A while back, I saw photos of this snow-covered wonderland and I knew I had to see it for myself. It took a few years to find the opportunity, but I finally managed to squeeze it in.
We arrived at the trailhead around 10:00am on a Friday to find an icy road to the parking area and zero cars. We slowly inched our way onto the road and quickly decided we didn’t want to risk it in our sedan. I was pretty sure we’d make it down the hill but I wasn’t convinced we’d make it back up afterwards.
Fortunately, there’s a larger parking area just across the river that was much less icy. The downside to this parking area is that the only way to get to the trailhead from here requires walking alongside the highway, wedged between a short cement barrier and the guardrail. They seriously need to build a bridge or a walking path or something here; this trail is super popular in the summer and having so many people walking along a narrow road right as it goes around a fairly sharp curve is really dangerous.
But we made it and set off up the trail, which was fairly well packed down. It was snowing lightly and I felt a little like I was walking inside a beautiful forested snow globe.
We didn’t see any wildlife (except for a couple squirrels which, let’s be real, doesn’t count), but the freshly fallen snow was a canvas for hundreds of sets of animal tracks. There were many snowshoe hare footprints and tracks from other small animals as well, including the one below that we think is from a weasel or ermine.
(Please also enjoy the photo of me stepping off the trail to take a picture of said tracks and immediately sinking in up to my hips. Thankfully, no one thought to snap a photo of me gracelessly clawing my way out of this position.)
The trail is pretty consistently uphill from the very beginning, though there are a couple parts that are steeper than the rest. One of the steepest parts is the final climb up the headwall. From here, it’s just a short and mostly flat walk back to the lake.
Going into this hike, I was hoping the clouds would lift enough to have a view of the mountains that frame the lake, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. It was still snowing – albeit lightly – and when we reached the lake it was as though we’d stepped into a wind tunnel. The snow was moving horizontally and the wind was frigid!
Needless to say, we did not see the mountaintops and we did not spend much time at the lake. So that was kind of a bummer, but I guess it’s what you have to expect on winter hikes in the mountains.
Annoyingly, within 30 mins of departing the lake, the snow stopped falling and the sky began to clear. By the time we were back to the car, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Clearly we should have started our hike about half an hour later. So that was frustrating.
But it was still a good hike and the snow-covered forest was lovely, and I’m glad we made it to Lava Lake in the winter!
The Important Stuff:
- Getting there: Lava Lake Trailhead is located just off Highway 191 in Gallatin Canyon, 15.5 miles (25 km) south of Gallatin Gateway, MT. Signage is pretty good. There is limited parking at the trailhead; for additional parking, continue across the bridge (if traveling south) to the large lot on the right.
- Fees and passes: none
- Hiking: round trip distance is about 6 miles (9.6 km) with 1600 feet (490 m) of elevation gain; moderate to strenuous, depending on your level of acclimation to elevation.
- Where to stay: there are various campgrounds and other lodging options in and around Big Sky and throughout Gallatin Canyon, or you can backpack in and spend the night at Lava Lake (please obey posted signage about where to camp and the prohibition on campfires, and adhere to all Leave No Trace principles).
- Other: this is an extremely popular hike in the summer, and lightly-traveled in the winter (we didn’t see too many people, but the trail was firmly packed down), so you likely won’t be alone on the trail. Nonetheless, this is bear country so appropriate precautions should be taken. I personally wouldn’t do this hike in the winter without good route-finding skills; in a couple places there were multiple sets of footprints that required us to figure out which way was correct.
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