Part 1 of Day 4 of Lupe’s 3rd Summer of 2021 Dingo Vacation to the West Coast!
Morning, Hwy 56, NW Montana –
Hey, Loop! We’re close to the Ross Creek Scenic Area Giant Cedars! Just saw a sign. Want to stop?
Weren’t we there with Lanis way back on my first ever Dingo Vacation in 2012?
That’s right, we were! Won’t take long to have another look. The loop trail is only about a mile, if memory serves, and almost perfectly flat.
Why not, then? Let’s do it, SPHP!
Turning W off Hwy 56 at a signed junction, a paved road wound 4 miles through an increasingly impressive forest. Only 7:39 AM. Not a soul was around when Lupe leapt out of the RAV4 at an end of road parking lot.
Awesome! We’ve got the whole place to ourselves, SPHP!
Perfect! Let’s have a look around while we can enjoy the tranquility of the ancient cedars, Looper.
Ross Creek Nature Trail No. 405 left the parking lot as a short boardwalk that immediately led to wide dirt path. Already in a cedar forest, Lupe checked for squirrels, but didn’t see any right away. The trees were big, and very tall, but still seemed to be about normal size. The path went by some rocks along the lower bound of the broad Ross Creek valley.
Various placards were posted along the trail, some showing their age. SPHP glanced at a few, but mostly just followed Lupe through the forest. The trail soon veered away from the edge of the valley, crossing a couple of boardwalk bridges over small creeks, as it led deeper into the forest.
The creeks were bone dry.
Severe drought every summer out W, SPHP! Can’t be good for the giant cedars, can it?
I wouldn’t think so, Looper, but who knows? Maybe their root systems go super deep, and the giant cedars are actually better adapted to drought than one might think?
They seem like rain forest trees to me, SPHP. Don’t huge trees need huge quantities of water? After all, they’re growing by what’s supposed to be a stream! That’s no accident, is it?
You’re probably right, Loop. I just don’t know. I suppose I ought to read more of these placards. Maybe they say something about that, but while we’ve got the giant cedars to ourselves, seems more fun to simply enjoy wandering among them. Maybe there’s more water underground here than we realize?
Continuing on, the American Dingo came to the first of the giant cedars. Sadly, it was dead. Just an enormous rotting stump.
The giant cedars weren’t all dead, though. Lupe soon started coming to live ones. The base of their trunks looked like tentacles burrowing into the earth.
Reaching a grove of giants, Trail No. 405 divided. This was the start of the loop part. The Carolina Dog went R, going counter-clockwise around the loop. Although most of the cedars were relatively young, there were many giants among them. The trail went past some that had died and fallen. Loopster scrambled up on a couple of them.
How old do you suppose these giant cedars are, SPHP?
Oh, not entirely sure, Loop, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some of them weren’t at least 500 years old. The oldest ones might be close to 1,000! Saplings back in the Dark Ages, if you can imagine that!
Wow! Incredible! Just think how wild it would have been here back then, SPHP! The days of saber-toothed Dingoes!
Saber-toothed Dingoes? Sounds kind of far-fetched, Loopster.
Not at all, SPHP! We Dingoes ruled the earth, you know! Still do!
That, I can believe. Feel sort of ruled by one myself much of the time.
Hey, look, SPHP! There’s a Siamese cedar!
Oh, c’mon. A feline cedar?
It was true!
Oh, OK! Joined at the trunk. I suppose they are Siamese giant cedars. Must not have started out that way, though.
They’ve been this way for a long time, SPHP.
Nothing makes a forest feel as ancient as giant trees and ferns! Plenty of ferns added to the giant cedars’ prehistoric ambiance. Maybe keeping an eye out for saber-toothed Dingoes wasn’t such a bad idea?
At the far end of the Nature Trail No. 405 loop, Ross Creek Trail No. 142 took off continuing up the valley. No telling how far it went, or where, or how much farther the giant cedars themselves extended.
Want to explore it, SPHP?
So many trails, and so little time, Looper! Yeah, I would love to, but we’ve got a mountain to climb yet today, so I guess we’ll have to pass. Can’t do everything.
Aww! We haven’t seen even a single giant squirrel yet!
That may be for the best, Loop. Might still be a saber-toothed squirrel or two lurking around here somewhere. We’d be in for it then!
Near the end of the loop, Lupe came to a dry riverbed. Ross Creek, or perhaps just a former channel? The riverbed was full of cairns.
Oh, I remember this! We saw these cairns 9 years ago when we were here with Lanis, remember, SPHP?
Yeah, that’s right! We did! Always assumed they would get washed away in the spring, though. Surprised to see them again. Maybe rebuilding them is some sort of a tradition for the locals?
No one to ask about that. The forest was still quiet. Moving on, Lupe completed the loop, and headed back. Less an hour had gone by when she reached the RAV4 again. Still no one else around.
A stream near the parking lot had the only water the Carolina Dog had seen at the giant cedars. Naturally, Loop had to sample some for herself.
Don’t get carried away, Looper! Leave some for the giant cedars!
The Ross Creek Giant Cedars had been a fun way to start the day, but Lupe still had big plans for this afternoon. Returning to Hwy 56, SPHP drove N to Hwy 2, then E to Libby. Taking Hwy 37 N out of Libby toward Rexford, another highlight worth a stop was soon reached, the Libby Dam on the Kootenai River that forms Lake Koocanusa.
After a look at the dam, Loopster checked out Lake Koocanusa. Near the dam, the lake was less than a mile wide, but to the N it stretched away until completely lost from sight.
How far does Lake Koocanusa go, SPHP?
90 miles, Looper! All the way into Canada, like the name implies.
Canada! Are we that close to Canada, SPHP?
Yup.
Oh, I wish we could go up into Canada and Alaska!
Me, too, Looper! Actually, the Canadian border opens today for tourism. If they’d opened it a little earlier in the season, we might already be way up into Canada. Too bad they didn’t open a month earlier, or at the very least announce it before the last minute.
You mean we could go to Canada today, SPHP? Why don’t we?
Technically, yes, but we’re not ready for it, because they gave no clue that they were going to open the border until very recently. There are rules we haven’t complied with yet. Besides, they change everything so often, I don’t trust them not to change the rules again without warning. No sense in getting ourselves stranded up there with no way to get back.
This will be the second year in a row we’ve missed out then, SPHP. I’ve probably been deposed as the Most High Exalted Dingo of the Arctic Sisterhood by now. Can’t say I’d blame them, either.
Be that as it may, that’s the way the cookie crumbles these days, Loop. We aren’t going to get to go into Canada on this Dingo Vacation, but you’ll at least get to see it.
I will? When?
Today! Somewhere up ahead there’s a bridge to adventure over this lake, and we’re gonna take it!
It might have been 30 miles, but before the RAV4 reached Rexford, a bridge over Lake Koocanusa did appear ahead. SPHP parked twice at different spots, so the American Dingo could have a look.
Where does the bridge go, SPHP?
Over to far NW Montana, Looper. On your next adventure we’ll be setting out so close to the Canadian border we could walk across!
Will we do that?
Uh, no. You’d just want to go clear to the Yukon, and it’s a heck of a trek.
Well, wherever we’re going, SPHP, let’s get started!
Piling back into the RAV4 again, SPHP turned the key. Moments later, Lupe was cruising in comfort across the bridge to adventure on her way to the next big thing.
Links:
Next Adventure Prior Adventure
Overlander Falls, Rearguard Falls & Ancient Forest, British Columbia (8-2-17)
Want more Lupe adventures? Choose from Lupe’s Summer of 2021 Dingo Vacations to New Mexico, Wyoming & the West Coast Adventure Index, Dingo Vacations Adventure Index or Master Adventure Index. Or subscribe free to new Lupe adventures.