I took a week backpacking trip to this beautiful highland area in 1979. We hiked in two days from near Red Lodge to a base camp at around 8000 feet. My most memorable event was waking up one night to answer a nature call. I had no idea of the time, but I presumed it was almost day, since the sky was already light. However, I realized it was not sunlit clouds, but the Milky Way illuminating the cloudless sky. The stars were so thick, they were all touching each other into a white blanket overhead. Well, being from hazy Tennessee, I had no idea the stars could do that! We're lucky if we can make out the Little Dipper. The stars were so numerous I had a hard time finding the Big Dipper! But once I found it, the Little Dipper was a major set of stars! Wow, Polaris is usually (for me) the only visible star there! I stayed up the rest of the night (several hours) just staring at the sky!
