The Chinese Wall - Bob Marshall Wilderness

October 13, 2019

A trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness is something I've been wanting to do since moving to Montana six years ago. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, which also includes the Scapegoat and Great Bear Wilderness make up over 1.5 million acres of some of the most beautiful and wild lands in the lower 48. Because of the vast size of "The Bob", you really aren't going to get the full experience by going on a day hike, so my friend Alex and I decided to plan a 5 night backpacking trip covering close to 60 miles. Our featured destination was the most iconic spot in The Bob, the Chinese Wall.

Our original plan was to start at the Benchmark trailhead, take two days following the Sun River to get to the Chinese Wall, camp three nights at three different spots along the wall, and then go out over Headquarters Pass and finish at the S Fork of the Teton River trailhead. As you'll soon find out, we had to alter our plans a bit after starting the trip.

Sun River Sunrise

The majority of our first day was spent driving and shuttling vehicles. We got on the trail mid afternoon and besides the muddy mess the horses had beaten the trail into, we had an easy 7 miles down the South Fork of the Sun River and through an old burn.

Being a photographer, I'm always on the lookout for campsites where good sunrise and sunset photos are possible. We found this nice spot sitting above the West Prong of the South Fork of the Sun River. (So many different fork of rivers, so thought we should include prongs to keep things straight.)

It was getting dark, so we set up camp, ate dinner, and then enjoyed the sounds of elk bugling throughout the night.

Sun River Camp

Our first night was definitely the coldest of the nights, as we woke up to a nice layer of frost on the tents. The sky was clear and we knew we had a great day of hiking in cool sunny fall weather ahead of us.

Red Butte

This photo is looking towards Red Butte. The plan for the second day was to go around the left side of Red Butte, hike up to White River Pass, and get to the summit of Haystack Mountain. Haystack is the southern end of the Chinese Wall and a spot I picked out for a premium shot of the wall.

This is where we had our first change of plans. We were on our way up to the pass, but between me not being in the greatest shape this summer, a heavy ass pack, a couple thousand feet elevation gain still, and water availability not guaranteed, we thought it was best to ditch the side trip and not kill ourselves for the rest of the trip.

We headed back down and once we got back to the main trail we found a nice spot to camp along the river and crashed.

Taking in the View

On our third day, after continuing up the West Prong, and eventually climbing up out of Burnt Creek we finally got our first glimpse of the Chinese Wall!

Chinese Wall Storm Clouds

This day was the only day we encountered some weather. It rained for a bit, but not hard at all. The worst part was the wind once we got to the pass below Cliff Mountain. It was like a wind tunnel through there, and there must have been some gusts of 50mph plus.

After setting up our tents we went back down out of the wind and enjoyed a nice evening hanging out and taking in the view.

Chinese Wall Alpenglow

One of the great parts about it not being the middle of summer, besides it no longer being hot, is that I don't have to wake up so early to catch sunrise.

It was mostly cloudy out but there was a little color coming through the clouds so I was hopeful for some good sunrise shots.

Chinese Wall Alpenglow Pano

My absolute favorite time to photograph is the moments before the sun rises and you get the alpenglow on the mountains. For just a couple minutes the wall of white limestone rock turned a beautiful rich red color. The glow disappeared as quickly as it appeared as the sun went completely behind the clouds and all color was lost.

Chinese Wall Pano

The sun came back out behind the clouds fairly quickly and I was able to get some more shots with the nice warm light of sunrise. It really is amazing how quickly the light changes. The wall is a great subject to really notice how it looks in different light.

Moose Creek Pond

This day is when we decided to change our plans again. Instead of continuing north along the wall and going out over the pass as we planned, I decided I wanted another chance for sunrise shots since the second night was a bust. So we decided to camp at Cliff Mountain again that night and just do a nice easy day hike below the wall.

This is a nice little pond that sits at the headwaters of Moose Creek.

Moose Creek

We really lucked out with the weather for our trip. The days were sunny and warm, and the nights weren't very cold. We ended up with perfect timing because either side of when we went there were some pretty bad storms that came through, including two weeks later several feet of snow fell!

Chinese Wall

The Chinese Wall is a band of limestone that averages over 1,000 feet high and runs unbroken for over 12 miles along the continental divide.

This is looking north over the final section of the wall that ends at Larch Hill Pass.

Cliff Mountain Campsite

After our nice day hike we got back to Cliff Mountain and relocated camp further down and out of the wind. This was definitely the best campsite of the trip!

Bob Marshall Relaxing

As the years keep passing by, my desire for comfort in the backcountry keeps getting stronger. My pack is never very light because I'm lugging around over 10 lbs of camera gear. However, bringing along a 1.5 lb camp chair is one of the best purchases I've ever made. Man it is wonderful not sitting on the ground after a long day! A big thanks to my friend Kirstan for showing me the backcountry camp chair way.

Chinese Wall Sunrise

The next morning I woke up early and hiked back up to the pass for sunrise. Between a lack of clouds above the wall, and a bank of clouds on the horizon, there weren't too many shots to take until the sun got above the clouds.

Chinese Wall Morning

After sunrise shots, we ate breakfast and packed up camp. We had 19 miles back to the trailhead.

Having a lot less food weight, we cruised downhill and made good time that morning. By mid afternoon we were only 6 miles from the truck, thought it was a little early to set up camp, and the allure of a giant cheeseburger and fries led us to push on.

That ended up being a brutal three hours due to being tired, a still over 40lb pack, a blister, and it was uphill through the burn in the hottest part of the day!

We finally made it back to the trailhead, 19 miles later. Definitely one of the biggest mileage days I've ever done. After going and just sitting in the cold river, we were on our way back to Augusta for that much needed burger and beers!

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