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

More of USFS trail 345

Trail 345 is about 15 miles long. Extending from Baldy Mountain on the east to Big Hole Peak on the west, it follows the crest of a small divide called different names in various places: Loneman Divide, Weeksville Divide or, on old maps, Buffalo Bill Divide. These photos were taken on June 16, 2017 in the rain along Loneman Divide, about 5 miles east of those in the previous post and a thousand feet lower in elevation.

Red Clover ~ Trifolium pratense

Small-flowered Penstemon ~ Penstemon procerus

Pointedtip Mariposa Lily ~ Calochortus apiculatus

Yellow Indian Paintbrush

Stonecrop ~ Sedum rupicola

USFS trail 345

Trail 345 is always a most pleasant trail, but every five years or so it becomes a trail of the big flowers. These are photos taken along about a mile of the trail as it starts its climb from Weeksville Divide up toward Big Hole Peak.

Thimbleberry ~ Rubus parviflorus

Dwarf rose, Wood rose ~ Rosa gymnocarpa

Today’s favorite

Bear Grass ~ Xerophyllum tenax

From trail 345

A few scenes from what has become one of my favorite trails in the Cabinet Mountains. I’m anxious to walk on it when it’s covered with deep snow.

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