{"id":4411,"date":"2022-08-25T20:14:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2023-09-07T14:14:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:14:00","slug":"ch-paa-qn-peak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/ch-paa-qn-peak\/","title":{"rendered":"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, July 23, 2022<\/p>\n<p>Today we headed west from Missoula to hike up Ch-Paa-Qn Peak.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This peak used to be called Squaw Peak but as part of the effort to remove that offensive name from landmarks it was renamed to Ch-Paa-Qn. (You can read more about that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitpost.org\/ch-paa-qn-peak-squaw-peak\/393990\">here<\/a>.) From the right angle it&#8217;s a very pointy and easy-to-spot peak. This is the view from Highway 90 as we drove west from Missoula (pardon the windshield smudges):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261912801_c698c7390f_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The road up to the trailhead was a bit rough and rocky, which made for slow going. I&#8217;ve certainly been on worse roads, but I was glad I had the new BFG K02 tires on the Subaru. We were the first to arrive at the trailhead at 8am:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261924828_7ce817ab3e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This was the only signage at the trailhead and is actually just beyond the parking area:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262397565_f005046294_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We set out on the Reservation Divide Trail, so named because on our left was the Lolo National Forest and on our right was the Flathead Reservation:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262397105_31912e66bd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The first part was in the forest and some sections were pretty brushy:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261924408_5981bfe7c6_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262183269_eb812d5e79_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We saw signs of recent maintenance to remove deadfall from the trail:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262195029_3d97e33c2d_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The brush diminished after awhile:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52260952172_65aeb1db92_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We saw a lot of heather in bloom:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261925491_890c9996bd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The trees started to open up:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262408060_364ed01203_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then we were passing through some meadow areas:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52260953487_d61ec5bee1_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nice to see beargrass in bloom!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261935888_a5370b31c3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This was once a massive tree! I wonder how long it&#8217;s been dead and how much longer it&#8217;ll stand:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52260952837_139209f806_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"534\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After about three miles and an hour and 45 minutes of easy hiking we reached the junction where we turned right to head up the peak:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52260951722_38c1aeb65d_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This trail was pretty rocky:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261922971_1f2e6ca235_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then the trail dumped us out at the bottom of a boulder field and it would be scrambling from here to the summit. In the photo below you can see the flag that descending hikers can aim for so they&#8217;re able to find the trail:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262205599_13cd455e0b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t too bad at first:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261934403_9a5b7dfddd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then it got harder:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52260950807_0bbe185eba_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261922031_d7335c0bee_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We saw some clumps of penstemon in bloom along the way:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261940326_6188d14407_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It was slow going scrambling up those boulders. It took us about half an hour to scramble from the end of the trail to the summit:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52260960442_f358a88066_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We sat down to eat a snack and enjoy the view:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262212324_841534289a_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking west at Three Lakes Peak, Blackrock Peak, and Deemer Peak:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261933706_42b25387f8_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking northwest:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261945728_22665f3d67_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To the northeast we could see the Mission Mountains:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261946078_a6644558fc_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking southeast to the distant Bitterroots:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261945528_4b85c85fc0_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking south:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262204744_5fe3bebcaf_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking southwest:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261945068_56fc3d1ff0_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There were some unnamed lakes below:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262203529_5b15a1ab04_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We sat up there for awhile eating our snacks, but it was very hot with no breeze, so we started back down at noon, after 45 minutes on the summit. We were surprised how many people we saw. About a dozen hikers came and went while we were up there, and we passed more uphill hikers on our way down. Scrambling down the boulder field was just as hard as going up, if not harder. It took concentration to pick my way down the rocks without injuring myself:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261931571_f62463f529_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>More beargrass:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52262424805_e7d6d9e6bd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52261944373_b1c8c135ab_c.jpg\" alt=\"Ch-Paa-Qn Peak Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We were very glad to finally make our back onto the easy Divide Trail and head back to the car. It was pretty hot and we did not dawdle.<\/p>\n<p>Gaia stats: 7.3 miles, 1,860&#8242; elevation gain<\/p>\n<p>Video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hiking up Ch-Paa-Qn Peak\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iIYT79VIG0Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, July 23, 2022 Today we headed west from Missoula to hike up Ch-Paa-Qn Peak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[227,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lolo-national-forest","category-montana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4411"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4855,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions\/4855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}