Lava Creek - New Hike!

We are having so much fun this year hiking with Phyllis and Kathy! They have done most of the same hikes as us but don't care and are always willing to go out when we all can.
 
They told us about Lava Creek and we jumped on it.







The picture above shows where Lava Creek travels under the road. This shows you where it comes out! On the right side of the falls is a fenced area. Above it is parking and it is called Undine Falls. Less than 10% of those that see the falls get the view from our side.

We crept as close to the edge as possible to get the full picture. Well worth the effort. We could have turned around and gone back to the car, but with the promise of a 6 mile hike ahead, we went on.









This is Bob, me and Kathy with Undine in the back.











And here is the bonus...you can't see this from any part of the road and it was beautiful. No name for this falls, at least not on our map. It is still part of Lava Creek.








This is another one-way hike so requires that 2nd vehicle which is otherwise elusive for us. And, to top it off, this is another hike that is almost completely downhill. A win-win.










 This area is called the Gardiner Valley. Our path follows Lava Creek through the valley and below the Everts Mountain.








When we saw the 3 out croppings on the side of Everts, we decided it's the future 2nd Mount Rushmore. All we need is the person with a dream....

And yes, there was another smaller area between 2 of the big ones to make it a four-some.







Lava Creek converges with Gardiner River along this stretch. We had rain for 3 days before this and both bodies of water were running high.









Our only wildlife for this hike was this pretty, plump Grouse.

Phyllis said there was an Eagle's nest along this portion. We finally spotted it. We were disappointed though, no Eagles in the tree or flying around the area. Their young have undoubtedly already taken off.






I had been wondering for a few miles how we were going to cross the river to get back to our car. And here was my answer. It's more fun to not ask sometimes and be surprised.

Swinging bridges are not my favorite, but walking across the water on logs is even less appealing.

So up the hill we went and the hike was done.