A short road trip

What started out this morning to be a little hike along the top of Weeksville Divide on a favorite trail, USFS trail 345, turned into a short road trip.

There weren’t any new wildflowers in bloom along the divide except this small Mountain Rose which is a small flower, not more than an inch or so across:

Dwarf rose, Mountain Rose ~ Rosa gymnocarpa

After about a mile on the trail I hiked back down to the Jeep and after about ten miles of driving north on the Weeksville Creek road paid a visit to a small stream that has long been a favorite place to catch a limit of small Brook Trout. I didn’t fish today but caught some pretty scenery instead.

You can see why, besides the good fishing, it’s one of my favorite summer places.

It was a pretty drive back home, the highlight of which was getting to see some wild Hollyhocks growing beside a small spring just above the water of Thompson River. It’s the only place I’ve ever found them. Not a bad morning at that!

Mountain Hollyhock ~ lliamna rivularis

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From Trail 345 looking over Todd Spring

Fireweed

Epilobium angustifolium
Evening primrose family

Valleys are where men live

Sometimes I wonder if Nature wants to forget…

Looking out over the Clark Fork Valley from Weeksville Divide in western Montana’s Cabinet Mountains..

Winter on the divide

There were just a few minutes of sun today on top of the divide. It was a long hike, but I was glad to be there!

On the top of Weeksville Divide on November 24th in western Montana’s Cabinet Mountains.

Mount Baldy

The key feature in the Baldy Mountain roadless area is Mount Baldy itself. It is about 80 miles northwest of Missoula, Montana in the southern end of the Cabinet Mountains. At 7,464 feet, it is the tallest peak in thirty or so surrounding miles.

Here’s a photo of it from the west, taken in May from the Weeksville Divide area at the edge of the Teepee-Spring Creek roadless area:

And here’s one from the south, taken from the Patrick’s Knob roadless area a week later:

Its peak is 5,000 feet above the valley floor.