Bellevue

Height: 6,923 ft
View-o-meter: 3/5
Scrambling Difficulty: Easy
Total Trip Difficulty: Easy
Best Feature: The right side of the arete drops straight onto the prairie
Worst Part: Doesn't feel like a real "peak"



This is a surprisingly good scramble and introductory ridge run - if you keep to the arete proper. The views along the prairies really can’t be beat. As you move away from the ridge line onto easier ground, the views decrease in grandeur.

Start at Native history pull out on the west side of Red Rock highway. Head through 50m of prairie before starting up an indistinct game trial. There is some interesting scrambling along the ridgeline. Moving left into the gully avoids technical difficulties. However, it misses some good positions, and spectacular views. The good scrambling is limited to the lower sections.

Once on top of the ridgeline there are a couple of different possibilities. Perhaps the best is to continue over to Galwey. The scrambling on this route is reported to be more difficult. Another option is to drop down into the first major drainage that leads to horse shoe basin. There isn’t a trail through here, but the bush isn’t too thick. Perhaps the best idea is to stick to the ridgeline on the north, dropping down as late as possible. A rather nice waterfall is found halfway down the valley.


Bellevue Ridge as seen from Galwey

Alternatively you can descend one of the small gullies that drop down just before the peak. Unfortunately these gullies have a few sections of loose, steep, wet down climbing. Most of the large gullies are fairly similar in character. On the prairie, near the mountains edge is a trail that heads back to the red rock canyon road. If you are very observant some old mine trenching can be found running almost perpendicular to the natural benches

These trenches were dug just after the Bingham Canyon find in Utah. Some folks that came up to this area from Utah indicated that these copper deposits were richer than the ones down at this mega mine. Luckily, this was only true of the shallow surface deposits. This would have put things around the late 1890’s or so.

There are also quite a number of native artifacts just off the prairie trail. Old travois tracks are quite visible criss-crossing the area. They look like old narrow wagon ruts, and are most visible in the spring or fall. The most obvious ones heads through the lush grass on the first bench, north of the parking lot at Red Rock. This was along the path that the Kootenai Indians used to take when going from Tobacco Flats to the Prairie to hunt buffalo.



Other Route Descriptions

Trail Peak.com - Good route descriptions and some of photos