Journeying to Lands Unknown: The Lionhead

I've been crisscrossing the USA to seek out the nation's best mountain bike trails for over 14 years. After so many years of travel, I've checked out the vast majority of the states and have immersed myself in almost all the top-tier mountain bike destinations across the mountain west. So when we left from Colorado with our sights set on Big Sky and Bozeman, Montana, a rare excitement settled in: I was actually driving to check out a totally new and unknown area of the country! While I had passed through Bozeman before on my way to my previous home of Bigfork, Montana, I had never stopped to ride there... and I had never even set eyes on the town of Big Sky or the mountains surrounding it.

During my travels, I sometimes talk to riders who tend to have a circuit of destinations that they return to time and time again, even if they travel extensively. Moab, Sedona, Crested Butte, Whistler, Bellingham, Bend... the names rattle off of mountain bikers' tongues so often that they begin to sound like cliches.

While I would gladly return to Crested Butte and Moab every single year, my passion for travel isn't to simply re-visit the same places over and over again. Rather, I travel to face the unknown. I travel in search of trails not yet ridden, of mountain ranges not yet seen, of beautiful campsites not yet slept in.

Returning to a repeat destination does provide a sense of familiarity and a break from the constant pressure of battling the unknown. You know where the campsites are, where you can refill water easily, what cafes have the best seats and the best wifi, and of course, where the best trails are.

But even for full-time travelers, this type of thinking and travel can lead to complacency. It is the same sort of thinking that leads couples to buy a timeshare at a single resort (that isn't transferable anywhere else), and then spending every year vacationing in that same cabin, on that same lake, for the next 40 years.

What. A. Bore.

The world is a vast place with endless adventures, destinations, peoples, and cultures to experience. Limiting myself to one mediocre destination is not how I want to live my life.

But after so many years of traveling the country, it has become almost difficult to find a totally new destination to explore in the Western USA... which is why I was so excited to head to Big Sky, Montana.

First Stop: The Lionhead

It's easy to get locked into your travel plans, with a rigid schedule of where you need to go and what you need to do. This is especially prevalent when I'm on a work trip. I'll have pitched my ideas to my manager that outline what trails need to be documented, what guidebooks need to be written, and why. But even still, it's good to keep your ear to the ground, talk to the locals (and the well-versed travelers) to hear what they recommend. As I plotted our route from Colorado to Big Sky, I realized that it would pass through an area that I'd heard whispered rumors of for years: "The Lionhead."

The Lionhead is a remote mountain range straddling the Montana/Idaho border just west of Yellowstone National Park. While most maps label these mountains as the "Henrys Lake Mountains," the catchy "Lionhead" name, taken from one of the peaks in the range, is more widely bandied about in mountain biking circles.

When you're riding high in the Lionhead Mountains, it feels like this might just be the most remote bike-legal singletrack you can ride in the Lower 48. This rugged mountain range doesn't contain a single dirt road and instead is solely crisscrossed by a web of steep, rugged, and little-ridden singletrack trails. While most of the trails can be followed and navigated fairly easily, the singletrack is narrow and little-traveled. The most well-used trail is a section of the Continental Divide Trail that traverses the range from Targhee Pass down to Raynolds Pass. Unfortunately, some other trails in the range are threatening to disappear altogether due to lack of use.

Thousands of vertical feet of climbing bring you to the top of an alpine ridge with stunning views in all directions. After slaving away for hours gaining the top of the ridge, you're in for a ripping descent down one of the many drainages. With nary another human being in sight, you're on your own to survive and make it down alive. This, of course, is the exact appeal of exploring these wild mountains.

Suffice it to say, it was wise that I took heed of those whispers and rumors from many years ago. I didn't know it at the time, but the two days I spent riding in the Lionhead on my drive up would prove to be two of the best days of mountain biking I did during my entire 3-week stay in Montana.

While it's tempting to build a very strict itinerary when you're traveling so that you can "fit in" as much as possible, it's always worth building in some extra time, some slack into the system, so that you can follow your nose as you explore a new area. Many times, those unexpected turns in the road lead to the best experiences of your life!

We haven't even made it to Big Sky yet. Stay tuned for the next installment...

PS: To see a chronological list of all the destinations that I’ve visited while living #VanLife, be sure to check out my dedicated #VanLife landing page! There, you’ll find links to guidebooks, resources, and recommendations from every single destination.

Greg HeilOctober 12, 2021#vanlife, mountain biking