| I'm sitting here in my living room on a very blustery fall day in my part of Montana, waiting for fresh homemade bread to come out of the oven. Along with the rain, it's raining pine needles carried with the wind. Looking out the window, I see the beautiful colors of fall all around. Which reminds me of our hike a few days ago up Mill Canyon. The girls and I had some errands to do down south, so we decided to work in a quick hike while we were out that way. We had a 3-hour time frame and weren't sure if we had time to make it to the falls this time or not, but it was such a beautiful day for a hike, it didn't really matter. I love to hike any time of year, but autumn is my favorite time and we love to get out whenever we can. |  The sun really brings out the autumn glory of the trees. |
 Mill Canyon trail head signs. | We try to remember to stop at the trail head signs to look for any pertinent information before we start hiking. Such as notices of bears or mountain lions recently seen in the area, etc. |
| The trail starts out on the south side of Mill Creek and crosses over a bridge to the north side. The bridge here is a brand new bridge just put in this year after the water level went down. This spring's high water took out the old log bridge that used to cross over the creek. |  Brand new bridge crossing Mill Creek about a half mile up Mill Canyon. |
While the old log bridge was more rustic looking, it was unsafe in spring when the water is high and a full rolling whitewater rapids is ready to quickly carry you away if you should slip on the wet log while crossing to the other side. Any kind of bridge would suit this time of year when the water is low (wouldn't even really need a bridge at all, as you can see), but I will be very happy with this new bridge come spring again.
Earlier this year while the bridge was out, we took the Cow Creek access on the north side of the canyon. That trail runs along higher up on the canyon side until it meets up with the Mill Canyon trail on the other side of Mill Creek just past the bridge.
 View of the canyon wall on the north side with a rock field below. | The views are ever changing, as the cliffs tower overhead unbelievably high, the numerous rock fields pop into view, and then we traverse back into the trees along the stream for a refreshing bit of shade. The camera never does the views justice... this is just a very small glimpse. |
| This area of Mill Canyon was burned in the fires of 2000. This view shows a glimpse of the remains along with the new growth that is working to reclaim the canyon once again. |  The scars left behind from the fires of 2000 along with the regrowth of time. |
 I love the sights and sounds of the water along with moss covered rocks. | Well, we really rushed along, so we were able to make it to the falls in time (3 miles in). The water was way down compared to earlier in the year, so I didn't bother to take pics of the falls this time around. But the green on the rocks in the water really caught my eye, so I couldn't resist snapping this photo. |
Although it was a bit hot hiking in the sun most of the way (because of the lack of shade from the trees that were lost due to the fire), we had a great time. Since we were short on time, we only had about a 10-minute break before heading back, as the girls wanted to pick the elderberries we had seen along the way. Picking wild fruit always adds excitement to their hikes.
I'll be back to post some pics of our earlier Mill Canyon hike one of these days, along with numerous other hikes and such, so stay tuned for more... :)
--Nikki / myMountainStudio
