I’m a big fan of the Scratchgravel Hills, and they are especially great for those with young kids! In this post, I’ll be sharing what we love about Head Lane – my favorite area of the Scratchgravels!
Ah Head Lane! Such a fun area with kids, without kids, or with dogs. One of my favorite things about Head Lane is the variety of options. You can hike small loops, long loops, out-and-backs, let the kids climb, and have fun destinations along the way (an old abandoned car?!?). Bikes? Bring them if your child(ren) is more experienced. We always stay on the low areas as we are not THAT experienced yet!
Another reason I love this area is that if you are with a group, there is plenty of open space where kids can run, feel their freedom, but yet still be within eyesight.
Trails from Head Lane are south facing, so during the summer, this area can get pretty hot unless you hike it in the morning. But if the days have been cool and you want some sun, this is a great location! 🙂
There are so many trails to choose when starting off from the trailhead. A couple of our favorite trails when our oldest (3.5) is hiking and our youngest (1.5) is doing a mixture of hiking and being carried:
- A nice little one mile (approximately) loop. There is also a fun little side trail you can take on the way up/down as well (in blue on the map below). This one can get hot if you don’t plan it accordingly as there isn’t as much shade.
2. Head to the old abandoned car!
Loops and destinations are great, but most of the time we go to Head Lane, we just start exploring. No destination in mind. No agenda. Let’s just pick a trail/area and start exploring! And many of those times, we don’t make it more than 200 yards from the trailhead. The boys climb a large rock pile/mountain and “ski” down it. They find fallen trees to climb, and sticks to collect, to build things, or to draw images. Pretend moose and elk hunts also happen among the trees and bushes.
It may feel like Head Lane is “way out there” if you are coming from Helena, but it’s not too bad (And a fun adventure awaits when you do arrive!). Do watch for the small, brown “TH” signs, as when you get close, there are several forked roads. If you follow the signs, though, it’s pretty easy (isn’t that always the case? 🙂 )! But do travel slow when you start to see the signs as the road is pretty rutted out for the last 100 yards.
This is another fairly quiet trailhead, but we almost always see a handful of other people running, hiking with/without dogs, and during the late winter/early spring, I’ve seen the parking lot packed with mountain bikers.
