By Katie Kotynski
While we snowshoed and played games, the governor closed schools and casinos while prohibiting visitation at prisons and senior-care facilities. Missoula, Billings, Butte and Helena shuttered bars and restaurants, except take out. We learned the term “social distancing.” And so it went.
Tucked away at Tripper’s cabin, eight gals from the Girls in Glacier hiking group felt isolated from the news our families sent: a pandemic is raging; everyone needs to quarantine for at least two weeks.
Amid the worries of “do we have enough toilet paper and food to eat,” came the disappointment of having to postpone our women’s hiking group after this last trip together.
As the pandemic wore on, however, and we learned more about how the virus spread, we realized that enjoying the outdoors while socially distancing might be possible with a few changes: we rallied our
leaders to continue offering events as long as the activities only had a few gals instead of large groups; we pledged to social distance—stay a trekking-pole’s distance away from one another and drive alone in our vehicles.
With our name-sake Glacier Park closed on our east side, we instead explored areas we would not have. Our first trek was to the Rocky Mountain Front to visit the newly opened Falls Creek area, an easement
gift made possible by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation along with other entities and individual donations.
As we walked toward the falls, we were treated to the harbingers of spring in contrast to the deary world we now lived in: Purple pasque flowers, buttercups, and shooting stars were the main attractions along with phlox and a clumps of magenta douglasia. As we came around the bend, we spied the cairn marking the place to head off trail to see the main waterfall. And it was spilling, even though some ice crystals remained. Magestic! The riffled creek carried our worries away with it.
Then we continued upstream, hugging the bank and going off trail for views. looking down on argillite rock, similar to Glacier with its aqua and maroon hues. At one point, a road had been cut down to a crossing, a place created in the cliff for the cattle to drink. We followed the road down to the gorgeous stream that had a nice swimming or fishing hole, perfect for a snack break.
After our first hike, our exploring continued: Swift Dam by Dupuyer, Skidway by White Sulphur Springs, North Shore of the Missouri River by Great Falls, Collar Peak by Lewistown, Fairview Mountain and McCarthy Hill by Augusta, Sunset and Green Mountains by Lincoln, Buffalo Lakes in the Badger-Two Medicine, Colorado Mountain by Helena, Otis Peak in the Bears Paw, Lionhead and Shaw Buttes by Simms.
So much changed since we headed out on a March Thursday for Tripper’s cabin that it almost felt like a different world two which we were coming back. But our public lands remained the same: free and open to all, awaiting our next adventure