Surprise! Falls Creek is open!

Falls Creek has numerous small waterfalls over broken limestone shelves

The Falls Creek valley looking toward the Continental Divide

One of the nicest falls on Falls Creek just a little than a mile from the trailhead

The flank of Bear Den Mountain

Dr. John Crowley does a knee deep crossing of Falls Creek

I was really at loose ends today as I tried to decide which hike I wanted to do.
After toying with a trip west of the Divide I settled on the Augusta area, checking out the conditions of the roads, some, like Elk Creek, which was washed out for the second straight year by Spring floods.
I decided I would go to the Forest Service Information Station and see what it had to offer.
But, the station was closed, so I checked out Elk Creek, and then headed to the Dearborn River access and to perhaps do the off-trail climb of Steamboat, and see what was going on with the construction of the new Falls Creek trail.
I started looking for any construction I could find as soon as I crossed the Falls Creek bridge.
About three-tenths of a mile beyond, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a sign in the back of a large, fenced field that looked like a parking lot.
I turned around and, sure enough, there was the new trail.
This is a big deal since the large and spectacularly wild Falls Creek Roadless Area was closed to the public about 13 years ago when the landowner, who had previously allowed access through a mile of his land, decided to deny access.
Countless times during those painful years I've driven by Falls Creek yearning to get back in.  This is an area that grants access to Table, Bear Den, Monitor, Twin Buttes and Caribou Peaks and the Continental Divide Trail while following a trail that follows a creek that cascades over broken limestone shelves.
The access was re-established by a land sale brokered by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, with participation by the Forest Service and Lewis and Clark County.
If you do this hike bring your water shoes.  There are two major crossings in the first 3.6 miles, the first about calf deep.
Because of the disuse over the past years the trail can be a tad tough to follow at first (tall grass has overgrown the beginning), but the further you hike, the better the trail becomes.