NW Montana

We started our day with a hike to Kootenai Falls. In the parking lot, there are bathrooms and a concession stand and there are shade trees benches and picnic tables to have a lunch. From the parking lot, there is a one 8th mile paved path down to the Falls overlook observation fence. From there if you take a left you come to the train track trestle bridge. Once you cross the train tracks, which are not dog friendly, there is a split in the road with a sign and it is 1/8 mile down to the falls. The other direction is a 1/4 mile walk to the swinging bridge. Our dog only weighs 35 pounds and so we were able to carry her down the metal tread stairs over the train tracks as well as the wooden plank on the swinging bridge. The falls are particularly spectacular because you can climb the rocks to get up top or get down very close to the river.

From there we headed back towards Troy and took a left, South on 56. It’s a short 22 miles to Ross Cedars in the national forest.

The Ross Creek Cedars are reminiscent of some of the big redwood trees in California. huge towering giants standing hundreds of feet tall over shadowing everything around you. A short hike across the creek and around the nature loop will take you past some of the bigger specimens. This shaded walk is a great thing to do on a hot summer afternoon. On the way back out along the drive you are greeted with a fabulous overlook to some steep mountains in the distance.

From there we drive back to Troy and past our campground, Kootenai River Campground, and then turned right on Yaak River Road. A few miles up the road on the right is Yaak River Falls. This spectacular set of waterfalls cascades down the river before running over an awe inspiring natural spillway. The rocks around the river look as if God took giant sheets of rock and threw them into the earth at an angle. It was a lot of fun to climb along these slippery rocks to get our great views of the river.

Then we continued north and turned right onto 17 Mile Creek Rd. At the first road split take a left up the mountain. At the second road split, we took a left toward Loon lake. At the end of this road we took a right Pipe Creek Rd (MT 508 towards Libby). We were hoping to see more wildlife but only saw deer.

Our travels brought us back around to Libby, Montana where we decided to stop in at Cabinet Mountain Brewing Company for some dinner. The covered outside eating area was perfect to sit with our pup and enjoy their Yaak Mountain, Pulled Pork BBQ sliders and their Street Tacos. All of the food was fresh and delicious.