The Woodbine Falls Trail

The entry area to the Woodbine Falls Trailhead, featuring a sign stating, "Trail Bridge Out Ahead"

The Woodbine Falls trail is among the greatest hiking experiences you can have in this little area of the Beartooth Mountains around Nye. This trail is treasured for its ease of hiking for people of many ages, its connection to the adjacent Woodbine Campground, and - of course - the powerful and spectacular Woodbine Falls that can be seen by hikers at the viewing area at the summit of the trail.

Following highway 419 (Nye Rd) to it's western end and traveling through the paved and pothole-ridden road for a few miles, you arrive at a fork in the road before you reach the craggy mountain ridges and cliffs just a couple of miles ahead of you. Continuing to the right leads you to The Sioux Charley Lake Trail - which is itself likely one of the best trails in the Custer Gallatin Forest - but what you come across if you go left depends on the time of the year. In the summer season (Usually starting mid-May), you'll drive straight into the Woodbine Campground after crossing a small bridge across the Stillwater River and continue up to the parking area for the trail. Though, in the off-season (starting around mid-September), you'll have to park at the fork in the road and walk around a closed gate and then proceed through the campground on foot to reach the parking area and trailhead - adding about a quarter of a mile to the total hike.

The beginning stage of the trail immediately puts you into the pine forest as it funnels you between some of the northern most campsites of the Woodbine Campground that can be seen through the trees and a rocky whitewater stream pouring through boulders and dead fallen trees that lay scatted around the water. The stream at this point is 'Woodbine Creek' - just a few hundred feet before it flows into the Stillwater River. While this trail would originally lead you to a small wooden foot bridge with railings to cross Woodbine Creek and begin the ascent up to the rest of the trail, the bridge is now missing - destroyed and removed after the river flooding in the area in June of 2022.

Some logs that seem to have been placed across the stream by previous visitors to help cross the water. Many of them sank when stepped on.

Instead of the sturdy bridge crossing, there are a handful of fallen trees that stretch across the water with their bark worn down from people using them as a narrow walkway to cross.

During my recent visit to the trail, there were also a few logs placed across a shallow part of the stream. Many of the logs simply bobbed in the water without offering much for footing to cross but crossing was still possible and much more comfortable than walking across a skinny fallen tree or just sloshing through the stream itself. Knowing how this stream gets during it's run-off, the logs (and possibly the fallen trees) are likely to be swept downriver eventually.

Hopefully a real bridge will be re-established to cross the Woodbine Creek soon.

As of writing this post, there are plans to have a new bridge installed here as soon as early June of 2025 (about a month from posting this) which would be great timing for summer visitors hoping to be able to cross and see the waterfall at its full power this year.

However, the weather in this region is known for its unpredictability around this time of the year and it has a habit of delaying outdoor projects through the late spring.

After crossing Woodbine Creek, the trail leads into a short series of switchbacks that steadily climb up the hillside - winding around pine trees, tall stacks of boulders, and colorful flowers as the trail continues upwards toward the waterfall.

The elevation climb for this part of the trail can be tiring after a while for anyone that isn't used to walking up inclines like this for so long but, fortunately, there are plenty of comfortable places to step off trail and take a break.

According to information on AllTrails, the ascent from the Campground to the trail's summit next to the waterfall is around 300 feet, most of which is through the steady climb of these switchbacks.

At the top of the first few switchbacks, before you walk into a small open meadow that begins to lead back into the forest, there's a craggy set of rocks shortly off-trail and at the top of a steep hill that - when you climb up to it - puts you at the top of an enormous cliff with a great panorama view of the surrounding mountains and the nearby Beartooth Ranch that you passed driving in.

Climbing out of the switchbacks, the trail levels out a little bit into an interesting but small area of grassy meadow with flower beds and rocky out-crops jutting out of the grass. It's around this point in the trail that you start to realize just how high you've hiked up and some great views of the nearby Beartooth mountain ridges can be seen up here if you stop and take in the sights.

This point in the trail also marks about half-way through the hike to the Woodbine Falls viewing area but while most people come here for that view of the waterfall, the high-elevation views from this trail give a pretty equally fantastic experience as you look out into the mountain landscape.

Continuing upwards, the forest becomes denser and some parts of the trail just barely slide in between the trees and large smooth boulders wrapped in fallen pine needles.

The path carries on into one more switchback and then carves into a final stretch that cuts between steep hillside and a reasonably steep drop into a small gully as it continues through the dense pine trees.

Right as you're about to reach the end of the trail, there's one more iconic sight to be found on the trail before the waterfall - a miniature waterfall running down the moss and rocks. This little stream pours down into its own creek that runs under a tiny stone bridge built to cross it and then streams away into the nearby gully.

It's been known that some people dare to drink from the little stream here and while it probably is some of the freshest water you can drink in the area, a water filter is likely still a good idea to use.

After crossing the little stone bridge and walking maybe only a hundred feet further, you finally arrive at the trail's end.

This photo of the waterfall was taken in April, when the volume of water coming down is much less. Mid to late June/Early July is about the best time to see it really moving.

This perspective is a little bit further up the hillside from the end of the trail. It's fairly steep but a much greater view.

Finally, the trail ends at the established viewing area that almost anyone on this trail has certainly come here to see. A sturdy stone wall has been built around this point to make this a safe place to stand and take in the sights and sounds of the waterfall pouring down the jagged cliff edge next to moss-covered rock.

It's very easy to take a seat on the walls (the parts that don't face the drop into the creek, of course) and just relax for a while while taking in the enormity of the naturally made features here.

In the summers, this area is often populated with people enjoying the view and catching their breath before continuing back down to the campground.

If the view from this angle leaves you wanting a better vantage point of the top of the falls, there is a nearby access just before the walled-in viewing point that leads off trail and up into the hillside. It becomes more of a climb than a hike (and isn't as safe) but can lead you to the very top of the waterfall if you have the stamina for it.

Woodbine Falls is considered by many to be one of the most stunning waterfall views in the state - which is saying something for a state known for its spectacular mountain landscapes that stretch all the way from here in the Beartooth range to Glacier National Park.

While the timing of our visit didn't line up with the waterfall's best display of power, it's still quite the sight to see. Much like the Sioux Charley Trail nearby, this trail provides an up-close look at the immense strength of these rivers as they crash through pure rock before they settle and meander down the entire Stillwater County area and finally merge into the larger Yellowstone River.

Those of us that are local to the area are more than familiar with the power that these rivers have after the flooding of 2022 which destroyed a lot of riverside homes, bridges, and other infrastructure in the area - including the bridge that was washed out from this trail.

Whether a new bridge is installed for the trail this summer or not, the Woodbine Falls Trail continues to live up to its reputation as a splendid hiking experience and I highly recommend to anyone to get out and see it in person.

The Sioux Charley Bypass Trail

The iconic experience of the now closed off gorge section of the Sioux Charley Lake Trail

The Sioux Charley Lake Trail has always been one of the premier highlights of fantastic outdoors areas in the Custer Gallatin Forest.

For many people, it has always been a destination to get out and revisit at least once in the busy summer season. Its well known for it's scenic trail that starts off squeezing hikers between the raging white-water rapids of the fast-flowing Stillwater River and the towering rocky cliffs that it carves through.

Unfortunately, if you've been interested in visiting the Sioux Charley Lake Trail recently, you may have heard or discovered on your own that the trail head has been blocked off.

This video was recorded the afternoon before the Stillwater surged to a new record flow of 23,900 cfs (cubic feet per second) the morning of June 14th, 2022 and destroyed the part of the trail shown.

On June 14th of 2022, the Stillwater River (and many other nearby rivers, including the Rock Creek in Red Lodge) violently flooded after days of unseasonably warm weather and persistent rain on the mountain snow. The flooded rivers rose to record breaking heights and destroyed many houses, bridges, and other river-adjacent infrastructure - cutting off some areas entirely. Among the list of damages was the Sioux Charley Lake Trail and its parking lot area. While the parking lot was quickly rebuilt and finished in the summer of 2024, the Sioux Charley Lake Trail remains closed and it's repair unlikely in the near future.

This is where the Sioux Charley Lake trail and the gorge bypass trail reconnect. My personal favorite view on either trail.

Despite this, the Sioux Charley Lake Trail lives on through it's bypass trail and I'm glad to have finally gotten a chance to check it out.

The 'Gorge By-Pass Trail No. 24A' can be found a bit off to the right of the parking lot's vault toilet when viewed from the parking spots. It features some large metal cylinders at its entrance which seem likely to be used to hitch horses and a wooden sign labeling it as the 'gorge by-pass trail'. Most people have usually referred to this trail as 'the horse trail' in the past, as it has mostly been used for horses and mules.

Shortly after entering the woods at this trailhead, you run into an intersection in the trail. Continuing forward will guide you up into the bypass trail while the other direction seems to just lead you back over to the closed gorge access.

Looking back on the ascent up the bypass trail

The first remark to make about the bypass trail is that unlike the gorge trail's gradual incline along the river that eventually reaches the forest after you exit the ravine, the bypass trail maintains a steeper and more challenging angle as it puts you directly into dense forest right away and has you stepping up a few purposefully placed log stairs in some places. The bypass trail is pretty close to half a mile long, so if you're not quite in hiking-shape yet, taking breaks is recommended. However, if you've hiked up the nearby Woodbine Trail before, I'd say this is pretty comparable.

The majority of the hike upward could be described as following a trail that mostly hikes you up against large lichen-covered boulders and cliffs on one side and dense areas of tall, looming pine trees on the other.

The trail moves away from the ravine for most of the hike up and the sound of the raging river nearby is fairly muted or absent until you reach the top.

During my trip, the smell of pine seemed to get stronger closer to the peak of the trail and creaking trees in the wind created a very cozy forest atmosphere - very similar to the upper portions of the Woodbine Trail.

Once you reach the peak of the ascent of the bypass trail, it seems unfortunate that it has to be the bypass of the grand and renown gorge trail as the views at the top are pretty spectacular in their own right.

Shortly after reaching the peak of the bypass trail. Great views and enormous formations of pure stone with shrubs growing out of them.

You escape the dense trees and instead find a landscape mostly composed of just pure rock - large mounds of smoothed stone that occasionally have junipers, pine, and other foliage growing straight out of them. A few small ponds are found up here and lots of large boulders create shady over-hangs throughout the area. You'll find open areas on top of the protruding rocks where you can easily walk on top of them and take in a very wide open view of the valley and in some of these places (particularly as you get closer to where the trails connect), you can look into the ravine and see where the main trail runs through.

Pretty shortly after reaching this point, the trail quickly slopes downward until it connects back up with the main gorge trail. From that point, you more or less carry on with the trail as usual - much easier hiking.

Pretty ideal picnic spot on top of the bypass trail. We had a bagel nearby and took in the mountain views.

The Sioux Charley Lake Trail isn't the same as it used to be and it never will be. The river redefined itself in 2022 and very few places along its banks on this trail or in the Nye area look as they did before the flooding. Despite that, this trail and this entire area of the Beartooth mountains is still very much an awe-inspiring experience and is still the most picturesque hiking area that I know - even in a part of Montana well known for such places.

If you've treasured the hike up Sioux Charley Lake Trail before or just really love the wilderness areas of the Beartooth mountains, I highly recommend this trail. Your legs might get more of a work out than they might have on the main trail but the experience is very much worth it.

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