St. Mary's Peak Lookout

This hike, just like the one to Skookum Butte Lookout, was originally planned for our trip to Montana in July.  However, on the day we intended to hike St. Mary's Peak, we woke up to rain.  Although it wasn't a steady downpour, we were concerned that heavy cloud cover would obstruct any views from the summit.  Today, the weather was completely different.  According to the locals, who have been dealing with wildfire smoke all summer, it was a perfect Fall day by "Montana standards."

This sign made us smile . . .
We guess this is how you are directed to lookouts in Montana!

Now here's an "old fashioned" sign that we're more comfortable with . . .
That's St. Mary's Peak (9,351 ft) in the morning sunshine

After a 12-mile ride on a steep switchbacked dirt road, we have arrived at the trailhead

We saw several of these hollowed out logs, with rocks in them, along the trail . . .
The trail certainly wasn't lacking for extra rocks

We kept waiting for a switchback on this section of the trail . . . 
Instead, the trail paralleled a ridge, on pretty much a straight line, for almost a 1½ miles

About halfway up the trail, the views started to come into focus . . .
You can see a small lake in the center of the picture, just below the pyramid shaped ridge

Ah, there it is . . .
The lookout looked close, but there were still a lot of switchbacks yet to come 

These are the last six switchbacks before reaching the summit

One more to go!

At the trailhead there was a sign posted on the message board saying the tower was closed for repairs . . .
We were a little disappointed that we wouldn't be able to go up the tower . . .
But, to our surprise, when we arrived the tower was open and the shutters were up . . . yea!

The views were tremendous!
Not much was going on inside the tower . . . just a few sleeping bags and lots of paint cans . . .
As it was a Saturday, we assumed the workers went home for the weekend

Looking north towards St. Joseph & Lolo Peaks . . . Missoula is to the northeast of these peaks

We were intrigued with the base of this lookout tower . . . 
Most set on a metal or wood scaffolding, but this one was erected on a rock base . . . it gave it a neat appearance
The lookout was originally built in 1935, but was rebuilt and restored in 1952

Looking west towards the Heavenly Twins

National Geodetic Survey's (NGS) map didn't show any benchmark on this peak . . .
Obviously, there's one here . . . why do they recognize some and not others?
Regardless, we were happy to find one!

We're not a 100% sure, but we believe this is another picture looking towards St. Joseph Peak (9,587 ft) . . .
(Click here for a nice Y/T video from David Stevenson who hiked it in 2020)

We were surprised when this group of Mennonite? Quaker? or Amish? women joined us at the top . . .
They were very friendly and said they were from Stevensville

More Bitterroot views

A selfie with St. Mary's Lookout before heading down

When we first started our trip we had only planned on hiking to three lookouts, but we ended up doing five. (Horton Peak, Granite Peak, Skookum & West Butte, and St. Mary's)  We were amazed at the sheer number of either active, abandoned, or restored lookouts that we found in Idaho and Montana and wondered why there are so many more here as compared to other areas.

It seems to stem back to what was known as the Big Burn/Blowup Fire of 1910 that burned over 3 million acres in Northern Idaho and Western Montana.  It ended up killing 87 people, most of whom were firefighters.  The fire prompted major changes in Forest Service policy and management strategies.  This seems to make sense why most of the lookouts we visited had originally been built in the 1930's.

Leaving the tower and heading for the six switchbacks

This picture show the steepness of the terrain . . . 
That's the Bitterroot Valley some 6,000 ft below us!

Looking back up at St. Mary's Peak (9,351 ft) from near the town of Stevensville in the Bitterroot Valley

A big thanks to Rod Benson (aka Big Sky Walker) whose post on St. Mary's Peak inspired us to give it a try!  This trail came in at almost 8-miles with 2,500 ft of elevation gain.  It took us around 5 hours to complete, but was worth every minute.  If you're looking for a challenging hike, with a neat lookout, and amazing 360° views of the Bitterroot Mountain Range and Bitterroot Valley, then you've come to the right trailhead!