Blue Lake - Crazy Mountains - Montana
Recently, I had the chance to go back to my home state of Montana, and it was AWESOME! I made it to a few cool places, one of those being the Crazy Mountains near Big Timber. In the photo below, you can see Blue Lake below some big puffy clouds and Big Timber and Crazy peaks lit up by the late afternoon sun.
The sunset after that was a good one, but first... getting there. I met up with my friends Enrique and Mike at Mike's house. He has been posting these really cute photos of his new St. Bernard named Boston on facebook a lot. I mean, just look at these photos...
So Adorable!
The only problem, is just how disengenuios these photos really are! Since I had to wait for Enrique to get there and for Mike to finish packing his stuff, I thought I would spend some quality time with the young St. Bernard. Lets just say that Mike's photos don't tell the whole story...
He looks more like this...
After a few minutes of having an already-pretty-huge St. Bernard puppy all over me, I was ready to hit the road! We had a decent drive and a good 8 mile out-and-back ahead of us. While filling up for gas I spotted my photo on the cover of the Southeast Montana Travel Guide! It was fun going to Montana and actually seeing them. Living in Virginia I never get to see them.
You'd think that stopping once would be enough for a 2hr drive, but I guess Enrique has fast water metabolism.
We weren't underway on the trail for very long when Enrique got hot and needed to change. Apparently we thought the mountains of Montana were gonna be cold, and boy how warm it was!
This trail has an old railroad type bridge very close to the start, while I didn't get anything good here in terms of photos, it looks like Mike was having fun.
After a little while you come to a river crossing with some nice photo opportunities, again I didn't get any images worthwhile, but here is me trying. I was patiently waiting for a cloud to cover the sun, and it just never came... Photo taken with Mike's Iphone.
About a mile in, Mike started to complain about his back. I brushed it off as him just wanting to complain. I mean, here is a guy who has completed Ironman competitions and he can't hike 4 miles? Here he is on the final bridge crossing just below where the switchbacks start(about 3 miles in).
Just after the bridge is when things started to go really sour for Mike and his back. He would periodically lay down on a flat rock and try to stretch out his back for some temporary relief. Well, by the last time he laid down, we were running up fast on 5pm, which means we wouldn't have much time at the lake before sunset. Either way I knew I was gonna be hiking back in the dark, so I really wasn't concerned about that. I just really wanted a sunset on the lake. As you can tell by the photo below, Mike was pretty apathetic about finishing the hike. He didn't make it much farther than this...
At this point, Enrique and I wished Mike some generally sappy goodbyes and said "wish you were coming" even though we were getting a little annoyed with him complaining about his back the whole time. He said he would meet back up with us at the campsite, and that is the last we ever saw of him.Below, you can see Enrique crossing the log bridge to get to Blue Lake. The water he is standing over is a very short river connecting Granite and Blue lakes.
The next 3 photos are from my friend Enrique's Iphone. He is as equally as active as Mike and I with taking photos. He is always looking for the cool angle and taking panoramas and such. And since it's an iphone, he can pretty much has a finished product right away. Sure, it's no DSLR, but with the skills of Enrique, it's pretty dang close!
If you look to the right of this image, you can see me setting up for a shot that is probably way less cool than anything Enrique will ever take.
On our way out, I had to keep trying to convince Enrique to wait just a little longer because I thought the color was coming! I kept saying "5 more minutes, 5 more minutes..."
In the same spot, I used my telephoto lens to get a nice tight photo of Big Timber peak basking in the evening sun.
Just as this was happening, Enrique alerted me to some nice light on a pond not far from where I was. I ran over and got this shot as the color faded. I normally try to be there when the color happens, have my focus set perfect and such... this time in a hurried state I just focused on the small tree in the foreground and shot away. Unfortunately it resulted in a little CA on trees on the left, but I still think it is nice.
On our way back down, we had to pull the flashlights out because it got dark in a hurry. When we got out of the switchbacks, Enrique spotted this on the trail...
We knew he was alive! To be honest, on pretty much the entire way back, I was super anxious because I thought Mike would be hiding behind a tree and jump out at just the right time and make me you-know-what in my pants. Fortunately, his back was so sore, he just went back to camp and laid on the picnic table.
Before Enrique and I got to camp, we stopped to let me snap a photo of the bridge that we saw earlier. The full moon was so bright we didn't even need our flashlights for some of the way back. Below you can see the stars over the moonlit mountain scene.
I grabbed a shot of the falls as well, but with the moon being on the opposite side, and me having a weak flashlight, I didn't get exactly what I was looking for. I am more or less just posting this to prove I was there:)
I would just like to point out that my friend Enrique is of a special breed. He is basically up for anything, but he has some quirks you have to 'manage'.
For example, our fire was somewhat dwindling, and we were getting tired of grabbing little sticks here and there. Enrique, in his infinite wisdom, decided to drive out to one of the brush piles we saw on the way in. When he returned, we noticed his the trunk of his car was tied down with some rope and thought "wow, he sure outdid himself with how much firewood he brought us!"
Well...
That's Enrique for you.
Also, while we probably wouldn't have stayed up at Blue lake for the night anyways, this is one of the reasons we decided not to...
Yes, that is a gallon of water, a huge deep cycle battery, and a sleep apnea machine hooked up to it. Apparently Enrique was born with small nasal passages or something. And apparently he has a super hero mask he wears at night, but I didn't actually see him wear it. I made sure I was in bed and asleep first so the other guys could put out the fire.The next morning, while the guys were cleaning up camp, I took a few shots of Big Timber Peak. The campground is literally at the base of this huge peak. Big Timber creek, seen in the bottom of the photo, makes for some nice white noise at night.
Then we were off to get some breakfast! But first, we stopped a few times on the road and shot the fall color that was pretty much peaking when we were there. I first wanted to post this beautiful photo that Enrique took with his iphone of this nice jack fence and fall color.
I took a few myself...
I really like the contrast here between the evergreens and the aspens.
One of my favorites is this photo of Wormser Loop Road(Big Timber Canyon Road?). I got out to shoot when a car came over the hill.
After breakfast at the Frosty Freeze, we headed for the Natural Bridge Falls for a few photos before heading home... Here is a photo of Enrique getting some sweet angles.
I'll finish with a few photos of mine from natural Bridge Falls, first a photo from the very top looking over the edge below...
The rainbow was slowly moving further and further away from the falls as the sun moved. I used the Magic Lantern and my B+W 10-stop to grab a 3 minute exposure of the falls to help accentuate the rainbow on the side. I always put my hat on the camera to prevent light from leaking in through the viewfinder during long exposures.
Here is the finished result.. Calling the light here 'harsh' would be an understatement, but luckily my 5dii's sensor, while old, still has the range to capture the whole scene.
Thanks for looking! I have more to post so stay tuned! And if you liked this, share it! While you are here, look below for a few of my favorite photos from these two places.
Comments
Michelle(non-registered)
My big 50 this year and we are heading to crazy mountain. Yes I wanted Yellowstone by crazy mountain seems more appropriate. Never been to this area and amateur Dslr enthusiast but after seeing your pics I am looking forward to this!! Any must go spots please share. We only have five days. Thanks for sharing your pics, friends and adv nature.
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© Michael Speed