Today we went to Big Sky, which is about an hour drive from Yellowstone. Big Sky is best known for being a popular ski resort, but I’d read about a hike there which is listed on some websites as being in the world’s top 10 list of hikes. As you know we have done our fair share of hiking, so we were keen to put this one to the test. So, we set off in great anticipation and good spirits…

…but those good spirits didn’t last long as disaster struck when we parked at the trailhead and went to get our backpack out of the boot…and it wasn’t there. We had remembered other things like our lunch cool bag, waterproofs, change of clothes, water carrier, but were missing the backpack which carried all of our hiking essentials, namely more water and snacks (important when you are doing an 6.6 mile uphill slog) and probably even more important it contained our bear spray and bear bell too. We were fuming and annoyed at ourselves for forgetting the one bag that we actually needed…arguably the other things we could’ve done without.

Therefore we had two choices, one, drive back to Yellowstone and do a walk back there and come to Big Sky again, which wasn’t appealing as it would mean a lot more driving and the weather in Big Sky looked rainy for the next few days…or, option two, was do the walk without the backpack which was even less appealing when doing an uphill hike in bear country. Hmmm…fortunately Si had a brainwave and suggested that we drive to the Big Sky town area and pick up snacks and also rent a can of bear spray for the day. They have these bear spray type vending machines in a number of places in the area where you can rent a can for the day and then return it…hopefully unused! So that is exactly what we did.

Beehive Basin Trail

So we got to the trailhead carpark for the second time, and were finally able to set off.

The first part of the walk takes you along lovely meadows and then through forests, giving various views of the mountains and valley along the way. There is a 1,500ft elevation gain so some parts were fairly steep so it was pretty heavy going. It didn’t help that our pockets were laden with protein bars and Si had two holsters on his belt (one with water, one with the bear spray) owing to our lack of backpack.

After about 3.5 miles we made it to the Beehive Basin itself, which is a bowl-shaped glacially carved alpine valley surrounded by mountains and peaks, with a lovely clear lake in the middle. It sits at almost 10,000ft and gives you great views of Lone Peak, one of the areas most iconic mountains. It was also nice and peaceful there too which made a nice change from Yellowstone which had a lot more tourists.

We then scrambled up the rock face at the other side of the lake to get an overview shot of the lake/view from higher up.

On the way back down we stopped at another look-out point with views of Lone Peak. We got chatting to a nice couple from Nashville when we stopped too which was very apt for us.

We had a couple of animal sightings today too, firstly there was a moose sunbathing in one of the fields we had to cross and then another one was crossing the road when we were driving home.

All in all it had been a fun day, and we’re glad we got to the Beehive basin trail. Would it feature in our top 10 hikes…not sure!

Anyway, more from us soon.

Lucy