Cabinet Mountains Road Trip part 2, Hiking to Leigh Lake in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.

Over the weekend I took a three day trip to Montana with the primary goal being to kayak on Bull Lake. We decided to break up the trip by throwing in a challenging hike in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area outside of Libby Montana.

The place we were camping is in a valley that divides the mountain range in half. From the valley are views of the rugged peaks in the center of the Cabinets. We drove about ninety minutes around this range, through Libby and then on dirt forest service roads to the trailhead for the Leigh Lake Trail #132.

After one wrong turn due to missing signage we found the trailhead. The road to it was better than most in this part of the world. Their were only two other vehicles in the small parking area when we got there.

The trail starts out steep and stays steep as it climbs out of the valley on a series of switchbacks.

Not far up the trial a sign lets you know that you’ve entered the wilderness area.

On the way up we passed under some pretty big cliffs. The trail was steeper than Scotchman but much shorter. It got my heart pounding in places.

In places the trail was more of a rock scramble. Yes that is the trail. If you have a fear of heights this might not be the place for you.

There are places were the narrow trail has loose rocks and big drop offs. Caution is advised.

Near the top is one of the highlights of the hike. A cascading waterfall is a nice place to stop and enjoy the views for a while.

Here we had a nice view back down the valley we climbed out of.

It was nice to know we were still on the right track. The trail beyond this point is extremely steep until it gets to the top of the ridge just before the lake. The other trail crosses Leigh Creek and goes to the south side of the lake.

Believe it or not, this is the ‘trail’.

After walking over one last little rise we got our first look at the lake. A short down hill walk brought us to the shore.

The trail follows the shore line until it ends on a rocky beach with views of the rock cliffs at the base of Snowshoe Peak, the tallest mountain in the Cabinets.

Although it is a steep hike, the hike to Leigh Lake from the trailhead is only about a third of the distance and a third of the elevation gain as the hike to the top of Scotchman Peak. For those of you that need more of a challenge some folks continue to the top of the mountain. We met a couple of them on the way down.

From the rocky beach there is a nice panorama of the surrounding mountains and cliffs. The mountain in the center right is the lower slopes of Snowshoe Peak. Snowshoe Peak has the only remaining glacier in the Cabinets on its north shoulder.

A little further around the bend is a pretty marsh. I would not have been surprised to see some wildlife here but we didn’t. There are mountain goats in the area and the Cabinets are grizzly country.

The lake is a place you want to spend some time at appreciating the scenery.

Leigh Lake is the kind of place you would want to stay all day at but eventually it is time to leave. Looking back towards the lake we could see the beginnings of fall in the colors of the leaves and a few left over patches of snow on Snowshoe Peak from the previous winter. Soon enough these snow patches will have plenty of reinforcements.

Now it was time to retrace our steps on the way back down.

Looking back down on the waterfall we visited on the way up gives you a perspective on how far it was to climb to the lake. No need for those with vertigo to apply.

While hiking back down we enjoyed the small views. All too soon we were back at the trailhead.

By the time we finished we hiked a modest three miles or so round trip and gained maybe 1200 feet of elevation. In places the trail was challenging some might say exhilarating with rock scrambling and extreme drop offs not for the faint of heart. The waterfall and the lake are highlights of this hike. I would gladly do this again.

Not getting enough of waterfalls for the day we stopped at Kootenai Falls between Libby and Troy Montana for some easy walks and great views before we made it back to our campground on Bull Lake.