The best hikes, like this one to Little Rock Creek Lake, are always those spur of the moment, look at the map, and go.
“Let’s go for a hike.”
“Never done Little Rock Creek Lake.”
“Let’s do it!”
And with that, we were off to the Little Rock Creek trailhead, located above Lake Como to the south. Starting at the trailhead, we spent the first mile traveling through a regenerating forest from the 1988 forest fire, but soon we reach the boundary of the burn and the bottom of the canyon that holds Little Rock Creek. The trail from this point until the lake was quite rough and obviously not regularly maintained by the Forest Service. After climbing over several benches of smooth granite, we arrived at Little Rock Creek Lake, which is not a true lake, but one of many irrigation reservoirs created in the Bitterroot Mountains. Even through the heavy smoke from numerous wildfires in the region, El Capitan, the second highest peak in the Bitterroot Mountains, peeks into view over the western end of the lake. We relaxed (well Vida chilled out, I’m incapable of it) in smooth granite boulder as the smoke grow thicker from a new forest fire in the next drainage. Heading out, we enjoyed picking a good number Thimbleberries and a few huckleberries, maybe the last of the season.
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