Initial Publication Date: January 13, 2025

FIELD GUIDE: Cooke City to Gardiner to Livingston MT: Northern Tier of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and Paradise Valley

David Mogk, Professor Emeritus, Dept. Earth Sciences, Montana State University

(Download to your mobile device or print the PDF of this Field Guide (Acrobat (PDF) 4.5MB Dec31 24)) for information about Beartooth Country when traveling in areas where there is no cell or wi-fi access).

This part of the field guide traverses the northern part of YNP to Mammoth Hot Springs, and then heads north through Gardiner MT, Paradise Valley of the Yellowstone River, to Livingston MT. Entrance fees will be required to enter YNP. Geosites identified in this field guide, and more comprehensive information on the geology of each area, are keyed to the companion Geologic History of the Beartooth Mountains website. For an overview of the Archean geology of the northern part of Yellowstone National Park, see Mogk, et al.,( 2012 ), Origins of a continent: Yellowstone Science, v. 20, no. 2, p. 22-32. Details of the geologic heritage of Paradise Valley are best documented in Locke, et al., 1995, The middle Yellowstone Valley from Livingston to Gardiner, Montana; a microcosm of Northern Rocky Mountain geology (download the PDF) and the glacial history is best described in Pierce, K.L., 1979,

More comprehensive guides to hiking in YNP can be found at: YNP Hike a Trail, YNP Camp in the Backcountry YNP Guided Hiking (businesses authorized to offer guided tours), Hiking Yellowstone National Park A guide to More than 100 Great Hikes (Falcon Guides), A Ranger's Guide to Yellowstone Day Hikes, and National Geographic Yellowstone National Park Trails Illustrated Map.  Links are provided in the text to Trail Guides and campgrounds from the USFS, MontanaHikes.com, and AllTrails for popular hikes in the Absaroka Range/western Beartooth Mountains.

Starting in Cooke City MT, to Mammoth Hot Springs YNP:

  • NE Entrance to Lamar Ranger Station/Yellowstone Forever Institute passes primarily through the Absaroka Volcanic Supergroup with the Lamar River Formation of the Washburn Group on the lower slopes and the Wapiti Formation of the Sunlight Group on the upper slopes. Prominent peaks are Barronette Peak and Mount Hornaday to the north and The Thunderer to the south.  Scattered road cuts expose lahar and other volcaniclastic deposits.  The Pebble Creek Campground has been closed due to excessive flood damage in 2022 and is unlikely to open any time soon. The Pebble Creek Trail is a 12 mile strenuous hike that traverses through through the Absaroka Volcanics and terminates to the east at the Warm Creek Trailhead. The Lamar River Valley is famous for spectacular wildlife viewing including the huge northern range bison herds, the Junction Butte wolf pack, elk, and both black and grizzly bears.  See YNP Lamar Valley Wolf Watching  and YNP Gray Wolf 
  • Slough Creek; Just east of the Slough Creek Campground, are good exposures of 2.8 Ga granitic rocks in the Lamar River Canyon. Lower elevation, glacier-polished knobs of these crystalline rocks are present around the campground and up the trail to round the campground and up the trail to the McBride Lake area and continue north out of YNP on the ridges to the west. This suite of granitic rocks (compositions range from dioritic to granitic) have been shown to be a continuation of the Long Lake Magmatic Complex on the Beartooth Plateau, and have U-Pb zircon ages of 2.82-2.79 Ga. Trace element signatures indicate that these rocks formed in a continental arc setting. Geobarometry (Al-in- Hornblende method) indicates crystallization pressures of 6-8 kbar (or 18-24 km depths).
    • The Slough Creek Trailhead is in the campground and continues to the northern YNP Boundary and beyond. The Bliss Creek Pass Tail connects the Sough Creek Trail to the Pebble Creek Trail to the east. Access the Slough Creek Trail Guide. 
  • Specimen Ridge.  This site reveals the famous petrified forests preserved in the Absaroka Volcanics. Twenty-six successive forests grew, were knocked down by volcanic blasts, and then were silicified on top of each other in a statigraphic sequence at this site.  See the YNP website on Fossils for more information on the fossil flora at this site. The Specimen Ridge Trailhead is 4.5 miles east of Tower Junction. Trail details can be found at Specimen Ridge Day Hike/ Fossil Forest Trailhead and additional trail information from the Outdoor Project Specimen Ridge Trail.
  • Junction Butte.  Near the Yellowstone River Picnic area, a short spur road to the north provides an exceptional view of the confluence of the Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers. Junction Butte to the east is underlain by a series of migmatitic granitic rocks and leucogranites (extemely white granitic rocks consisting mostly of quartz and potassic feldspar and virtually no mafic minerals). The leucogranites crystallized at 7 kbar (~20 km depth), temperatures of 820-860oC, and there is also an anomalous slice of tonalitic "gray gneiss" that has a U-Pb zircon age of 3.2 Ga.
    • This geologic setting is significant because it occupies the southern extension of a major ductile shear zone that separates the crystalline granitic rocks related to the Long Lake Magmatic Complex to the east and the lower grade metamorphic rocks of the  Jardine Metasedimentary Sequence to the west. The granitic rocks have crystallization pressures of 6-8 kbar whereas the easternmost JMS rocks have a metamorphic crystallization pressure of ~5 kbar.  Shear sense indicators in the shear zone indicate a strong thrust component with left-lateral (sinistral) displacement, tectonic emplacement of higher pressure crystalline rocks of the LLMC over the JMS with a vertical displacement of at 3-10 km.  This relationship is interpreted as a major terrane boundary between the crystalline rocks of the Beartooth Block and the allochthonous JMS rocks of the South Snowy Block.

  • Garnet Hill; Garnet Hill is located just north of the Tower Junction area. The bedrock geology of Garnet Hill are rocks of the JMS that have been intruded by numerous felsic dikes and sills. The pelitic schists have biotite-garnet-sillimanite (with staurolite inclusions) mineral assemblages and the ironstone has garnet-plagioclase-hornblende-grunerite assemblages.  Peak metamorphism was 560-615oC and 4.0-5.5 Kbar.  Hornblende diorite sills have been dated by Zircon U-Pb at 2.81-2.79 Ga.  The Garnet Hill Loop Trail is 7.6 miles; the trailhead is at Tower Junction
  • Hellroaring Creek Trail.  The Hellroaring Creek Trail trailhead is 3.5 miles west of Tower Junction.  This trail starts with a steep descent to the Yellowstone River. A cross trail intersects the northern part of the Garnet Hill Loop Trail. Crossing the suspension bridge, the trail heads to the north along Hellroaring Creek with the massive Hellroaring Pluton cliffs to the west. The trail also intersects the Yellowstone River Trail and cuts across the Hellroaring Pluton on its southern end.  
    • The Hellroaring Pluton (and the related Crevice Pluton to the west) is significant because it occurs as a large, bulbous intrusive igneous body emplaced at high crustal levels (epizonal) unlike the composite multiple dike-like intrusions of the LLMC to the east that were emplaced at much deeper crustal levels (mesozonal plutons, below 10 km). The granitic rocks are dominantly peraluminous, indicating melting of a crustal source like pelitic metasedimentary rocks.  Magmatic muscovite is present in some samples and geobarometers indicate crystallization pressures of ~4 Kbar (12 km depth).  A U-Pb zircon age of 2.81 Ga has been obtained. This is significant because a) it is the same age as the granitic rocks of the LLMC in the main Beartooth Block, and b) it places a minimum age of deposition for the sedimentary rocks of the JMS.
  • Blacktail Creek Trail. The Blacktail Creek Trail trailhead is 7 miles east of Mammoth.  A 4 mile hike drops to the Yellowstone River and crossing a suspension bridge gives access to exposures of the Jardine Metasedimentary Rocks and the Crevice Mountain Pluton (take the trail to the west) exposed in the Yellowstone River Valley.  
    • In this area, the pelitic schists of the JMS have a biotite-staurolite-andalusite mineral assemblage and peak metamorphic conditions were 570-610oC and ~4 kbar.  The Crevice Pluton has been dated by U-Pb Zircon methods at 2.81 Ga.
  • Yellowstone River Trail.  This trail generally runs parallel to the Yellowstone River and cuts across the dominant regional N-NE foliation of the JMS and also cuts across the Hellroaring and Crevice Mountain Plutons. It can be accessed via the Hellroaring and Blacktail Creek Trails in YNP on the east and USFS trail 313 from the Eagle Creek Campground (east of Gardiner on the Jardine Road) to the confluence of Bear Creek and the Yellowstone River. 

    • The westernmost exposure of the JMS at Bear Creek is significant because these are the lowest metamorphic grade of the JMS where the rocks are dominantly phyllites (not coarser grained schists; chlorite zone, Greenschist Facies).  Sedimentary structures are preserved and these include graded bedding, cut and fill channels, and rare cross beds. These rocks have been interpreted as being deposited via turbidity currents in an offshore marine fan (i.e., turbidites in a Bouma Sequence).  Although the sedimentary layering is well-preserved, crenulation folding has produced a strong crenulation cleavage in these rocks. To the east, the contact with the Crevice Mountain Pluton is well-exposed.
    • In a west-to-east traverse, the metamorphic grade systematically increases from the chlorite zone (Greenschist Facies) at Bear Creek, to  staurolite-andalusite zone (lower amphibolite facies) at Blacktail Creek, to garnet-sillimanite-biotite schists at Garnet Hill (upper amphibolite facies).  This is the trajectory of a low-pressure metamorphic series referred to as a Buchan Series as opposed to the higher grade, higher pressure Barrovian Series of the main Beartooth Block.
    • Interpretation:  the JMS of the South Snowy Block has an independent geologic history  compared to the main Beartooth Block and doesn't "belong" here; thus we interpret this sequence as being faulted into its present position against the Beartooth Block prior to 2. 8 Ga (age of the anchoring Hellroaring and Crevice Plutons). Thus, we interpret this as an allochthonous or "exotic" terrane.
  • Rescue Creek Trail; The trailheads are 1mile south of North Entrance or 7 miles east of Mammoth. See the Rescue Creek Trail Guide. The bridge across the Gardiner River was wiped out in the 2022 floods, and this access may not be presently available from the west, but the east trailhead is open. This trail is included because it provides another view of the JMS south of the Yellowstone River near Rattlesnake Butte.  Sedimentary structures and crenulation folds and cleavage are well-developed here.
  • Mammoth to Gardiner Road: The north entrance road from Gardiner MT to Mammoth in YNP was wiped out in the 2022 floods. The access road has been re-routed to reoccupy the 1880s stagecoach road. It is the only access road to Cooke City MT in the winter. See details of the YNP Flood Recovery Updates.

Gardiner MT, Yankee Jim Canyon, Paradise Valley, back to Livingston

Details of the geologic heritage of Paradise Valley are best documented in Locke, et al., 1995, The middle Yellowstone Valley from Livingston to Gardiner, Montana; a microcosm of Northern Rocky Mountain geology (download the PDF) and the glacial history is best described in Pierce, K.L., 1979, History and dynamics of glaciation in the northern Yellowstone Park area (download the PDF).  More detailed descriptions and explanations of these features are presented in the accompanying Geologic History of the Beartooth Mountains website. The following are some of the most interesting geologic stops that can be accessed in a driving tour of Paradise Valley and surroundings. Plan to get out and hike using Trail guides  in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest Yellowstone District. A great reference map is also the National Geographic Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness West Gardiner-Livingston illustrated Trail Map.

  • Flood Bars that formed from glacier-dammed lake outbursts.  From Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance of YNP, take the Old Yellowstone Road that passes the Gardiner High School and proceed north to re-enter YNP.  A quarter mile past the boundary the flood bars overtop the Yellowstone River gorge. The large boulders are dominantly Precambrian rocks from the Beartooth Range. About 3 miles north of the park boundary there is a spectacular view of megaripples first described by Pierce (1973) that have lengths of ~10 meters and heights of 1-2 meters. The glacial dams are interpreted as being from the Lamar River drainage, and the material that was scavenged and moved may have been from end moraines that formed near Deckard Flats. These megaripples are similar to those described in the famous 'channeled scablands' of eastern Washington that formed by breaching dams that formed Glacial Lake Missoula.  The Old Yellowstone Road tread continues north through Yankee Jim Canyon to the Carbella Bridge, but the road is most likely closed due to impacts of the 2022 floods. Return to Gardiner and Highway 89.
  • Electric Peak is the highest peak in the Gallatin Range (10,969 feet), with summit just north of the YNP boundary. It is most commonly accessed via the Sportsman Lake Trail (Glen Ceek Trailhead , 4.7 miles south of Mammoth). It is an 18+ mile approach over very rugged terrain and should only be attempted by experienced hikers in good shape.  The first ascent of Electric Peak was by Henry Gannett in 1872 from the Hayden Survey (access the link for a harrowing account of being on the peak during a violent lightning storm). The geologic significance of Electric Peak is that it exposes the near-surface "plumbing system" of an Eocene volcano, that includes the Electric Peak Stock, numerous dikes and sills, and lava flows ranging in composition from mafic to andesitic to dacitic, described by Lindsay, C.R. and Feeley, T.C., 2003. Magmagenesis at the Eocene Electric Peak–Sepulcher Mountain complex, Absaroka Volcanic Province, USA.
  • Jardine MT; The Jardine Road (USFS #493) heads east from Gardiner, MT.  Geologic sites of interest include:
    • Just east of town the road passes fossil travertine deposits described by Mansfield (1933), which are similar to the active travertine deposits at Mammoth Hot Springs, YNP. As the travertine is located outside of YNP, it has been quarried for decorative building stone. 
    • Eagle Creek Road #3243 crosses scattered outcrops of JMS, some of which have well-developed andalusite and staurolite porphyroblasts.  
    • Termination of Yellowstone River Trail leads to the Eagle Creek Campground.  The trail drops to the Yellowstone River (~1.5 miles) to the confluence of Bear Creek and Yellowstone River. This section of bedrock has excellent exposures of the Jardine Metasedimentary Sequence that are of the lowest metamorphic grade (phyllites, quartzites; Greenschist facies) and have preserved graded bedding, cut and fill channels, rare cross beds. the phyllites show good development of crenulation folds and crenulation cleavage. The 2.2 Ma Deckard Flats Basalts rest unconformably over the Archean JMS rocks in this area.  Bear Creek Campground is walk-in only due to flood damage to the bridge. 
    • Mineral Hill Mine, ~6 miles east of Gardiner on the Crevice Mountain Road, is now closed and the minesite is private property and closed to public access. The Mineral Hill Mine was mined for gold, arsenic and tungsten. Gold was discovered in placer deposits in 1866 and the mine operated sporadically since then through the most recent mining activity from 1988-1996. This road provides access to Crevice Mountain outside of YNP.  Read an interesting historical account of Jardine Gold Mining on the Edge of Yellowstone by Robert Goss (2020) and from Western Mining History  Mineral Hill Mine.
  • Devil's Slide and Cinnabar Mountain can be viewed about 6 miles north of Gardiner from a wide turnout river side of US-89 or from LaDuke Picnic area. This structure is on the Gardiner-Spanish Peaks Laramide fault. The near vertical red units include the Amsden (Mississippian/Pennylvanian), Chugwater  (Triassic) and Morrison (Jurassic) Formations. Mississippian Madison Limestone is exposed at the summit of Cinnabar Mountain. The relatively flat lying sediments to the south are mostly Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The two prominent ridges are volcanic sills that are more resistant to weathering than the surrounding sedimentary rocks.
  • LaDuke Hot Springs/Yellowstone Hot Spring Resort are another 2 miles north of LaDuke Picnic area.  The hot springs are located at the intersection of the Reese Creek normal fault and the Gardiner-Spanish Peaks reverse Laramide Fault.  Visit Yellowstone Hot Springs Resort for a hot soak after a day of exploring Beartooth County.
  • Yankee Jim Canyon has great exposures of high-grade metamorphic rocks that are a mix of tonalitic to granitic gneisses, pelitic schist, amphibolites and ultramafic rocks. Guy and Sinha (1988) report temperatures of 775-800oC and pressures of 4.5-6 kbar. They also report a U-Pb zircon age of 2.9 Ga. A prominent boudinaged (stretched out) mafic dike is in one outcrop. These rocks are significant because their high grade of metamorphism contrasts with the much lower grade metamorphic rocks of the Jardine Metasedimentary Sequence to the east and the staurolite schists in Tom Miner Basin to the west (see below). The NE-trending Snowy Shear Zone described by Erslev (1992) runs across the northern outcrops of Yankee Jim Canyon and continues to the NE to the 6 Mile Creek area, and across the Yellowstone River to the lower outcrops north of Tom Miner Creek.
  • Tom Miner Basin, cross the Yellowstone River at the Carbella Bridge (newly rebuilt after the June 2022 floods).  The Tom Miner Campground  is at the end of the road. The Buffalo Horn Pass Trail (#120; US 191 trailhead) goes over the Gallatin Range and connects with the Gallatin Divide Trail, Ramshorn Creek Porcupine Creek area, and eventually Highway 191. The lower, rounded (glaciated) outcrops north of the Tom Miner Basin Road are metasedimentary rocks that include varieties of biotite schists, chlorite schist, quartzite, amphibolite, and Crystal Cross Mountain is so named because of the abundant staurolite crystals that are present (access is limited to only a narrow strip of public land that is surrounded by private land--check maps carefully to map out access route).
    • The most popular destination in Tom Miner Basin is the Gallatin Petrified Forest preserved in the Eocene Absaroka Volcanic Sequence. See the USFS Story of the Gallatin Petrified Forest  and Gallatin Petrified Forest Interpretive Tail (#286) from MontanaHikes.com or Gallatin Petrified Forest Trail from MontanaHikes.com
    • Hummocky topography from Tom Miner Basin to the north is largely due to slumping and landslides of the Absaroka Volcanics detaching from the underlying Precambrian basement rocks.
    • This is a great place for wildlife viewing (near the B-Bar Ranch), particularly in the fall as you may see as many as 10 grizzly bear doing their late season grazing and bull elk bugling ahead of the breeding season rut.  BE BEAR AWARE and stay safe while viewing from a distance!
  • Dome Mountain is underlain by Archean basement. But in the Quaternary sedimentary deposits (alluvial fan) to the north there is the trace of the Emigrant Fault (the southern extension of the Deep creek Fault defined by Personius, 1982) that is an active normal fault that cuts Pinedale glacial features and modern alluvial fans; i.e., it has significant tectonic activity in the past 12,000 years.
    • The upper slopes of Dome Mountain show evidence of massive landslides. Landslide deposits most likely dammed the Yellowstone River at the mouth of Yankee Jim Canyon, and there is evidence of megaripple deposits on the floor of Paradise Valley to the north as a result of dam burst flooding.  In addition, there are silty lake deposits that are still observable along US 89 that were deposited from the dammed Yankee Jim Canyon Lake, similar to the lake sediments seen along the Clark Fork River that were deposited in glacial Lake Missoula. Below are LIDAR images of the Emigrant Fault at Dome Mountain cutting the modern alluvial fan (red arrows) and landslide areas on Dome Mountain.  


  • Point of Rocks, west side of the Yellowstone River on the Old Yellowstone Road just north of the bridge that crosses the river to the east. The road passes through an informative section of Eocene Absaroka Rocks that reveals the complexity of volcanic relations in the surface to sub-surface of a composite stratovolcano. (A hike to the summit of Mt. Washburn in YNP provides another example of the sub-surface architecture of a stratovolcano). Outcrops include a monolithic flow breccia (lava flow broken up as it cooled and cracked during flow), a heterolithic breccia that is a lahar deposit (a volcanic mud flow that mixes rocks from different sources in a muddy matrix), similar to the Toutle River after the 1980 Mt St. Helens eruption; light colored volcanic ash layers; and numerous intrusive dikes and sills that are intruded parallel to layering (sills) or that cut across layering (dikes).
  • Hepburn Mesa, View from the Rest Stop on Highway 89, or the outcrops can be accessed on East River Road or from the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Dailey Lake site (campground and fishing access).
    • The white cliffs at the base of the outcrop are intermontane Miocene lake sediments dated at 16.0-14.8 Ma These rocks are finely laminated mudrocks and zeolitized volcanic ash units. The depositional environment is interpreted as arid, saline lake beds. This location is known to preserve mammalian rodent, early horse, camel, and tortoise fossils (Barnosky and Labar 1989; Burbank and Barnosky, 1990). 
    • The cap rocks are the 2.2 Ma Hepburn Mesa olivine basalt flows that correlate with the Deckard Flats Basalt flows at Jardine and the Merriman Quarry Basalt Flows at Emigrant MT.
  • Emigrant MT: a) The terminal "8 Mile Moraine" is in this area--the most distal point of the glacier that flowed out of the north of the Yellowstone Plateau; b) the Black Diamond Quarry is located just south of Emigrant which exploited the 2.2 Ma olivine basalt flows for railroad track bedding and riprap for river bank stabilization.
  • Dailey Lake and Sixmile Creek Roads: From East River Road, south of Chico Hot Springs, the Dailey Lake Road leads to the Dailey Lake Fishing Access Site and campground at the north end of Dome Mountain. Six Mile Creek Road passes through the Snowy Shear Zone in the first stretch of outcrops, where units of pelitic schists (some staurolite bearing) and gneisses are highly deformed and have experienced retrograde hydrothermal metamorphic alteration in the Greenschist Facies.  
  • Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Fishing Accesses (and some campgrounds) Paradise Valley: Mallard's Rest, Loch Leven, Chicory, Grey Owl, Point of Rocks, Carter's Bridge, Pine Creek, Dan Bailey, Emigrant West, and Emigrant .
  • Emigrant Peak: One of many volcanic centers in the Eocene Absaroka Volcanic Sequence in Paradise Valley.  It is a composite structure with a core Emigrant stock, numerous smaller intrusive bodies and laccoliths, dikes, sills, breccias, and volcanic flow and ash units.  Emigrant Peak has long been a known potential source for mineral extraction with historic exploration for Au, Cu, and Mo.  Recent plans for mineral exploration and development were terminated with transfer of 75 acres of patented claims to the USFS Custer Gallatin Forest  according to the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act , "A bill to withdraw certain National Forest System land in the Emigrant Crevice area located in the Custer Gallatin National Forest, Park County, Montana, from the mining and mineral leasing laws of the United States, and for other purposes." 
    • Emigrant Peak Road (#3272) passes through many placer gold claims along the creek bed. The road passes through outcrops of Archean crystalline rocks (gneisses, schists, some quartzites and amphibolites) that are overlain by the Eocene Absaroka Volcanics. Small lode Au mines were operated in this drainage since the 1870's but were never very productive.
  • Chico Hot Springs: Chico Hot Springs Resort is located at natural hot springs produced at the intersection of the Deep Creek and Mill Creek fault systems. Numerous glacial landforms are evident in this area including glacial moraines, glacial river outwash plains, abandoned channels, and "dead ice" kettle topography.
    • South of  Chico Hot Springs the town of "Old Chico" sits adjacent to large placer dredge haul deposits on Emigrant Creek.  Placer mining for Au dates back to 1864 . "The earliest placer production records date back to 1901 (Reed, 1950, p. 14). Prior to 1941 these gravels were worked in drift mines, or with hydraulic giants, or by ground sluicing. In 1941 a large bucket dredge was assembled on Emigrant Creek and was operated until October 1942" (from Western Mining History, Park County Montana Gold Production). Take Conlin Road from Old Chico to the 6 Mile Creek/Dailey Lake Road.
  • Mill Creek Road: provides access to:
  • Pine Creek Campground and Trail #47: This is a rugged trail that goes to Pine Creek Lake, ~5 miles and 3800 foot vertical gain.  The first mile of the trail is relatively gentle and leads to the popular Pine Creek Falls. Beyond that, the trail is quite rubbly and steep with many (many) switchbacks.  The bedrock geology along the trail traverses back and forth between the Barney Creek Amphibolite (jet black rocks), the Jewel Quartzite (a beautiful emerald green sheen due to the occurrence of a chromian white mica called fuchsite), and the George Lake Marble that has interlayered, folded and boudinaged quartz-rich layers that are rimmed with the mineral tremolite (white fibrous mineral). At the lake, Black Muntain dominates the skyline to the south and this is the core of the Pine Creek Nappe. The lower limb to the east is strongly attenuated due to shearing during thrust emplacement and the quartzite and marble units are greatly thinned compared to the same layers on the upper limb of the nappe.  The rocks at the inlet steam to the east are the bimodal "gray gneiss" -amphibolite rocks below the nappe. The oldest gneiss dated here is 3.59 Ga.  The banded rocks on the skyline above the trail to the west is another unit of mixed gneisses, amphibolite and quartzite that have been thrust over the nappe.  The rubbly pile of rocks above the inlet stream to the east is the toe of an active rock glacier. More trail information is at Pine Creek Falls and Lake  from MontanaHikes.com.  Please do not sample outcrops on the trail or around the lake!
  • George Lake Trail #184  trailhead is also proximal to the Pine Creek Campground, It is a ~ 5 mile hike along the foothills of the Absaroka Range and is fairly easy except for a descent into the Cascade Creek drainage and up the other side.  
  • South Fork Deep Creek Trail #44  connects to Davis Creek Trail #38 to West Boulder Trailhead. This trail passes through mostly high-grade metamorphic gneisses, and in the Davis Creek basin traverses across the low-grade phyllitic Davis Creek Schist.
  • North Fork Deep Creek Trail #45 trailhead is at the Suce Creek picnic area and heads east 5.5 miles to the intersection with Elephanthead Mountain Trail #37, and continues to the east to Mission Creek and Blacktail Lake trail #337 
  • Suce Creek Trail #44, trailhead at USFS picnic area, but there is no camping in this area. This trail passes along the Laramide Suce Creek Fault with upturned exposures of Paleozoic rocks to the north.
  • Spring Creeks, Yellowstone River Valley; Armstrong, DePuy and Nelson spring creeks The northern reach of Paradise Valley hosts the world-famous "blue ribbon" Armstrong, DePuy and Nelson Spring Creek trout streams. These form through northward flow of groundwater under the regional hydraulic gradient through Cenozoic fluvial valley fill deposits (sands, conglomerates).  These aquifer deposits thin and are constricted by the narrowing of the valley at the north end of the valley, forcing upwelling of groundwater to feed the spring creeks (Locke et al. 1995). The emergent waters have constant temperatures and high nutrient value that sustain this world-class fishery.

Return to Livingston MT via East River Road and US 89.  Visit Livingston, MT, enjoy a good meal and quaff a good microbrew, visit the many art galleries, boutiques and sporting good shops, visit the Livingston Depot Center and other museums, see a live performance at the Shane Center for the Arts or the Blue Slipper Theater....Enjoy your time in Big Sky Country!