Hellroaring hike affords scenic views of Flathead Lake

It was a hellroaring time.

After having lived in Montana for four years, I decided last week to hike into the Mission Mountains.

I hiked the Hellroaring Trail, which afforded nice views of Flathead Lake. This entailed purchasing a conservation permit from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks since the trail is located on tribal land.

While visiting a tribal office in Polson, I asked Lester Big Crane, a Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal employee, for a recommended trail on the east shore of Flathead Lake. He provided a map of the trail area and highlighted the logging roads I needed to drive to get there.

I got a three-day permit for $9 at Wal-Mart. I declined the $16 permit that would have provided access through the end of February since I don’t plan to hike on tribal land again this summer.

Heading northeast on Highway 35 from Polson, I turned right on Hellroaring Road shortly after the highway curves left and starts up the east side of the lake.

The gravel road was passable in my Mazda 3 for approximately four miles, but one really needs a high-clearance vehicle after that, something I found out too late.

Not all of the roads in the area are clearly marked. Brown wood signs are posted off the roadway in some locations, but it can be confusing. I needed roads B 4000 and B 4300 to get to the trailhead, which also is not marked.

Hellroaring Road becomes B 4000, so that was no big deal. However, finding B 4300 was a challenge. At one point, I came to a junction and had a choice of four roads. Following the map, I made the correct choice by taking the one second from the right. However after that I got sidetracked on another road for approximately a half hour. That road dead-ended at a logging site. (There was plenty of recent logging activity visible from the roads I traveled.)

After backtracking and finding the correct road, I continued up, up, up... until I could go no further in my small car. The road became strewn with big rocks and I could no longer justify going ahead. I managed to back up on the single lane road and gradually turned my car around in a wide spot in the road. I drove downhill for a quarter mile until I found a place to pull over.

Fortunately I didn’t encounter any traffic once I got on B 4300. It simply isn’t big enough for two vehicles.

After parking, I ate a handful of blackberries — which I purchased at a health food store in Polson — got my bear spray, knife, camera and made sure I had my conservation permit before hiking up the road.

I came to a parking area approximately a quarter mile or so past the point where I turned my vehicle around. The trail began at that point, but there were no markers.

From there it is uphill for the next 20 minutes or so, and there are nice views of Flathead Lake along the way. I could hear Hellroaring Creek below to my left as I hiked. After taking several photos, I arrived at a vista point.

Once beyond the vista point, it’s basically just high mountain meadows with views of peaks in the Mission range. There are a number of shady areas, and there also was water on the trail. At one point I climbed up the hill to avoid a huge puddle. A stream meanders on the trail at one point, and there is a creek alongside from which to draw water, which I did on my return.

I hiked one hour, 50 minutes until I reached a snow cabin. According to a sign inside, the cabin is used by winter survey crews. Apparently it’s the only shelter around for miles.

A short 5-minute hike beyond the cabin leads to the U.S. Forest Service boundary. There the trail is covered with logs and branches, an obvious attempt to prevent four-wheelers — whose tracks were plainly visible from the trail in the high mountain meadows — from driving onto federal land.

At this point I climbed a rocky outcropping that afforded a nice view of the mountains to the east. After a taking more photos and short break, I headed back toward civilization.

The return took me one hour, 20 minutes.

I concluded it was worth the $9.

Reporter @BigforkEagle.com