Finding a Hidden Waterfall

I consider myself pretty adventurous. I love to explore the wilderness around my Montana home in Livingston, specifically the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness just north of Yellowstone National Park.

Every year, I can't wait for the snow to melt from the mountains, so I can backpack and explore the 70 square miles and over 1000 miles of trails of this wilderness playground. I search for alpine lakes for ultimate solitude from the rest of the world where I can cast out a fly for native Cutthroat trout, and usually, not see another soul.

And sometimes I find a real gem, like a hidden waterfall.

That's the case with the Crystal Cave. It's a good seven mile hike to reach it along the East Fork trail of Mill Creek just inside the Absaroka mountains from Paradise Valley, south of Livingston. The trail is gradual enough, following the creek in a relatively level pace without too many steep inclines. It passes through beautiful meadows, one of which is a good half mile in length that I call the "Big Meadow."

Once you reach the Mill Creek Pass trail, you take a few switchbacks up, and find the unmarked path leading down to the cave. The name "Crystal Cave" is a bit misleading. It is entirely made of limestone, and there are no crystals that I have found. However, its name may refer to the crystal clear water that comes from its mouth.

I try to go up there in the June, when the waters are high, and pouring out of the cave from the snowmelt. Sure, it makes for some cold wading (be sure to take some water shoes or sandals). But the reward is finding a hidden waterfall—inside the cave!

Within Crystal Cave, when you go past the first big chamber, you arrive at a collapsed chamber open to the sky. Here, water from a creek tributary tumbles 30 feet off of the cliff wall into the cave system. When I first visited this cave system, it took me completely by surprise, because it is not marked on the map or named. I did not know it was there, and the only way to get to it is through the cave itself.

I think that's what made it so special to me. Finding this waterfall in a cave symbolized the discovery & raw exploration of some place new, a time when there were no maps and features of our natural planet were happened upon by chance by the first explorers. Can you imagine what it was like to be the first to discover the Grand Canyon? That's how it felt to me. I felt like the first one to see this waterfall, even though I really wasn't. But it was a surprise to me when I did not expect to find a waterfall in the first place, which made the experience really fun for me. I love surprises!

Crystal Cave has some other fun features to explore, including some smaller chambers that you may have to get wet to walk through. When I went into these smaller chambers of the cave system, I had to wade in a very cold creek where water was also pouring out of holes in the ceiling! Brr! But the reward is a dry chamber at the end, and the satisfaction of exploring the cave to its fullest. Or go in August when there is less water and the cave is dry, however there probably won't be a hidden waterfall when the waters dry up.

I also have have discovered from researching online that there are still more chambers to explore in Crystal Cave, particularly up the shaft with the underground creek. Now I wanna go back and explore some more! Anyone wanna go with me? :D

In the meantime, you can see what my hike to Crystal Cave was like this past summer by clicking the video link below. I made a video of my trip and put it on my YouTube channel, Montana Guy. I also tell a bear story that is hard to believe, but completely TRUE! Feel free to subscribe, like, and share the video below. I'm hoping to make more hiking/exploring videos like this in the future.

Thanks for reading! If you like this article, and wish to support my writing, feel free to use the tip button located below. I also have a link to an article I wrote about a hike I did in Glacier National Park this summer up to Avalanche Lake.

Happy hiking! Here's the video of my trip to Crystal Cave...