This post is one of six related to a Montana trip in July of 2017.
While visiting my wife's family in Montana I managed to get away for a couple of hikes. I chose the Hall Lake trail for my first hike because it is a short drive from where we were staying on Swan Lake. To reach the trailhead drive to the town of Swan Lake on the eastern side of Swan Lake. Look for Fenby Lane near the Laughing Horse Lane. The trailhead is isolated and when I hiked the trail in July there were no other cars or people.
The hike: The hike is about 10 miles round trip to Hall Lake and another 2 miles to Alipine Trail #7. Elevation change is around 2,200 feet so it is listed as moderately strenuous. What I liked most about the hike were trees: the first part Noble firs and Paper birch provide shade while Douglas fir are prevalent near Hall Lake. In Tucson this past spring and summer I have been obsessed with finding shaded hikes. After about 1.5 miles the trail crosses the creek which even in July was running pretty high this creek in spring would be very hard to cross because of snow melt. I originally was going to turn around at an overlook but decided against it when I looked at the map and discovered Hall Lake was only about one mile from the location. The upper parts of the Swan Range have Bear grass blooming on both sides of the trail. I stayed at Hall Lake for about 5 minutes because there were many bees at the lake. (Some information from ww.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGR107-039).
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