Drive Day to Fairy Lake

Fairy Lake

Since Cooper and Company need some time to recover from our 10+ miler we chose to drive out to Fairy Lake out in the Bridgers.  We’d driven past last winter, but the roads were closed.  It was another beautiful blue sky day and thought it would provide a good opportunity to rest our feet.
 

Bridger Ski Mountain

The drive took us past Bridger Bowl and we pulled over to check the progress of their new lifts.  The new lifts are almost complete and we are pretty excited about those.  It is strange to see the mountain snow free.  It looks so much more rugged and impressive…hard to believe that we can board down those slopes.  A few miles later we turned onto the road to Fairy Lake.  The Forest Service mentioned the road was steep and rutted…advised against trailers and expressed a need for 4-wheel drive.  They were not kidding.  Fairy Lake lies at the end of 7 miles of one of the worse roads we have driven across.  Along the way we drove past numerous meadows filled with wildflowers and in the distance was an impressive mountain.  Cars and trucks passed by heading back down…lots of them.  We had no idea why so many people would be out on this particularly bad road.  Once we reached the end we knew exactly why so many people travelled out to Fairy Lake.  Simply a stunning area…the glacial lake surrounded by mountains.  Cool breezes and beautiful scenery. 

Wildflower meadows

We pulled over to a picnic table and had our lunch.  After lunch we followed the trail down to the actual lake.  A few people braved the beautiful blue green COLD water…a few fished and walked the trail that circled the entire shoreline.  We took a short walk around one side of the lake and took in the scenery.   Cooper splashed out to his belly and just stood there…still no swimming from him.  Why?  Once we returned to Bozeman we dropped by the Garage for a beer and dinner.  It may seem as if we’ve been spoiled by being too close to town, but we’d planned to meet up with our landlord from last winter so we had some time to waste…no better way than with a Bozone.  We’ve decided to once again spend winter in Bozeman and Marjorie has kindly agreed to allow us to stay in her apartment.

Part of the Bridger Range

Cooper cooling his belly

The great blonde hunter on patrol

Yet more meadow flowers

Road view of the Bridgers



Open meadows



What?  Dr. Suess flowers

Creek side flowers

Fairy Lake



The Guys