Scapegoat Wilderness

February 16, 2018

Scapegoat

Photographer: Rod Benson
Summary Author: Rod Benson 

Scapegoat Mountain featured above is located in the Scapegoat Wilderness between Glacier Park and Montana's capital city of Helena. Both the cliff (and peak) are made of various limestone formations deposited during the Cambrian when most of what was then Montana was the floor of a shallow sea. The mountain sits near the southern end of the Lewis Overthrust Belt, which includes the spectacular mountains that extend from west-central Montana northward through Glacier Park, into Canada. This overthrust happened as result of collisional tectonic forces on the western edge of North America that were being exerted between from the Middle Jurassic into the Early Eocene Epoch. Stress from the collision forced slabs of crust to fault and then slip up and over younger layers to the east, resulting in the unique south-trending ridges and valleys found along the Rocky Mountain Front.

The Scapegoat Wilderness is part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. It's the fifth largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states and home to some of the most rugged backcountry in the United States. Affectionately known as The Bob, the complex consists of three wilderness areas, including the original Bob Marshall, established in 1964, along with the Scapegoat and the Great Bear Wildernesses,  added in the 1970s. To learn more about Scapegoat Mountain, click here. Photo taken on August 17, 2017.

Photo Details: Camera: Panasonic DMC-ZS60; Exposure Time: 0.0010s (1/1000); Aperture: ƒ/3.7; ISO equivalent: 80; Focal Length (35mm): 40; Software: iPhoto 9.6.1.