Ross Cedar Grove Montana
Here is the northern Panhandle of Idaho it is a relatively short drive to Canada and two states (Washington and Montana) in the cardinal directions North, West and East.
I tried visiting Ross Cedar grove last May but was thwarted by the remnants of a heavy snow pack from the previous winter and a healing sprained ankle. As it turns out I turned around a couple of hundred yards from the parking lot. I had walked the four miles on the closed snow packed road and was aware of how weak and vulnerable my ankle was from the sprain the previous November. I was determined not to reinjure myself that day. I wrote about that day below.
Doug Morse
This day, however, it is late September and I travel with my wife and Mollie. The weather has been quite autumnal and today was no exception. Overcast with low clouds hanging over the mountains as we drive out. The tops of the Selkirks and Cabinet mountains are dusted with the first overnight snow of this season . The Bull river valley is yellow with changing color of aspen, cottonwood, willow, rushes, and grasses. We spotted a bull moose in one meadow holding high its strange rack of antlers as it walked with a Pleistocene-ian dignity.
The grove itself is magnificent and well worth the drive. Large and ancient cedars populated the valley floor of Ross creek. Protected from fire and wind by this sheltered valley, they have lived long quiet lives here. The creek arises from the bed intermittently. Presumably forced up to the surface by unseen bedrock under the cobbled stony stream bed. It is fall and all the snow pack has melted long ago and the rivers and creeks are at their seasonal ebb now. Quite a contrast compared to my visit to the area last spring.
The vine maple are just in transition to their fall colors. Under the shelter of a cedar canopy they are still a mix of green and yellow. Where they appear on the edge of the creek bank the colder night air coalesces and touches the upper reaches with richer reds.
The trail is relatively flat as it rises gently up the river valley. We departed from the park’s loop to travel further up along the Forest Service trail. We found a place to eat our sandwiches before returning down the trail.
We were worried a little about Mollie’s adjustment to her new surroundings but these fears surrendered to her mad joy of running about the forest floor. She greeted it enthusiastically as some kind of joyful obstacle course leaping over logs or running their lengths. Thundering past us at full pelt down the trail.
