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| Cataract Falls is about a third of a mile from Steamboat trail that makes combining hikes logical |
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| Lots of berries on this hike, like these elderberries |
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| Lots of Fireweed that had gone red |
Since the 1988 Canyon Creek fire that swept through the Scapegoat and Rocky Mountain Front drainages like Smith, Elk and the Dearborn I've returned to climb Steamboat Lookout for the pleasure of it and to observe the year-to-year rebirth of the forest.
However, last year the Elk Creek road closure kept me from this special place, so my visit Thursday was for the first time in two years.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is how quickly the ground cover is assuming its Fall colors. Reds, oranges and yellows are everywhere, particularly in the huckleberries and fireweeds. Heck it isn't even Labor Day yet and we've got three weeks before Summer ends.
The trees continue to progress on all but the South facing slopes. The regrowth reminds me of what has occurred in Yellowstone Park: thick and luxuriant and now more than 20-foot trees so thick you can't walk through them. It's interesting to see the large number of Douglas Firs interspersed with the Lodgepoles. The forest looks very healthy.
In the meantime, alders and willows are encroaching on the trail so you have to bull your way through in some spots.
We added the short Cataract Falls trail to the hike, which brought our day to 3,933 feet over 13.2 miles.
The sky had cleared of the California fires so we got great views into the Scapegoat Wilderness and the Scapegoat massif where we had visited on a five-day backpack trip a mere month ago.
The views on this hike are simply exceptional: the craggy Steamboat skyline, the Scapegoat and Crown Mountain complexes, giant Red Mountain to the south, Rocky and Ear mountains to the north, and the distant Swan Range to the west.
There were some really sweet, but small huckleberries still out.
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