The Bridger Range — Fairy Lake, Sacajawea Peak & the Ridge

The Bridger Mountains rise abruptly out of the valley floor immediately north of Bozeman, a knife-edged limestone range that gives the town its dramatic eastern skyline and its most accessible high-country hiking. This one-day escape trades the crowds of Hyalite and the Gallatin for a quieter alpine world just forty minutes up Bridger Canyon. The day warms up on the College 'M' Trail, the switchbacking path to the whitewashed 'M' that every Bozemanite has climbed, then drives the gravel canyon road to Fairy Lake, a cirque tarn tucked beneath the crags. From the lake a steep trail climbs to the saddle and on to 9,665-foot Sacajawea Peak, the highest summit in the range and the crown of the legendary Bridger Ridge. Mountain goats haunt the upper slopes, golden eagles ride the autumn thermals along the ridgeline during the famous Bridger raptor migration, and the summit view spans from the Absarokas to the Crazies to the Spanish Peaks.