Ennis Lake, Montana

June 28, 2022

While it was difficult to leave the beauty of the Hyalite Reservoir, it became apparent as we were driving to our next destination that this corner of Montana is all beautiful. It seems that there were great views of the mountains everywhere we looked.

After a short drive of a couple of hours, we happily arrived at our new lakeside campsite.

The campground was quite small, and we had a noisy neighbor for Tuesday and Wednesday night (ran their generator for quite a bit of time, and well into the night).  Once the noisy neighbor moved on, the rest of the time was quiet.

On Wednesday, we took the bikes out along the lake and to nearby Bear Trap Canyon. There was a nicely maintained gravel road through part of the canyon leading to a hydro electric plant.  In total we rode 15 miles.

Most of the lake shore is privately owned. This was a cute lakeside bar on someone's property.

Riding into Bear Trap Canyon

Taking a photosphere picture

Water levels were high this year, so the floodgates were wide open.

We saw several occupied osprey nests.

Thursday was the big ride where we went as far as we could around the lake and to the town of Ennis.  We rode 25.8 miles that day.

Funny sign in town

We got back in time for some storms to pass through the area, giving us some significantly strong winds during dinner.  We happened to be watching TV when Rick noticed out the window an osprey carrying a large fish.  This quickly led to the realization that there was an awesome sunset happening outside!

The next day, we drove to the nearby preserved gold mining towns of Virginia City and Nevada City for some sightseeing.  Starting in the 1940's, Charles and Sue Bovey began preserving the decaying buildings and moving similar buildings from other parts of Montana to these towns. The towns are now a fun mixture of museums, restaurants, shops, inns, railroad, and a live theater. We ended up walking about 4 miles that day.

This was probably the most unusual item we found in the museum in Virginia City.

Nevada City

A 2-story outhouse--no kidding

Nevada City had a fascinating museum of old mechanical musical instruments

This is a violano--a mechanical violin and piano

A very elaborate fairground organ

A scenic spot along the highway overlooking the town of Ennis

Saturday was cooler than the rest of the week, so we took a down day to just hang out at home and take care of some minor items (touching up some rust, touching up the paint on the Adirondack chairs, cleaning solar panels and skylights, and other random stuff).

On Sunday, we noticed a brown sign across the main road from our campground that pointed to a creek access/recreation area, so we decided to check it out with our bikes.  Turns out it was a really nice gravel road that led to the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (all up hill-- but no problem with our ebikes!)  We ended up riding just over 26 miles, but didn't quite make it all the way to the lake we saw on the map.  We were getting a bit tired and we were concerned about our batteries running out.  So we stopped short of the lake and turned around.  We figured we could bring the truck back the next day with the bikes and ride even further.

Almost made it to the lake - a little farther up and to the left - but there was still quite a bit of uphill and both our batteries and our butts were getting a bit flat.

I (Rick) am really liking the photospheres for this "big sky country". It is nice to go back and be able to just look around (and zoom in and out) at the places we visited.

Monday was our last day here, and it was the day to tackle going to the lakes that we didn't reach the previous day. We decided to take the bikes in the truck to the area we left off on Sunday.

This ride was only 12.9 miles but started out from an altitude of 6257 and climbed to 7783 for a total gain of 1526 feet. Have we mentioned how much we appreciate having ebikes?

Julie just can't resist a field of wildflowers

The first lake (Sureshot Lake) we rode to was up a really sketchy road that was so steep and rocky that we had to walk the bikes up (we are not mountain bikers and our bikes are not THAT good!) But up the hill was a small scenic hidden lake at the end. We noticed several tent campsites around it.

The water was quite clear

Upper Sureshot Lake was nice as well, although we noticed a lot of dead trees in this area. We're guessing the culprit is the mountain pine beetle? There seem to be a lot of young trees popping up, so hopefully the worst is over with.

Upper Sureshot Lake

After Upper Sureshot Lake, the road got sketchier and sketchier, but it looked like it just might make it to the top.  Rick left Julie behind to take the "road" to the top.  (Julie seldom has the need to go to the very top of things, but Rick seldom can resist the challenge.) This time he failed in his mission. It was just too sketchy, and every rise he went over revealed at least one more.  Here is what it looked like most of the way up. Julie was happy to just see the pictures.

Coming back down

Julie was happy to just take in the view at the "not top".

On Tuesday we moved on to our next destination. We really enjoyed the setting on Ennis Lake, but we were ready to see more sights!

A lone pelican on a quiet morning on Lake Ennis

We must be in Montana - where else can you see a cowboy chasing his loose calf down the road?

I'm free!

There is a google group email list which can send you an email when there is a new blog post. Instructions for signing up here: Subscribe OR directly join here: Google Group