Ah…Tuesday morning and time for hike with good buddy Jeff. Today’s target trail is the Mill Creek to a 60 foot waterfall with an excellent swimming hole at its base (no swimming today, weenie mode). This trail is an absolute gem with a continuous rock wall on the north side of the drainage, and open mountainsides (a result of wildfire) to the south. When you approach the waterfall at the 3.3 mile mark, you walk on great monolithic slabs of granite. The riparian zone of Mill Creek produced Olive-sided Flycatcher (quick three beers) and Fox Sparrow.

Mill Creek trailhead Mill Creek through the boulders Trail and Mill Creek Lush foliage along the trail New bridge over the Creek Mill Pillars and cliffs Lewis’ Mock-orange and trail Climber’s paradise Mill Creek drainage

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Roughly halfway through the hike, we crossed into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, one of the largest wildernesses in the Lower 48 States at 1.3 million acres.

The waterfall in Mill Creek is very peaceful cascade that flows over smooth granite. Next time, I will take advantage of the swimming hole for a little cooling dip (it will hot enough this summer).

Great slab of granite Mill Creek Falls and swimming hole Mill Creek Falls Mill Creek Falls Polished granite Mill Creek Falls panorama

The return trip was nice steady downhill to the trailhead, which we arrived at around 10 AM.

Sky and cliffs Clouds and post-fire slopes Puffy clouds