However, getting off the beaten path requires advanced wilderness skills. The first 3 miles into Elk Lake are well-traveled and go by quickly. Expect to see lots of people on this popular stretch of trail. But every step of the way beyond Elk Lake is a step deeper and deeper into the wilderness, and it really seems like it. Just after Elk Lake, the trail passes through an area where wild berries are as abundant as anywhere in the Beartooths, so browsers beware.
Progress can slow to glacial speed.
For about a mile, a kaleidoscope of berries beckons from trailside, with huge crops of most species found in the Beartooths in abundance, especially huckleberries, thimbleberries, and wild raspberries, all nicely ripe in mid-August. U.S. Highway 212. From berry heaven, the trail breaks out of the forest and climbs about 800 feet through a monstrous rock field to Rimrock Lake. For a mile or so below the lake, East Rosebud Creek is little more than a long set of rapids. Apparently a big rockslide formed a natural dam and backed up Rimrock Lake.