Hello All: This is a post about a hike I did late last summer. I first came to Montana in 1973 to attend Montana State University in Bozeman. I have seen Sphinx Mountain in the Madison River Drainage many time during the next 40 years. Every time I drove by I would say to my self that someday I would walk up the Sphinx. But of course, I was always passing by on the way to somewhere else and so I didn’t get the job done. So last summer I decided that this was the year and I would make a special trip to do it. No excuses this time. The Sphinx is located about 10 miles south of Ennis, Montana and due east of the small town of Cameron This is a brief account of my trip It was a great trip and well worth it, but the last 2 miles on the peak each way were rough in spots. I camped at the Bear Creek Campground on Wednesday. I got there about 6:30 PM and was set up by 7. The campground is next to the old Bear Creek Ranger station. It is now part of the cabin rental program. Had I known that, I would have been tempted to rent it for the night. That evening when I was finishing up my supper, a local ranch hand drove up to let me know that his trail camera had captured an image of a good sized Grizzly Bear feeding on his apples. He sent the photo to Bozeman and the tech said it might even be in the 500 pound range. He was letting anyone in the campground (only me in this case) know that the bear was around. Earlier, I had seen some good sized bear scat with chokecherries in it by the cabin. I had brought my cot along just in case, so I set it up in the back of the truck in case I needed to bail out of the tent. The night was totally uneventful - no bears, no elk bugling, no wolf howling or coyote yipping. It was a nice clear warm night with lots of stars though. I got up about 5:30 and had a leisurely breakfast until about 6:30 when I took off. It was pretty gray, but light enough to walk. I wanted to get an early start in case it turned out to be more challenging that I thought it would be. As I hiked up the first two miles along the creek, I saw a number of GB tracks all heading down to the apple tree. After 2 miles, the trail branches off to the left. By then it was plenty light and warming up, so I stopped to take my long sleeved shirt off and take a couple of photos. The next 3 miles were up a long valley and a few switchbacks to get to Helmet Pass (9,000 feet). This part of the trip took about 2 hours. From the pass, a climbers trail takes off to Sphinx. There is no actual trail junction you just have to go up a few feet above the trail and see it. The trail on the peak starts out steep but easy and soon joins a trail that crosses to the gully between the two halves of Sphinx. The guide books, if you want to call them that, talk about a west ridge trail, and I wouldnt mind doing it one more time to see if there is such a thing, but I didnt find it. There are quite a few little trails but the main one goes pretty much up the gully. Both the Helmet and Sphinx are conglomerate rock which weathers into gravel. Its pretty slippery going up, and more slippery coming down. It takes another hour to summit, so 3 hrs each way. If the peak wasnt so gravelly it would be a little faster. Near the top of the gully, its tempting to turn right and trudge up to the top. I did that, but next time I would follow the gully almost to the top where there is a better gravelly swithback trail to the peak. The peak is kind of narrow but not knife edged in any way and really drops off to the east - I would guess 1,500 feet or more. Since I was alone and there was no one else on the peak, I just took a picture of my backpack and hiking poles to document that I got there. I didnt stand on the cairn to be on the very top spot because it drops off severely on the other side. I would hate to lose my balance. The trip down the peak is less fun that going up but I only slipped badly a few times. Once I got down to just above the saddle it was smooth sailing all the way out. I did see GB tracks the lower 3 miles on the way in and out, but they were all going down trail and were older tracks. After reaching the first jct again, I met a group of 2 guys and 1 gal with 4 heavily laden horses going in to set up an archery hunting camp. They were all walking and the horses had big mantis on them. I got back to camp at 1230 and spent a leisurely hour breaking camp and eating lunch. I hated to leave it was so nice. Even though the elevation gain is about 4,500 feet in 7 miles, it doesnt seen that steep in part because the horse traffic keeps the trail in good walking condition. A lot of the elevation gain is in the last 2 miles too. Its very scenic and well worth the time to get there and back.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:55:18 +0000