Nature on the North Wall
7 Days
$3400/person
July 17-23
See the best of the Bob in 7 days! From fishing on the Sun River to hikes on the North Wall, this trip has it all. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Chinese Wall is a bucket list must do!
7 Lazy P Outfitting offers this 7 day trip with stunning scenery, two alpine lake campsites, and some fishing opportunity. The low amount of traffic makes this trip a real gem for those who want great high country scenery and solitude.
This is a great all-around trip offering tremendous scenery and terrain diversity. This is a crew favorite, the Sock Lake Camp is just magical. There’s great hiking and fishing on our Bob Marshall Wilderness Chinese Wall pack trips.
Check out the details below, but if you are wanting something else, then be sure to explore our other summer trips.
Dr. Wenfei Tong will be joining this trip to share her expertise about all things nature.
Dr. Wenfei Tong is a biologist and conservationist who deeply enjoys sharing her love for the natural world through writing, drawing, photography, guiding and teaching. She has just finished writing a popular science book about bird family life for Princeton University Press.
Wenfei has spent much of her research career on grasslands around the world, studying the family relationships that structure wild zebra societies in Kenya, and more recently, grassland birds in Montana. Her PhD from Harvard focused on cooperative behaviour among mice in the fields of Eastern Europe, and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, she studied conflict between parasitic birds and their hosts on game farms and ranches in Zambia.
Wenfei found she especially enjoyed sharing her love of nature with others when she began volunteering at a local wetland reserve as a teenager, and has also led natural history trips around the world, including to the Galapagos, Central Asia, and Tanzania. When she isn’t being a professor in Alaska, she loves lecturing to hapless hikers and horse riders, and now runs a nature tour company in Montana.
We are excited to have Wenfei on this astounding journey to the North Chinese Wall and the natural world surrounding it!
Itinerary
Depart 7 Lazy P guest ranch by riding up the Middle Fork of the Teton and over 7,200’ Route Creek Pass into the North Fork Sun River drainage. We'll descend down into the valley to our camp on Wrangle Creek. Total: 13 miles and about 4.5 to 5 hours riding time.
Layover day. Enjoy fishing on the nearby Sun River or take a hike. There is a hike for any level from short and easy to more challenging, like a climb up Wapati Ridge or an all day hike to the top of Wrong Ridge. The views are incredible. Crew members are always available to accompany guests to the river fishing or on any of the hikes. Guests are also free to go on their own, if they choose.
We pack up and head west across the Sun River and into the Lick Creek drainage, as we make our way to the North Chinese Wall. At the base of the wall, we turn south and arrive at our campsite on the head of Red Shale Creek. This is a beautiful campsite right beneath the Chinese Wall. Total: 12 miles and 4.5 hours of riding time
Layover Day. Soak up the surroundings with a leisurely breakfast. This is day hikers paradise. There is a short hike up a well defined trail to Sock Lake. This is a hike most anyone can make and well worth it. This high alpine lake is nestled beneath the limestone cliffs of the wall and something you don’t want to miss! For the more adventurist hikers, you can continue on up onto the Wall itself and get fantastic 360 views of the Bob Marshall Complex, and even the peaks of Glacier National Park. For the hardy hikers, there are some great all day trips to the top of the North Sister Peak or Un-named Lakes.
We move on down Red Shale Creek to our next campsite at the mouth of Rock Creek. This is a very pleasant and peaceful campsite right on the bank of the Sun River. Total: 9 miles and 3.5 hours of riding time
Layover day. The fishing is excellent here and access to the river is only a few feet from your tent. Guests can also take a ride on a nice loop through the many parks and meadows that make up this part of the Sun River valley.
We leave the Sun River drainage, as we start up Headquarters Creek on our way to Headquarters Pass. This area was burned heavily during the 1988 fire and we ride through thick lodgepole pine regrowth as we ascend to the head of the drainage. We will stop for a break in a high alpine basin below the pass and 9200’ Rocky Mountain. The ride over 7,800’ Headquarters Pass is one you will never forget, as we descend down into the South Fork of the Teton where we are met by the crew from the lodge for a short vehicle ride back to the 7 Lazy P guest ranch. You'll say goodbye to your mount, as we turn the horses and mules loose here for a much deserved break and they graze their way back to the lodge. Guests will depart mid morning the following day from the 7 Lazy P guest ranch.
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