Trail Shots: Fall brings color, snow

Mike Foote runs in the Bass Creek drainage of the Bitterroot Mountains. Photo credit: Forrest Boughner

It’s officially fall in Montana.

The huckleberry leaves have long been bright red, the larch are going golden, snow is dusting the high country and daylight is fading.

Trail runners are still getting into the hills, but as the elements begin to keep us closer to home Trail Shots will be slowing for the season. We’re not going away - just posting a little less often through winter.

Nonetheless, we’ll be watching to share your adventures. Here are some of the highlights from recent weeks:

At top, Forrest Boughner and Mike Foote went on a midweek run recently up to Bass Lake in the Bitterroot Mountains, where snow was collecting high on the rocky ridgelines.

Kailee Carnes stands silhouetted next to a cairn on Lincoln Peak in Glacier National Park. Photo credit: Jesse Carnes

Kailee and Jesse Carnes ran Gunsight Pass in Glacier National Park, covering 24 miles with detours to Florence Falls, the end of the trail to Jackson Glacier and up 7,450-foot Lincoln Peak.

Allison Onstad climbs toward Holland Peak in the Swan Range. Photo credit: John Fiore

Allison Onstad and John Fiore enjoyed a sunny day up Holland Peak in the Swan Range - with no one else around.

Margie Menendez surrounded by fall colors in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area. Photo credit: Margie Menendez

And finally, Margie Menendez found fall’s finest colors above Spring Gulch on the trail to Stuart Peak in the Rattlesnake Recreation Area.