Freezeout Creek

Beautiful day to be outside. The trail is unchanged, and somehow the views get better over time.

The trail was in good shape and had no obstacles. Hard to beat a day in the mountains.

We hit many trails this afternoon looking for critters. We started out crossing the Madison River at Hutchins Bridge, heading up West Fork Madison to Standard Creek, turning left at Soap Creek, and following it through Flatiron Mountain and Freezeout Creek, making the loop back to Standard Creek. The trails were in great shape. Once back at Standard Creek Road, we were amazed to have seen nine deer on this short loop, so we decided to head back down Standard Creek to West Fork Madison, where we saw a doe and two tiny fawns, then up Jackpine Gulch to East Bench. We had to clear a couple of downed trees from East Bench; otherwise, there were no issues with this trail. We saw two more deer on the way in and hiked around the end of the trail for a few. It was a surprise looking through the charred tree at how close we were to Cliff Lake. Headed back out, we took Jackknife out to Cliff Lake Bench and watched the sunset. Driving out in the twilight, we saw a couple of elk and a few more doe and fawn. All in all, on this trip we saw 19 of these four-legged critters. That's usually pretty close to our tally for an entire summer. For one evening, that was amazing!

Freezeout Creek is 1 of 3 trails that when connected comprise a full loop of a trail that will start and end off the Standard Creek trail. There are some fun little offshoot trails specifically on Freezeout Creek along with a midway stop that has some spectacular views. On the day I rode this trail it was dry and in great shape so no real obstacles to speak of.

Today was a beautiful warm sunny day in the mountains. Writing this the day after we traveled this trail, the high today is 32 degrees and received several inches of snow. Plan accordingly for sudden either changes this time of year.

This is one of the three great trails to make the loop back to Standard Creek Road and a beautiful way to spend an afternoon looking for that great shot of critters or mountains. We saw a moose on this loop, a deer, and got a great pic of this bird of prey. The views of the Centennial Mountains are excellent! We found several patches of wild strawberries and enjoyed the views of the wildflowers.