CDT: Super Butte Maps from Keebler & Crew

Just wanted to share these maps which are from the Original Post by Keebler: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CRgowJCy1/

This route is:

186.1 mi with 25,517 ft Total Ascent or about 137 feet a mile, 1,370 feet for every ten miles, which is fairly mild.

He saved it all to a GPS map: Gaia GPS Map Link

BIG SKY ALTERNATE / BUTTE SUPER CUTOFF- West Yellowstone > Big Sky > Whitehall > Butte

We just completed this route, and here is a link to a Gaia Map we created piecing together previously drawn routes. However, I included waypoints for water, camping, junctions, and other miscellaneous items along the way.

I used waypoint specific icons and color coded the water sources based on reliability(to the best of my judgment). If you prefer using CalTopo, you should be able to download the GPX from Gaia and import it into CalTopo. I believe the waypoints will show up as a generic dot though. We found Gaia to be more user friendly on IPhones.

Whether you are in a time crunch, racing winter, or just want to do something a bit different, this may be a good option for you. We went into this alternate with a bit of trepidation. Not having access to all of the crowdsourced water reports and info on campsites for a 186 mile stretch made us a bit nervous.

We also didn’t particularly want to do one long lousy roadwalk just as a means to a quicker end. Fortunately, this was not the case. There were a couple of highway roadwalks that weren’t great, but you should be used to those by now on the CDT. We were pleasantly surprised by a fair amount of well maintained trails and OHV roads.

The scenery was also amazing along the Highline Trail, among the Spanish Peaks, and throughout the Tobacco Root Mountains. The water was not an issue either(as always, look ahead). If given the choice, I would definitely take this route again.

If you have any questions about the route, feel free to ask. Good luck on your hike!

-Keebler

Combined with Soggy’s Guide and I think you have a good route. Note as to who hiked what:

• Big Sky/Super Butte Cutoff: 23.8%
• Anaconda Cutoff: 53.5%

Links:

• https://adrr.com/d20/2025/06/08/soggys-guide-to-the-super-butte-cut-off/
• https://adrr.com/d20/2025/01/15/some-useful-videos/
• https://www.facebook.com/share/14nDnizDjVe/?mibextid=wwXIfr (Soggy)
• https://adrr.com/d20/2023/11/12/cdt-alternative-routes/
• https://adrr.com/d20/2023/12/03/cdt-more-on-the-big-sky-alternative/
• (system crash took out a number of links)
• Avenza Maps for t he Cut-off(I bought a set for myself)
• “roughly 178 miles long, bypassing 498.7 miles from the CDT. That is, near as I can tell, fairly close to the shortest route possible between West Yellowstone and Butte“