The melodic rush of tumbling water over rock provided background music as our horses made their way up the twisting trail above the falls. Below, Holland Lake glittered like a sapphire, a clear crystalline blue ringed with the plush dark green of spruce and pine. Day two featured perhaps the most dramatic scenery of the trip as we rode to the edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. Mountain trails were often steep and twisting, but our horses were careful and the views worth every step. On another day we ventured through rugged Grizzly Basin, a protected grizzly bear habitat.
Wildflowers bloom in abundance during Montana's short summers.
From fiery red Indian paintbrush and bear grass, with its distinctive feathery plumes, to delicate wild roses and flaming pink spires of the prolific fireweed, colors of varied hues decorate the windswept ridges and mountainsides. Four days of riding took us through a variety of terrain and elevations. Covering between 17 and 25 miles per day, we passed through open cattle country carpeted with lush grass and abundant wildflowers and along trails that wound through spruce, larch pines and soldier-straight lodgepole pines. We traveled along tree-shaded paths, rocky mountain trails and old logging roads that ribboned their way up and down the mountainsides. Rides were chatty and informative, as were the evenings spent listening to cowboy poetry or watching in serene silence as the sun painted fading colors on the lake.