THE HIKE: From Helena head Head east on E Custer Ave toward N Washington St and then continue on Canyon Ferry Rd/CR-430 for 7.5 miles. Turn left at Hart Ln and continue 3.7 miles. Turn right at York Rd and go 7.3 miles. Turn left at Nelson Rd, proceed 7.9 miles. Slight right at Beaver Creek Rd and look for the trailhead in 4.5 miles. The Dingo rates this hike a 10/10 babies. She imagines she’s here whenever she starts spinning circles and running for joy!
View Larger Map

Refrigerator Canyon is one of those rare places that make the world seem fresh. A place where if you can convince yourself something like it waits just around the next bend, you can imagine a world of constant wonder.

Of course, it helped that we found the hike in the middle of a string of 90 degree or more days. We were heading back toward Bozeman from Helena and thought we’d take the long way and poke around the Gateway to the Mountains Wilderness. After a wrong turn and an extra hour in the car we were just anxious to get out into the woods away from the hustle of Montana’s capitol city. I was expecting some dessert hiking, hopefully including shade.

So when we stopped at the first trailhead we found and started up the mountain, I was devastated to find a cool wind blowing from between two steep mountain cliffs. A stream pushed down the center of the canyon, taking over the trail at times. It was exactly the reason why I wear flip-flops hiking this time of year. I don’t have to hesitate, I can just tromp up the middle of the streams that tend run through or take over trails in the spring melt.

Sarah rode piggy-back when we hit a stretch of trail fifty feet long and maybe six-eight feet wide, making a kind of long white granite hall with dashes of green where moss has bedded along a crack. The temperature there must have been a brisk 60 degrees which felt orgasmic after the heat. We heard a dog bark at the top of the hall. Scherzo just stopped where she was a few feet ahead of us and I managed to snag her leash out of her pack and walk her up past the group of people and their crazy barking shock collared lab. The guy who owned the lab was of the sort that thinks your dogs obedience proves something about the size of your penis and told me his dog was fine to pass. But I’ve seen how often the dogs whose owners rely on shock collars break their stays, get a shock and bite the dog they’re running up to meet. So with Sarah still on my back, I went well out of the way, through some brush, and up the trail.

Scherzo did great, completely ignored the barking dog. Sarah was getting heavy at this point so I set her down, had Scherz sit, and the let them both romp around freely.

After the Fridge, the landscape opened up into the familiar dessert mountain hiking typical to Montana. About two miles in we came on a sign welcoming us to the Gateway to the Mountains wilderness, which was odd to find that far up the trail but I guess it didn’t officially start until there.

Four miles up the trail you hit a cross trail and you can hike all through the wilderness area bouncing between trails. We were only ready for day hike though, so we turned back there. On the way down we startled a buck and Scherzo started running for it but turned back when I called her name. Every other time we’ve seen a deer she’s taken off in hot pursuit, coming back after she chases it out of sight, so that was improvement.

After the hike we went car camping up the road a little way. We were baking potatoes and playing cards when we hear an odd droning noise. A while passed and we heard it again. I took it for some sort of deer or moose call, having never heard either before.

But soon we were hearing it regularly and it was getting closer. Then came the definitive mooing of a cattle herd. Not knowing how the dog and cattle would react we jumped into the van while the first of the cows approached. But Scherzo was indifferent so we got out and went back to playing cards.

For the next three hours or so the cows filtered pass. Scherzo fell asleep a few times and only layed there and growled if a cow came too close. They’d hear her growling and turn and run the other way. I think she enjoyed that way too much.