Summit Elephant Head Mountain in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness

To begin the journey, head east from Livingston until the last exit onto Frontage Road. Take Frontage to a lefthand turn onto Swingley Rd. Drive for about 10 minutes until you find Bruffy Lane on your right. Turn and ride for a few miles until reaching "63 Ranch" on your right. Turn onto this driveway and bare left at the first fork, going through the green gate. Continue through a few gates for a mile to the trailhead. Be sure to open and close the gates as found.

     Park in the small lot at the Mission Creek trailhead and meet the trail. The first mile and a half travels parallel alongside Mission Creek with only one stream crossing. 

    If hiking in the summertime, be sure to bring some small containers with you on this hike, as the majority of the trail travels through a plethora  of wild huckleberry patches. Best times for huckleberry picking is mid-July to mid-August. (Huckleberries are purple berries smaller than blueberries and grow on bushes throughout Montana and Idaho.) There were also wild raspberries and thimbleberries along our route. Just be careful not to eat the tiny red berries that have a similar shape of a huckleberry. Those are poisonous!

    After stopping to snack on some wild, fresh-picked hucks, continue traveling up the gradual switchbacks through old, burned forests and sections of thick foliage.

     Eventually, the trail comes out to an area speckled with boulders in all directions. At this point, you may be able to see Elephant Head standing prominent to the west. 

    Once spotted, head toward it! The trail continues up and over the pass, but this is the point where the rest of the journey to summit is your own forging.

     Make your way across the meadow and toward the sloping hill. There may be some rock scrambling during this part of the ascension. To the left is a sheer, grand limestone rock wall. To the right is a sloping shoulder that carries up into a long slant of slab rock. The right is the non-technical approach to summit. Although non-technical, the slanted slab is steep and precarious. Step mindfully.

     Once up the slab, head to the right to access the true summit. The final elevation takes you to 9,431 ft. 

     The top offers beautiful panoramic views of the Absaroka Mountains cascading in all directions. Unfortunately, our summit view was compromised by current forest fires flooding the sky in a smokey haze. Still a magnificent and fun-filled journey! Expect to return with purple hands once trekking back down through the berry patches.