Four-Wheelin' to Fairy Lake

A friend asked a few weeks ago if Montana would be a good place to put his new 4X4 through its paces.

I replied that while our Ford Escape has four-wheel drive, we bought it for snow and ice more so than getting off road, though occasionally gravel roads must be taken to reach trail heads.

After attending church in Bozeman with Darlene and Brooks a couple of weeks back, Julie and I set our sights on Fairy Lake, a new destination for us located a few miles outside of Bridger Bowl, a ski area we'd also never visited.

The first trail head was supposed to be just a mile off the paved highway, but that turned out to be more of a lot to park trailers carrying smaller off-road vehicles.  To get close to the lake took another seven miles of rough going through beautiful scenery.

About halfway there, we found several cars parked, but while that was a decent spot to hike through some trees, the primary attraction that day was a tiny Toyota blocking the road, with its undercarriage stuck on a high spot between two deep tire ruts.

As to what had possessed the young driver to make him think his mini-car could blaze a trail through the wilderness I don't know, but he must have rammed into that rock-hard berm with a lot of momentum to be as stuck as he was.

Another guy and gal were already trying to cram tree limbs under one forward tire of his front-wheel drive car, but the wheels just kept spinning.  I joined with them in the effort to free the vehicle, hoping the shovel we always carry might be of help to lower the high spot, but it was like shoveling concrete.



We decided to raise the car with a jack, hoping to find some flat stones by a nearby creek to jam under the tire for added traction, but the big stones were more like boulders.  However, we were able to use one rock as a hammer to pound a thick branch under the driver's-side front tire and then removed the jack.  That worked, and after backing up to get loose, the young guy was thankfully on his way...still continuing toward the lake.

When we reached the parking lot for Fairy Lake, the young guy had snagged the last legitimate parking space, but we parked next to a water pump, which some bikers almost immediately pointed out was not actually a place to park.  With no alternatives we decided to take our chances.



This was the Sunday of Independence Day weekend, so it wasn't surprising that it was busy, but fortunately, it's a big area, so while we saw others on the trail, it wasn't unpleasantly crowded.

Fairy Lake is beautiful, like a setting you might find in an elfin forest from Lord of the Rings.  Mountain peaks rise along its side, and there was still enough snow in some shoots and bowls for skiing.  We passed several hikers with skis or snowboards strapped on their backs returning from a morning of skiing.


By the time we reached the lake after attending church in Bozeman, temperatures were in the high seventies, and some of the skiers had stripped down to their skivvies to swim in the lake, which must have been pretty cold, fed by mountain recently melted snow.

We weren't nearly that adventurous, simply hiking around the lake and enjoying the views.

The drive back was just as bumpy as the ride in, and we were happy to have high clearance as much as four-wheel drive.  It was a nice change of pace.  By the way, Bridger Bowl is also gorgeous.