Sunday Hike up Bass Creek

July 10th, (My Dad's Birthday), Dave and I went for a short hike up one of the drainages near our house.

Bass Creek is a really nice hike.  Not too steep and partly shady.  Just perfect.

The creek was very full due to the snow melt.  But it was sooo clear and pretty

We saw falls along the way too.

The hike up raises in elevation of about 300 feet.  After about 1.5 miles up the trail you come to an old wooden log dam (see photo below). 

The Selway Bitterroot Wilderness is about another 1/2 mile from the dam.

There were all kinds of flowers blooming.  Since I am new to this part of the country it seems like I find new flowers everytime I go out.

I need to bring my wildflower book so that I can identify them while we are out and about.

I don't know what these are, but I am sure someone will tell me. 

I get lots of help identifying the flowers that I post on my blog. 

I can usse all the help I can get.  he he 

I wasn't going to take a picture of these.  Dave asked me why I didn't take a picture of them.

I told him because I didn't like them..lol 

But then I relented and took a picture of them.

I looked these up before, but forgot what they are called. 

(Bear Grass or Indian Basket Grass)

(False Mitrewort)

Everything was so green.  Things are just starting to dry out up.

The flowers on this plant are really interesting how they alternate with the leaves.  I took this picture from underneath.  The flowers are underneath and you almost don't notice that they are there unless you look really hard.  

The Wilderness Boundary sign.  Dave said that they used to paint them gray.

Now they are supposed to be natural wood color with the writting burned in. 

This is the wooden damn.  It looks like a log jam.  If you didn't know it was a damn you might think a beaver did it.   

The pond formed by the damn is not very deep.  But you can see how clear the water was.  We might be coming back to go fishing on this creek.  I think it would be a great place to fish. 

It was a beautiful day in the Bitterroot's that is for sure! 

I told Dave that this was a very delightful trail and that I might be enjoying it after work occassionally.

Since it only takes about 15 minutes to get there from our house, it is very convienient.