.
That evening, our giant group went to dinner at the Campfire Grill. The setting was fantastic and the food decent. However, indigestion still kicked in when we were woken up at 1:58 in the morning by a flashing red light and an earsplitting “beeep, beeep, beeep.” My first reaction was to ask Jason, “What are those boys doing?” It stopped after a couple minutes, and we later ascertained that it was probably the carbon monoxide detector malfunctioning. Ironically, the accused boys weren’t even stirred from their slumber by the shrill alarm even though they had chosen to sleep in a closet instead of on a bed.
Most of us dipped in the lake even though it was not pleasant.
Our outing may have concluded in alarm, but the rest was anything but alarming. Relationships were renewed, limbs numbed, balls dodged, and memories cemented. As you may have ascertained from the contents of this post, Bear Lake makes for an excellent group gathering spot with various distinct activity possibilities in its vicinity.
Big groups need big houses.
On a related note, the Bear Lake area is known for its raspberry shakes, so we decided to undertake a comparison of all the raspberry shakes in town. Despite our diligent efforts, we only made it through shakes at three places. Of the three, the winner was Zipz, but the best burger went to LeBeau’s, and Merlin’s Drive-In triumphed in the fries category. There are a lot of cute burger joints in Garden City. If visiting, be ready for plenty of nostalgia and grease.
I get spoiled on my birthday just for doing something I don’t put in any effort into- becoming older. This year, Jason’s spoiling came in the form of a wide array of activities spanning multiple weeks. These ranged from climbing a mountain on a string to climbing a mountain to listen to a companion of Sting.
A bumpy ATV ride over private land or a 1.2-mile hike is required to access the beginning of Waterfall Canyon’s via ferrata paths.
A via ferrata, which means “iron road” in Italian, is a climbing path that utilizes steel cables along with rungs or ladders instead of classic climbing gear. The steel cables are attached to the rock and climbers clip into them using two leashes. This system prevents deadly falls but not painful falls. However, it does allow climbers to ascend together and decreases the technicality of a climb.
Much of Route 1 did not have rungs, and you were on your own to scurry along cracks and ledges.The crux of Route I is an overhang jutting out above a long drop off. It required more expertise, muscle, and mental quieting than I thought I’d need for this activity.
Via ferratas became part of European tourism, particularly in the Dolomites and Alps, starting in the mid-1800s. They grew more prolific during World War I as an aid for troop movement, and currently there are about 1,000 via ferratas on the European continent. There are also at least a few here in the Americas.
Mount Ogden, the peak containing Waterfall Canyon, is 9,579 feet high and comprised of granite, shale, quartzite, limestone, and dolomite.Via ferratas have become increasingly popular in the US in recent years.
Jason and I didn’t even know of via ferratas until we watched The Utah Bucket List on PBS back in 2014. This film highlighted the via ferratas located in Waterfall Canyon near Ogden. Since then, we’ve been longing to experience these intriguing routes, and my birthday provided a good excuse to do so.
I enjoyed being able to talk to other members of the group while climbing, particularly in the intimidating parts.I thought doing a via ferrata would basically be like going up a cliff on a long ladder; it was not.
Waterfall Canyon’s via ferratas can only be accessed with guides, and maximum group size is eight. As we could only include six others in this scheme, we decided to extend the invite to the gaming group that has been playing The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth with us for dozens of months. Why not climb a real mountain with those who have been scaling invented ones with you for years? Clearly, they have proved up to the associated physical and mental challenges.
Via ferratas make adrenaline-pumping undertakings more accessible to those who don’t know all the special handholds and secrets of ascension.
Waterfall Canyon contains three via ferrata paths. These routes were set by Jeff Lowe, a famous climber and Ogden native, back in 2005 and 2006. Jeff Lowe completed over 1,000 first ascents during his career before becoming ill with an unknown neurodegenerative process. We did Route 1, the easiest of the canyon’s three. Route 1 is a 5.6 with a 5.7 crux and rises 500 feet. In comparison, the hardest path, Route 3, is a 5.13. Although the fitness and skill levels of those in our group varied greatly, all but one made it through the whole course even with some height fears scattered among us. No doubt, all that difficult terrain we trudged through in Middle-earth immensely impacted our courage and competence on this occasion.
Jeff Lowe, the legendary climber who set the via ferrata paths in Waterfall Canyon, died in 2018 after dealing with a neurological disease similar to ALS for 18 years.
We were told the route would take anywhere from 90 minutes to five hours. It did not take us five hours but did require about two and a half. As I mentioned earlier, with via ferratas, everyone ascends together. You can talk to and encourage others, which is nice when you have more hesitant participants among you. The disadvantage is that you will likely fall farther if you slip than you would with a traditional rock-climbing format, up to about 10 feet. While that’s not enough for a serious injury, it’s plenty for sprains or broken bones. Besides being a little riskier than anticipated, the activity was also tougher on the nerves and skill scales than expected. My heart responded to the exposure by pounding away, but I pushed on despite its rhythmic objections. It was scary and marvelous! In my opinion, participating in a terrifying birthday activity is a fantastic yearly tradition as it’s a great way to prepare for the persistent terrors of perpetually decaying one miniscule moment at a time.
Waterfall Canyon is so named because a 200-foot waterfall adorns its terminus.
That wasn’t my only birthday shindig, though it would have been more than sufficient. The next weekend, Jason had ideas for enough tentative plans to keep a toddler satisfied. We never would have been able to do them all, but we jammed in a few. We went to Park City to see Stewart Copeland of the Police play with the Utah Symphony as part of the Deer Valley Music Festival. Nothing feels more like summer than sprawling out on a shaded hillside atop blankets while listening to some classic tunes and nibbling house-made chips and paella.
It is exhilarating to know you can.
The next day, we spent an hour and a half at the Red Butte Garden. Oddly, we had never been there together in all our years of togetherness. The garden had way more grounds to cover than our hour and a half would allow, but I loved seeing the succulents in the Water Conservation Garden.
Was that the end? No. The day after that, we ate a yummy meal on the balcony at Log Haven with firs and oaks forming a fragrant backdrop to our overconsumption. There’s something magical about that place on cool summer nights.
What about my actual birthday? Following a tasty breakfast of crepes filled with fruit salsa and whipped cream, we went to Snowbird Resort and took a scenic ride on the Peruvian Lift. We got off at the top and hiked to the apex of Mount Baldy. Mount Baldy’s summit is 11,068 feet up, but it’s such an easy climb from the chairlift, I’m almost embarrassed to mention it like I actually ascended a mountain. After about two miles of hiking, we were back at the chairlift for a ride down. We would have loved to do more trekking on this pleasant, windy afternoon, but, unfortunately, there was no time as a couple family members were joining us that evening for Thai takeout in the backyard.
If left up to Jason, we would have undertaken twice as many birthday activities spread out over even more days. As it was, I was overly celebrated. The road to old age is a steely one, but the terrain sure is amusing.
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