This is a cross-country skiing haven in the winter. There are miles and miles of forest roads to explore, and the winter silence is deep and awe inspiring. For those who prefer more of a workout, the snow-shoeing is also great.
Imagine more forest roads than you have time to explore. From old dirt logging roads with kelly humps that are just right for catching air, to gravel roads that extend for miles with no traffic to worry about. Fresh air, cool, shady patches, a rest beside some little creek in the back country, a little snack of wild berries and greens. Can life get any better?
Free learning opportunities for guests at Bluebird Forest Garden! We occasional host work parties where we work a few hours per day in the garden, kitchen and homesteading activities in exchange for hands on learning, great food and free lodging. Music making and deep conversations are also common features of our work parties.
On June 9th, 2019, I went to experience the Elk Creek Falls for the first time. In thirteen years of living near the falls, I had never taken the time to see them. As it turns out, I was now ready to visit them without driving a motor vehicle, using a combination of biking and hiking. The falls are only about 10 air miles from my house, but due to terrain the roads are much longer. It is about 24 miles to the trail head and the trail is another 3 miles long. So around mile 13, I was getting tired and a little bored of biking down a gravel road that I had traveled oft before, so I left my bike in the woods by the road and set off down a short-cut that took me through one of the old-growth creek canyons that empty into Dworshak Reservoir (formerly the North Fork of the Clearwater River).
Deep Creek, a tributary of Elk Creek, in north central Idaho. Some of these creek canyons are so steep that the loggers never bothered to disturb them, making them one of the few true wilderness experiences available in Idaho. It was my first experience of wading down a creek as the most efficient way of wilderness travel. This means that the surrounding hills were so steep and strewn with fallen old-growth logs at all angles that I could not traverse, and, judging by the complete lack of large animal sign, neither do the deer or elk. This kind of travel is very slow, taking me over an hour to cover a mile. The cliffs that wall in the creek canyons closed in at times, dripping with springs and mossy nooks. High above, towering trees with smooth boles, free of limbs for fifty feet, stood out along the ridges wherever there was enough soil to support them.
I’ll stop writing now and let a few little videos tell you the rest so you can see a little of the grandeur for yourself. Keep in mind that there is a trail that is only a few hundred yards long, so you can see the main falls without taking the strenuous route that I did. Maybe we can go there together someday!