Camping in the Tobacco Root Mountains, Immersed in Amazing Scenery

Due to regional wildfires, there’s been some really smoky days around here, but they can make for some really cool photography, as can be seen in in the above photo, the smokescreen creating a really red sun above lower sureshot lake with Hollowtop Mountain in the background (the highest peak of the mountain range), in the Tobacco Root Mountains.

It is my first time spending any significant time in these particular mountains of southwest Montana, and also my first time camping here, and so far it has been really nice stay, and beautiful area to explore.

I found a really amazing campsite right on the bank of a small un-named creek, really a perfect spot to enjoy the peace and quiet of nature away from the crowds, above two large alpine lakes that can bee seen in the photo below.

And being almost 15 miles off the highway and up mostly dirt roads, it’s a pretty secluded, surrounded by forest and plenty of open meadows as well, in part due to previous wildfire in the area.

There doesn’t seem to be as wide a variety of wildflowers as the mountains closer to Bozeman that I’ve spent most of my time in Montana exploring, but they are still beautiful, and there is at least one type scattered around my campsite that seem new to me, definitely not so common in the nearby Gallatin and Madison ranges if at all.

There are tons of roads and trails in the immediate area, making for plenty of mountain biking and hiking options, and Dakota has thoroughly enjoyed the rides and walks through new and unfamiliar terrain.

One of the most recent bike rides we took followed a steep Jeep trail up a ridge to a high point with some spectacular views of the surrounding mountains.

Situated at about 7,500 feet elevation, there are plenty of amazing views around, on the days when the smoke clears out, including of the upper sureshot lake below my campsite.

Despite the area drought, there has been a good amount of rain in the days I’ve been up here, and I got a really cool shot of some mountain showers on a drive up the road one evening, returning from a day of errands in town.

The Tobacco Root mountains sit due west of Bozeman, and are surrounded by small western towns and miles and miles of rural ranch country, north of Ennis, and I’m camping on the east side of the range. Although a long drive down a dirt road, it’s really pretty drive past a number of large ranches before finally reaching the national forest, and horses can almost always be seen grazing in some of the open fields.

All in all, it’s been a really scenic area to stay in and explore, from the sagebrush covered hillsides to the dense forests, full of lakes and creeks, I suppose it fits the Montana stereotype pretty well. Thanks for stopping by my blog, and hope you have enjoyed my photography of this scenic area.