A little day hike into Mill Creek Canyon last week. Soooo beautiful! What more can I say? It's a loooong ways up! Makes me feel like rockclimbing. A little too cold for that right now! Entering the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness a couple miles in. Love the rocky cliffs! :) We headed up to a mostly bare rock field for a little break. Cliff views up behind us from our break spot in the rocks. Our view looking further up the canyon from where we sat. The surrounding snow is deeper than it looks when you get off the mostly packed trail. We did some post-holing through the snow to get up to the bare rocks. Sometimes, you do what you gotta do. ;) The rock field we chose to hang out in had some nice sunshine for a bit, but once the shade moved over us, it was time to get moving again! Winter is great for hiking, but our breaks tend to be a little shorter unless we take enough time to have a fire. :)
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A cold, snowy hike up Mill Creek for a bit after work this afternoon/evening to end November. Below are a few random photos. The views are always beautiful! :)
There are lots of amazing views of the northern canyon wall in Mill Creek Canyon. No trail to follow here. We just pick our way along as we go, using caution on the loose rocks. Rock fields are always a little slow going for me, but we're making progress. :) Plenty of rock to navigate on the way up. I'm not the only one stopping along the way to take pics. ;) Getting pretty close. It's larger than I realized from the trail. We did get up to the wall below the hole, but as we suspected, it was too high up and risky to try to get into it. So we went around and up on the rock to the right of it as close as we could for now. Almost there. Coming around on the side. So, so close! This photo doesn't represent the size well, but it does show the relation of where we were sitting next to the hole. We couldn't find a way into it that we felt safe with at this point in time without additional help or gear. Maybe another day?? Our view looking further into Mill Creek Canyon from our rock spot next to the hole. Zooming in for a closer look at the snowy mountains. Enjoying some lighthearted conversation and views away from the beaten path. :) Looking down from our spot up above the trail and creek. To add some perspective, I've pointed out the creek below and a hiker that came along on the trail while we were hanging out above. Heading back down a slightly different way than the way we went up. This way has less rock field and smaller talus to deal with. The better option for me. Looking back. Our distance is increasing as we make downward progress. Back to the trail with a feeling of accomplishment.
The view that had intrigued me has now become another experience. :) I was hoping for a better day for hiking on one of my days off, but warm weather and sunshine just wasn't happening. So we set off for a hike up Mill Creek anyway. We hit snow from almost the beginning, and it got deeper as we continued to hike farther in. The clouds were setting in pretty thick and big snowflakes were falling by the time we got to the falls, making it feel very wintry. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable 6-mile day hike in the mountains, and the views are always beautiful. :)
A beautiful view looking back down the canyon where we had just hiked in about 3 mi. Mill Creek Canyon offers much in the way of hiking, climbing, and adventure. The open views are amazing, and they continually change as you hike farther in. See you in the next post. In the meantime ... Explore. Dream. Discover. |
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