Fish and hike beautiful H ill County’s Beaver Creek Park south of Havre in the Bear's Paw Mountains offers vistas that are grand in scale, along with an array of recreational opportunities. One of those opportunities is fishing. The county-owned Beaver Creek Reservoir has rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat trout and yellow perch, walleye, northern pike and smallmouth bass. A few miles south at Bear Paw Lake, a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks location, anglers can find walleye, rainbow, brook, cutthroat and smallmouth bass. A few miles south in Normandy Coulee is Rotary Pond, where an angler can find more rainbow and brook trout. Check with FWP at 2165 U.S Highway 2 E., Havre, or call (406) 265-6177, for information about licenses, local regulations and other information. Hours for the Havre office are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Along with shorelines at the lakes and camp sites throughout the park, trails wander through aspen groves and mountain meadows and hit summits of mountains just a few hundred feet from the valley floor. Even the most difficult hikes can be made by young children and elderly people without much difficulty. Although some trails and trail heads may be poorly marked, if marked at all, park officials at Camp Kiwanis can give directions and suggest hiking areas. The lower areas of Beaver Creek Park are home to rattlesnakes, so caution should Beaver Creek Park be taken when hiking through these parts. There have been mountain lion sightings in the upper park areas, so caution should be observed there as well. Information about fees for using Beaver Creek Park are available at the park office at (406) 395-4565. for the stream. On the wooded hillside south of the waterfall are the remains of an old Rotary Youth Camp built in the early 1900s. Mount Otis climb: The Mount Otis climb is a gentle, winding set of switchbacks leading from Mooney’s Coulee to the top of Mount Otis. This trail was built by Civilian ? See Beaver Creek Park Page 48 Rotary Falls and Canyon hike: The canyon just to the north of Bear Paw Lake is popular for hiking. There are crude trails in the canyon on both sides of Beaver Creek, and the entire area can be accessed from the dam at Bear Paw Lake, the Beaver Creek Highway just north of Bear Paw Lake at the bottom of Rotary Hill, or by side roads above the canyon. The canyon is spectacular, and seeing Rotary Falls — the largest falls in Beaver Creek Park — is beautiful in winter or summer. The best way to get to the waterfall is to park at a campground west of the highway at the bottom of Rotary Hill and stroll up paths on the north or south side of the creek. The path to the north is an easier walk, being on more level ground, while the paths to the south crisscross the top of Rotary Canyon. Getting close to the waterfall is not possible from that side of the creek, but views of the canyon and waterfall from above are impressive. Hiking the rest of the canyon up to the spillway of Bear Paw Lake is also beautiful, as well as tricky, with the gorge sometimes just wide enough 47