Return trip to the Beartooths

Back to the Beartooths for the Two Flatlanders. Just the two of us this time-We tried to force Alan to join us again, but he was having none of it after last year's rainy and mosquito filled trip. ( I actually thought it was quite a nice adventure). We did the usual approach-Bozeman via Denver, motel in Red Lodge, and then my favorite all time drive: the Beartooth Highway, up Lulu Pass Rd to the trailhead. Nice sunny day to start, and the air was remarkably insect-free. It would remain so for the duration. Up past Lady of the Lake, to Zimmer Creek. We made good time despite our late start, but made the right turn to Cardiac Hill a bit to early, and had to bushwack some before finding the trail again. The first view of Lower Aero over the rocks is always pleasing, and since it was now about 4:00, we started to look for a campsite. Lo and behold, just up to the left was a perfect 4-level bench. Two other parties had tents set up already, so we took the top floor, which had a nice view, with a little tarn right above so we didn't have to go all the way down to the lake for water. Definitely made the top-5 campsite list. (But they all do up here). We went to chat with the neighbors, 4 guys from Charlotte who were planning the same loop as us, and hung out with the goats for a while.
We had a sunny start to the day the next morning, and made our way around the west side of Lower Aero on a faint use trail. Crossed the Upper Aero outlet stream, and began to notice clouds building to the west. Went around the east side of Upper Aero to the saddle leading to Rough lake. By this time it was getting pretty dark, but we made it over the saddle and around halfway down when it began to precipitate. Not really hail, graupel, those little snow pellets. We put on our shells, and hiked over the many boulder fields to another nice, grassy, bench overlooking Rough Lake. The weather let up enough for us to put up the tents, but it would stay grey for the next day and a half. Intermittent graupel, sleet, snow, with strong winds at times. We were able to cook in the vestibule of my tent, and I had brought a book to read for just such an occasion. (Raymond Chandler). The next morning the plan was to get going as soon as it cleared up, but it never did. We did a dayhike up over a saddle to Skytop basin, and just hung around camp.
It cleared up overnight, and we had a beautiful day for the hike to Oly Lake. We went up and over on the left side of the Skytop drainage, and dropped down to Skytop. Nice views here with the mountains frosted from the previous days snow. Came around the lake, past the thumb, and down the little valley, past several tarns, and through the rocky stream, till we finally reached the grassy last 1/4 mile leading down to the lake. Oly is, I think, our favorite spot in the Beartooths. We set up camp, then hiked up the Cairn Lake drainage a ways. We followed a badger, as he moved in and out of this whole area of intertwining streams and waterfalls, with a cascade in the distance.
The next morning we headed down the outlet stream to the Rosebud trail. Easy, on-trail hiking now, around Fossil Lake to Fizzle. Here we left the trail again, and headed around the north side of Fizzle Lake. This may have been a mistake, as we had a bit of a tough time getting around, with a slightly hairy descent of a small cliff with some exposure. The south side may have been better. But we made it through, and started up Russell Creek north towards Rough Lake. We camped about a third of the way up, we needed some rest!
We continued up the drainage the next day, around a large tarn, hoping that the descent to Rough lake would not be too steep. Found a do-able way down with the occasional bootprint showing that we were not the only ones coming through. There was a fairly well defined use trail around Rough lake, which we followed to Lone Elk. Crossed the outlet stream, then lost the trail as we headed up a rise and found ourselves looking down at Shelter lake. But we found it again, very well defined by now, and made our way down Skytop Creek. Downhill and on trail now, we made very good time and found ourselves back on the Lady of the lake trail at 2:00. I had originally planned to camp somewhere along Skytop Creek, but there were really no good spots after leaving Lone Elk. Now being only 2 hrs from the trailhead, motel, showers etc, we decided to head out. Got rained on the last mile.
Another great Beartooths hike. We had done a similar route 2 years ago, but went out on the Rosebud Trail. This time we added the section from Fizzle up to Rough lake and down Skytop creek, it was worth it.
To cap it off, we met Hikerjer in Red Lodge our last night, and had a real nice dinner and chat at Foster and Logan's.

Here are some photos:

www.flickr.com/photos/49650743@N04/albums/72157655473356443