A Review of Maxey Cabin

Sleeping in the Panorama of Hyalite Canyon

By Mira Brody

“The first-timer’s cryptic missing puzzle piece map. Think battleship…” reads the lid of the 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle box followed by a list of numbers and letters and a crude drawing of a four-legged animal labeled “Sasquatch.” It was the same handwriting that had provided loose instructions on how to use the finicky wood stove. The instructions had not clarified much, and we had propped open the door in order to heat the cabin enough to stop seeing our breath. The food had been cooked, the wine box opened, and outside the sky grew progressively darker as the sun set behind the vast walls of Hyalite Canyon and the first signs of the Milky Way appeared. With two feet of fresh snow, the world felt muted.

Maxey Cabin is nestled in a meadow of wildflowers — or deep snow, depending on the time of year you visit — in a drainage east of Hyalite Reservoir. In 1912, then-owner of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and Great Falls Tribune, William M. Bole (for whom Hyalite’s prominent Mt. Bole was named) purchased the land from the Northern Pacific Railroad and built himself a recreation cabin. Pre-New Deal, there was no reservoir and no dam, just the Hyalite Creek headwaters.

Since then, the US Forest Service has rebuilt the chimney, roof, windows and the south facing porch overlooking the canyon. There is a neighboring, unheated cabin open in the summer months with two extra beds, and a picnic table and fire pit across from a small trickling creek. Nearby trails will lead you on a short jaunt through the Hood Creek area and Palisade Falls with breathtaking views along the way.

The Maxey Cabin can be booked through recreation.gov up to six months in advance and is open year-round. While you can drive to the cabin in the summer, in winter months, you’ll have to park at the locked gate off of the main road just past the dam and hike, snowshoe or ski about a mile in. During the annual road closure, you’ll have to walk or bike about 12 miles in. Remember to bring your own cooking and sleeping supplies, restock the wood, leave the cabin clean and be a good steward of Hyalite!