Northwest Trek

On The Divide Between The Salmon and Snake Rivers

The nights are getting long and our Indian Summer has come to a close.  We would prefer that the perfect fall weather we were experiencing would go on and on, but prudence would dictate that we need to wrap this expedition up.  Evidence being that we have traversed the Bitterroot Divide and the forested abundance of the Selway all shrouded in a grim cloak of cold grey drizzle.  The weather has improved as we approach Hell’s Canyon on the West edge of Idaho but the long term forecast calls for uncertain conditions at best.

The Salmon River Mountains that separate the Salmon and Snake Rivers also form the Idaho half of Hell’s Canyon.  I fought fire both on the Idaho and Oregon side of Hell’s Canyon.  This will be my first time to visit this place as a form of recreation rather than enduring an experience designed in Hell.

Our first foray is a four wheel trip on our Polaris Trail Boss quads

On The Snake River at Pittsburg Landing

from the Hammer Creek Camp Ground on the Salmon River, about 20 miles downstream from Riggens, Idaho, up and over the Salmon’s and down to the Snake River at a place called Pittsburg Landing.  This route is one of the few motorized accesses all the way down to the Snake, a trip of about 16 miles one way gaining and loosing about 10,000 feet elevation.  There is a National Recreation Area Campground at Pittsburg Landing for those who like to hang out in an oven.  The normal summer time temperature at the bottom of Hell’s Canyon is set on broiling.  Throughout our expedition we have anticipated seeing bears and while being successful in viewing wildlife, bears have not been on the menu.  The bottom of Hell’s canyon didn’t seem like suitable bear habitat so we were very surprised when we spotted bear tracks in the dust.  This would be as close as we came to seeing a bear.  At the upriver trailhead we found a poster from the day before describing a missing hunter.  We never heard if he was located but it served to remind us that this country regularly claims even the experienced outdoorsman.

The next day we took the quads up a decent gravel road to the Seven Devil’s Trailhead.  The trailhead elevation at 6,000 feet provided stunning views of the nearby granite peaks of the Seven Devil’s Mountains bracketed by the impossible depths which hid the Snake River at the bottom of the canyon.  Twenty some years

Dante's Inferno - Hell's Canyon - 1,400 Foot Elevation

ago I led 80 firefighters from the same trailhead eight miles into the wilderness to combat a series of fires started by lightening strikes.  We were successful in keeping the burned area to about 100 acres.  In the intervening time, a very large wildfire has burned the entire landscape including the lookout.  All our good work got burned up.  A short hike led us into Seven Devil’s Lake that sets like a gem at the base of a 2,000 foot granite guardian.  I could count six to twelve fish finning in the exceptionally clear water; my fishing pole safely tucked in the camper back at camp.

As we crossed the Snake River the next day at Brownlee Dam, we camped at Copperfield Campground on Hell’s Canyon Reservoir.  There is an extraordinarily steep primitive road that ascends 6,000 up the west slope of Hell’s Canyon.  Climbing this route provided views that showed the great difficulty of the topography that

Tread Lightly - Leave Only Foot Prints

comprises the descent into the Canyon.  Had we given thought to our return down this route we might well have chickened out going up.  My wife told me to “never do that to me again.”  Descending felt like you would not only fall off the road but that you might well fall off the planet.  But our faithful Polaris Trail Bosses safely returned us to the bottom.  In the six years that we have had these machines, they have never malfunctioned or let us down.

Hell's Canyon - Deepest Canyon in North America

Seven Devil's - Highest Point On The Idaho Side of Hell's Canyon - 8,600 Feet

A Rare Gem Mounted in Granite

From Here You Can See Four States - Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon

Complex Ecology Lying Atop A Complex Topography

Inhospitable and Wild - Oregon Side of Hell's Canyon

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A Scene That Helps Make This Byway the Very Best

We have been on our expedition for a while now and we have seen some really spectacular mountain scenery.  In fact, up to now it has been amazing to see the diversity and the almost infinite opportunities that the mountains of the Northern Rockies present.  We have just finished our stint in the Absarokas that have been the epitome of rugged mountain beauty that we have so far encountered.  As we begin to make our turn westward back toward the Pacific Coast, we elect to drive the Beartooth Scenic Byway between Cooke City, Wyoming and Red Lodge, Montana.  While this is a two lane paved highway, signs warned that vehicles over 40 feet were not recommended.  We crowded the limit but fell just inside it.  I had done a fair amount of research with maps and the internet prior to our departure, but nothing I had seen prepared us for the trip over the

No Matter Where You Look Every Scene is a Gem

Beartooths.  It appears to be a well kept secret.

The National Scenic Byway System has identified hundreds of travel routes that meet the criteria for a scenic byway all across our country.  For those of you who do any traveling at all you know that not all scenic byways are equal.  Some are more scenic than others.  If you were to use a scale of 1-10 to rank scenic byways, the Beartooth would easily be a 10.  The visual impact of the ruggedness, the expansiveness, the hugeness, the depth of these mountains is unbelievably stunning.  At the highest point, 11,00 feet, the internal combustion engine is laboring.  By the time we reached the apex of the trip, the reason for the 40 foot limit had become very apparent.  An extremely tight curve radius taxed your driving ability.  The curve

How Would You Like to Wet a Line in That?

radius by itself would not have been so intimidating but it was accompanied with many thousands of feet vertical drop.  I’m not a timid driver but driving this route made me uneasy.

We plan on returning and spending more time here as the drive over this byway has only whetted our appetite to get to know this mountain range better.

Awesome View Stuns the Senses

At 11,000 Feet Not a Place for Acrophobia

The Vistas are so Stunning You Need to Remember to Look Down As Well A Pika (Rock Rabbit)

View From 11,000 Feet

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I’ve done avalanche control on the Chugach Mountains of South Central Alaska, hunted Dall Sheep in the Wrangals, caribou in the Alaska range, climbed Mt. Daniels in the North Cascades, fought fire all over most of the mountains of the west, always feeling at home wherever  I found myself.  But not the Absarokas.  They seem to loom, menacing, uninviting, thrusting a warning, daring you to venture in.

Near and Far It All Looks Good

Our first attempt to  explore the Absaroka Range near Cooke City, Montana was on Sept. 20th.   It had rained and snowed lightly the evening of the 19th.  The sky promised to clear as we mounted the quads the following morning.   It was a trap.  Two hours later frozen and soggy we reappeared out of a winter blizzard to the safety of camp.  The Olympic Wave 3 propane heater I had installed in the camper prior to our departure sure paid off.  We  decided to give the weather an opportunity to improve itself before tackling the Absarokas again.  Seven days later we were ready to try again.  It was a perfect fall day.  We had camped in the Soda Creek Campground of the  Gallatin National Forest.  No tent camping is permitted at this site due to the very real threat of Grizzlys making a tent sandwich out of the occupant.  Many of the peaks gazed down at us from over 10,000 feet as we started out that day.  The Gallatin N.F. has done a great job in working with  the local mining district in setting up this

It Would Still Be a Great Place to Live

small slice of the range for motorized use.  Most of the Absarokas are in Wilderness designation. There my well be no more spectacular place in the lower 48 to ride your ATV.  As the accompanying photos illustrate the scenery is spectacular.  Once we were up on the Mt. we began to feel as we always do when viewing the Creators handiwork.  I think the sense of menace was really God’s way of making us pay attention.

The View at 9,000 Feet

The Perfect Lunch Spot

Every Bend Offers a Breath Taking Scene

Summertime Avalanche Path

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A.M. Commute in Yellowstone

On two previous visits to Yellowstone National Park we had not ventured in until after the first of October.  Consequently, we were snowed out before we were ready to leave.  The major advantage had been the absence of crowds.  This year we thought we would go a little earlier in order to have enough time. Little did we now that this September will probably be the most well attended Sept. in history.  We did spend a total of five days in the park.  As usual the landscape that comprises the park was breathtaking.  The buffalo were on hand and patiently allowed their photo to be taken.  What was missing was the abundance of Elk. The herds in the full drama of the fall rut was was absolutely exhilarating on our two previous trips.  While visiting with some of the local Montanians we were told that the dramatic elk decline was due to wolf predation.  It was a real disappointment for us as the elk were the primary reason we had returned for a third visit.

Bull Buffalo Considers Fly Fishing a Spectator Sport

The sheer number of visitors was daunting.  Pullouts were crammed, traffic was gnarled with heavy park police presence.  All these factors combined to detract from our being able to really enjoy a very special place.

Because Yellowstone has so many outstanding

She's My Downtown Girl

attributes one can’t be truly disappointed with spending time there.  We probably won’t return again preferring to remember it  as we found it on our two earlier trips.

Fear No Wolf

Why the Firehole is called the Firehole River

Firehole River Below National Park Mt.

One of the Many Faces of Yellowstone

Geyser Valley, Steam and Trees

There Be Large Trout Here - But Not Today

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The Crazy Mountains are a spectacular range fifteen miles north of Bozeman.  We squatted for the night at Flathead Pass in the Battleground Campground.  Flathead Pass was the site of two different Souix/White battles separated by about 10 years.

There Be Grizzlys Here

Elk Country

We had one of the best four wheel rides of the expedition at this place.  We were able to ride through some really incredible scenery of forests and rocky peaks.  We ran into a young bow hunter miles from the nearest road.  He inquired as to whether we had seen any elk.  We told him no and had not heard any bugling either.  He was quite disappointed with our report.

It was a beautiful, clear, crisp fall morning.  It was just great to be in the Crazys.  We felt right at home.

The Crazy Mountains are named after a Crow Indian woman who went insane after suffering the loss of her children and husband.  She lived alone in these mountains and the Souix people called her Crazy Woman.  Hence today this range is now called the Crazy Mountains.

Bridger Bowl Ski Area

Reward at the End of Our Ride

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We Rode Our Quads From Here to There

Day ten has brought us to Island Park Idaho, our last stop before Yellowstone National Park.  We camped in a great Forest Service campground on the Targhee National Forest right on the bank of the Buffalo River.  There is something about the landscape here that urges the imagination.  There is a substantial dispersed human community here that is intelligently hidden in such a fashion as to fool your senses into thinking the place is unspoiled.  I think it is the composition of the forest, meadows and rivers that allows the human presence to blend in.

Our Neighbor at the Buffalo Campground

Our campground host spoke Texan.  He insisted that we had to go to the top of Sawtell Mtn.  So we did.  The road to the top of the mountain is a shared use road that accommodated our ATV.  It was the first day of fall-like weather that we have experienced.  In fact it was closer to winter weather than fall.  Everything seems to happen here in extremes.  It was a cold but easy ride to the top.

Cold View From the Top of Sawtell Mountain-9,087 ft. elevation

Because of some rain the previous afternoon, there was a foggy haze that obscured our distant view and denied us the opportunity to take long range photos.

South Half of Sawtell Peak

Keeping the Sky Safe

Our view of the mountain from the east side did not prepare us for the stunning beauty that comprises the landscape as we neared the summit.

At the top of Sawtell The FAA has an impressive facility that is an important component of directing air traffic over a large area.  You can’t appreciate the size of the thing until you are standing under it.

Eden-Like Park On Sawtell Mtn.

Descending from timberline, we entered a park-like forest environment that made me think of what Eden may have looked like.  I expected to see elk standing in it but didn’t.

At the end of the day we stumbled onto Henry’s Fork Landing Cafe.  They had good food and warm friendly service.  Their homemade Fruit of the Forest Pie was DE-LIOUS!  The restaurant is located on the north bank of the Henry’s Fork right on the main highway.  You can’t miss it.

Popularity: 30% [?]