An April visit to Thompson Pass

Off and on for several months I have been working pretty hard on a project. Last week I finished it and the reward I gave myself was a trip to Thompson Pass today. Thought I’d post a few photos.

A minor but beautiful little highway called 471 winds around and up for 24 miles from Thompson Falls Montana west to the Montana – Idaho border where it turns into Idaho Highway 9 and thirty or so miles later meets the concrete and asphalt disaster known as Interstate 90. It is closed during the winter because of heavy snow and not enough traffic to justify trying to plow it all winter and usually in April gets plowed out and opened again as it did last week.

Start of the snow level at about 3600 feet.

At the Pass there is a large parking lot and a favorite trail head that leads to Blossom Lake, Upper Blossom Lake and Pear Lake, all along USFS trail 404. I have left a lot of tracks on that trail. There is also a USFS road that leads from there a mile up the Idaho side to the trail head for Lake Revett. I hiked that road today on snowshoes, which, by the way uses a lot more calories than simply hiking on a dirt or rock trail.

This road didn’t get plowed

The parking lot at the Pass

Entering the Idaho Panhandle National Forest

The start of the Blossom Lake trail. The sign means what it says.

Peeking over the edge into Idaho.

The hike itself was very pleasant but not as scenic as I would have liked:  I’ll post a few more photos later.