July 5 - Cinnamon Mountain Hike

Cinnamon Mountain is located about 10 miles south of the Big Sky Spur Road. This hike is listed on one of our handy dandy guide maps and so far, this map has had nothing but excellent hikes!

Today was HOT again - mid to upper 80s and sunny with some welcome cumulus clouds to give some shade. Now that Laurie is all warmed up with a few shorter hikes under her belt, we thought we'd try this 8.4 mile hike with a rise of 2,700 vertical feet. The summit is at 9,235 feet, about 400 feet lower than Sacagawea.

Flowers were phenomenal once again but today we had another surprise -- lots and lots of butterflies! Unfortunately, we also had some pesky flies that were mildly bothersome at times (or maybe more than mildly).

Butterfly in Some Type of Sunflower

As you can see below, the views on this trail were phenomenal too. We got great views of the Madison Range including Sphinx Mountain, the Spanish Peaks, Lone Mountain, and the Gallatin Range. Most impressive though was the view of the Madison Range. Holy tamale, I thought I was in Rocky Mountain National Park!!

Madison Range

Geyer (?) Larkspur

As we approached the summit of Cinnamon Mtn., we got a view of the summit of Sphinx Mountain, which is supposed to be one of the finest climbs in all the Rockies (It is next on the list! Bummer is that the trailhead is almost a 2-hour drive away in the Madison Valley near Ennis, MT. It's elevation is "only" 10,876 ft. but the hike rises 4,630 feet and is 13 miles long! Can't wait!!)

Lupine and Sphinx Mountain