After having such a great time hiking in Billings and Bozeman, I wanted to get in a few more Montana hikes in Helena. Of course, the first thing I had to do was climb to the top of the mountain named after the city—Mount Helena.

On the way up, I started on Prospect Shafts Trail. The path was easy to follow, and there were some nice views progressively throughout the whole hike. The recent snow meant that the higher mountains in the back were still snow-capped.

On the way up, I ran into some wildflowers…

… as well as a pair of deer scavenging for food.

Usually when I run into deer, they keep their distance and are quick to flee when I get near to try and capture a photograph, but the deer I met here seemed to not mind that I was creeping closer and closer to try and get a better picture. That’s good and makes me happy, not only because I got a decent photo, but also because it tells me that the other people around here respect the deer enough that the deer have learned that people are not a threat.

I got pretty out of breath as I got closer to the summit; I’ve done hikes with a greater total elevation gain, but the summit of Mount Helena is 5,433 feet (1,656 meters), so the oxygen gets a bit more sparse up here than at the taller hikes I’ve done on the flatter East Coast.

I connected from Prospect Shafts Trail onto Hogback Trail for the final stretch.

Eventually, I made it to the summit and was able to take in the vast, sweeping, panoramic views of Helena and the surrounding area.

There were two guys already there at the top. Shortly after my arrival, an old man also made it to the top; he let me know that this was the first time he had made it to the summit in five years, and that he’s been really working on getting healthy and fit again.

On the way down, I switched over to Powerline Trail. The distance was shorter, which meant that the grade was a lot steeper, so it took a bit of extra focus and control not to trip, fall, and slide down the mountainside.

In total, the path I took was just over two and a half miles (which translates over to a little over four kilometers), and had a total elevation gain of about 1,100 feet (336 meters).

Needless to say, if you ever visit Helena, I definitely recommend hiking its namesake mountain. It’s a great workout, it has unobstructed views of the city and Lake Helena to one side, and amazing views of the mountains on the other.

After my stay in Billings, I made my way two hours westbound on Interstate 90 to my next stop in Bozeman. Unfortunately, it was raining during the eve­ning I arrived and snowing on the day after, but I managed to squeeze in a hike at Drinking Horse Mountain next to the Bozeman Fish Technology Cen­ter and Montana Outdoor Science School.

I parked over by Bridger Canyon Drive and started my hike on Nature Trail, later connecting onto Drinking Horse Hill Trail.

One of the things that I enjoy about Montana is the presence of no-leash hiking trails.

I’ve mentioned this before, but the culture of the places out here where it’s less populated is much more pleasant than it is in big cities, and I’ve noticed that the people here are far more kind, integrous, and respectful towards each other. Considering my past experiences living in cities, I feel like a no-leash concept absolutely would not work in or near a major city, not only because inconsiderate people would release their untrained dogs to wreak havoc, but also be­cause there are a lot more sensitive people who would feel violated by the presence of loose dogs.

In Montana, all the dogs I ran into were extremely well-behaved, even including hunting dogs that their owners had proactively leashed anyway due to the fact that they may have underlying aggressive instincts. There are few things more joyful than seeing random dogs happily roaming round, and as you approach, they skip and bound up to your side and wait for you to pet them. This seems like a fairly small thing, but with my love of animals, this made my hik­ing experience much better.

The path up to the summit was clear and easy to hike. It ended up being a mixture of light forest and open trail with some great views in all directions as you got higher.

I used to only include photos of flowers and other close-ups of vegetation in the “continue reading” section below-the-fold of my blog posts, but I got some feedback that including photos like this adds to visual diversity, so I decided to include a few above-the-fold this time (or rather, there is no below-the-fold this time, as this ended up being a fairly straightforward hike and I don’t have an excess of photographs).

Long story short, I think Montana is one of the most underrated states in America. With multiple layers of mountains, tons of trees, and some of the freshest air I’ve ever breathed, making it to the summit and just sitting down and looking around was one of the most calming, soothing feelings.

Prior to doing this hike, I thought I was hiking up to the Col­lege M, before realizing that I was on the opposite side of the road. For some reason, the Col­lege M hike wasn’t on All Trails when I had checked, and I didn’t want to take a risk and do an impromptu second hike after Drinking Horse Moun­tain in case the elevation gain was unmanageably high and the distance was too long—I hadn’t eaten yet that day, and I had to make it back to my hotel with only an hour or so to spare to attend a conference call.

The Drinking Horse Mountain hike ended up being a little bit over 2 miles, with a total elevation gain of about 650 feet. I’ve done hikes a lot higher than that, but not at an elevation comparable to Montana’s, so the hike definitely got me breathing hard.

After making a stop at Gillette, Wyoming, I was planning on making another stop at Sheridan, Wyoming before entering southern Montana, but because of a forecasted blizzard, I had to make some unexpected changes in my travel schedule. I ended up skipping Sheridan and going straight to Billings, Mon­tana, making it there early enough to dodge the snowstorm in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.

The weather wasn’t exactly the best in Billings when I was there, but there were still enough clear days for me to fit in two hikes. The first I did was Zimmerman Trail, starting at Zimmerman Park in northern Billings and stretching across along the Rims. This trail had some nice views of Billings fac­ing south, as well some snow-covered mountaintops in the far distance.

I met a friendly ladybug at the far west side of Zimmerman Park where the path turned into the private property of the homes on Arapaho Lookout.

On my way back, I saw a car wreck on the lower trail, closer to some of the homes on the northern tip of West 37th Street, which reminded me of the car wreck I saw at the Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park in California, and made me curious again about the story behind how the driver lost con­trol of the vehicle, and whether they survived.

Overall, the hike was a little bit over 3 miles and only had an overall elevation change of about a few hundred feet.

The following day, I went to Riverfront Park and took a leisurely walk around Lake Josephine and alongside the Yellowstone River.

This adventure was also a little bit over 3 miles and had nearly no elevation change. The far eastern side of the path I took, near the intersection of Wash­ington Street and South Frontage Road, ended up going through a bit of denser forest, but the rest of the trail was very beginner-friendly, with a lot of it even being paved with asphalt.

With two days spent indoors hiding from the rain, resting up, and playing some newly-released video game content; two days spent outdoors hiking; and the rest of the time in between filled in with work; that wrapped up my relatively short four-and-a-half day stay in Billings. Next up: Bozeman, Montana.