A Beautiful Day for a Ride along Mill Creek

Cindi enjoying the view

We woke up to bright blue skies and a cool start to the morning. Since Bridger was heading to his favorite place for the day we headed out for a nice ride in the mountains in Paradise Valley. We even took our bathing suits in the hope of having enough time to soak at Chico Hot Springs after our ride. 

Mill Creek Road has become one of our favorite rides. The mountain views are amazing and it is a fairly 'easy' 10 mile ride into the Beartooth Wilderness on a gravel road. 

The elevation climb of 1644 feet (or 1586 feet depending on whose app was correct) wasn't too much trouble. The loose gravel was a bit more worrisome that the climb. The Forest Service had recently scraped the road so last year's pot holes were mostly covered up by the gravel.

Unfortunately, that meant riding on more loose gravel than the harder road surface...a bit tricky & rear wheel wiggly. Still not a bad way of spending a few hours in the mountains. 

Lambert Creek

To switch things up a bit we decided to head up another section of road that we started to ride last year, but had to abandon after fixing a flat. The road ended at Lambert Creek and the start of two trails that continued on up into the wilderness. Crow Mountain & Lambert Creek, neither trail looked as if they saw much use based on the over growth on the trails. Probably missed the opportunity to scare up a bear or two.

Lambert Creek was quite pretty. The water was still flowing well from the snow melt high in the surrounding mountains. We had a quick snack & enjoyed the scenery. 

We did seem to attract every horse fly & biting black fly in the state of Montana. They were on us every time we stopped to get a drink & really bad loading the truck. Thankfully the buggers were slow so many ended up swatted & dead on the ground. It is the first time we've been attacked by bugs while riding in the mountains. 

I may have chased a few butterflies around the creek for a bit before we turned to head back down the road.

Northern checkerspot

Milbert's tortiseshell

I love this time of year with large meadows filled with wildflowers in full bloom...lupine, Indian paintbrush & Woods' roses were plentiful along the road. Still no sightings of any bears in the area. All we can say is it looks like an area primed for bear activity. One Mule deer running across the road and a dusky grouse with a few chicks running away when we rode up on them in the road. 

Dusky grouse

Heard a western tanager and a ruby-crowned kinglet, but never caught sight of either bird. A shame too, both are so beautiful.

Heading back we stopped at Chico's for a late lunch. Thought about a soak too, but we needed to get back to pick up Bridger. Just not enough time to soak for an hour, eat & make it back to town to get Bridger. Although he probably would have been just fine...as long as he got his dinner on time. 

May just head to Chico's on Bridger's next play date.

Heartleaf arnica

Woods' rose

Scarlet Indian paintbrush

Tweety at Lambert Creek Trailhead