Trapper Peak Bitterroot
— — the peak the valley turns to in late light.
Not only on a wall.
“Trapper Peak is the high point of the Bitterroot Range, lifting to 10,157 feet above the Bitterroot Valley west of Darby. Granite ridges, a small remnant snowfield, and a north face that holds shadow late into summer. The trail to the summit climbs from the Baker Lake trailhead through subalpine fir and whitebark pine. From the studio, this is the south-of-Hamilton skyline — the peak you orient by from any porch between Conner and Sula, and the one that catches the last colour of any clear day. from the studio
Trapper Peak Bitterroot, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Trapper Peak is the highest summit in the Bitterroot Range, reaching 10,157 feet (3,096 metres) in Ravalli County, Montana. It sits about twenty miles southwest of Darby on the eastern edge of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, the second-largest wilderness in the lower forty-eight at over 1.3 million acres. The peak is granite — part of the Idaho Batholith — with cirques, small glacial tarns, and a north face that holds shadow well into summer. The standard climbing route ascends roughly 3,800 vertical feet from the Baker Lake trailhead through subalpine fir and whitebark pine.
Trapper Peak's east face takes the last sun in the Bitterroot Valley, holding alpenglow on its granite ridges for several minutes after the valley floor has fallen into shade. From porches between Conner and Sula on U.S. Highway 93, the peak reads as the dominant skyline. The lighting cycle reverses at dawn, when the summit catches first light over the Sapphire Range to the east. In late September the larches in the basin below turn gold, deepening the warm tones against the cool granite.
The summit road and the Baker Lake trailhead approach typically open from late June through October, depending on snowfall. Summit attempts are usually a long day from the trailhead, with the final ridge an exposed scramble. Winter closes the access road and turns the peak into a backcountry ski objective for experienced parties out of Conner. The town of Darby sits at about 3,884 feet, fifteen miles north and east of the peak by road. Lewis and Clark crossed the Bitterroots farther north over Lolo Pass in September 1805.