There are a few fall colors showing but still not the full colors that we are hoping for. These are at the lower part of Munson Creek. There are just light tinges of color so far in the brush surrounding the old footbridge.
October 18, 2011
May 26, 2011
Springtime at the trail head
U.S.F.S. trail 372 through Munson Creek is one of my favorite trails. It also has what I think is one of the prettiest trail heads, and right now it is, like all the rest of the wild country, celebrating spring. While it is on National Forest land, the presence of apple trees and lilacs gives cause to wonder about its past.
January 16, 2011
Winter trail
Three days ago our night time temperature was -3°F and we had about a foot of snow. Today we hit 47° and the nearly all of the snow is gone (at valley level). Quite frankly, this time of year I much prefer the snow. Over night temperatures in the 40′s are very common here in the summer.
Here are a few trail photos that were taken on January 4th when we did have snow.
(That’s a very nice foot bridge in the approximate center of the photo. It was made many years ago by someone in the Forest Service who sawed through a log lengthwise and laid the two pieces side by side over the creek, flat sides up.)
January 5, 2011
Winter and spring
Yesterday I walked a mile or so of the Munson Creek trail on a fresh blanket of pure white powder. I walked in a winter world.
Munson Creek trail
The day was pleasant, with a little snow in the crisp cool air, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about hiking that trail soon in the spring world of mid-April when in the high country, some two miles from the trail head, the Trilliums will be in bloom again.
Pacific trillium, Western White Trillium, Trillium ovatum
June 27, 2010
Catching up ~ from May 28
For one who loves the outdoors, summer time in Montana provides a full schedule; so much to do and see and so many remote places in which to just be. Somehow I’ve gotten far behind in posting stuff and now will try to play catch up, knowing that as I do, things will backlog even further. Oh well…
A month ago on a very cloudy day it seemed good to walk in the high country, in the clouds and the rain. Here are a few photos spread through that ten miles of outdoor bliss.
For those who are familiar with this area, the hike was along the old logging road (Forest Service Road 5587) after the gate at the trail head to Big Hole Lookout, to the intersection with the Spring Creek Trail (Trail # 370) then along it to it’s intersection with the Munson Creek trail (Trail # 372) and then back out. I have promised myself that sometime soon I will leave a car at the Munson Creek trail head and then complete the hike from Road 5587 all of the way down Munson Creek. It will be a full day.
Soft on the eyes, quiet underfoot
The mystery of the canyons below
This trail sign is very old, but in pristine condition; no vandalism 5 miles from motorized access.
Flirting with the ridgetops
Peering through a window in the clouds
April 26, 2010
Blue clematis
It was late evening a few days back when I discovered some Blue clematis in bloom on Munson Creek and because of the increasing darkness, all of the shots I got of them were taken with flash.
I love the way the clematis blossoms usually appear in the forest, as though they were birds flying among the branches
or demurely hiding their faces under their umbrellas.
However, on that evening several were posing with petals wide open, a pose that I had never seen before, giving me a brand new feel for the Blue clematis.
