Jackknife

Pretty drive a couple of ruts with some mud and water, but easily passable. A couple of deer stood nearby to say hi. The surrounding views were fantastic.

The views from this trail always catch me by surprise. The snow-covered mountains, green grassy fields with wildflowers, and the aspens in their fresh, bright green color. Also saw some flowers that we hadn't seen before, these purple bell-looking things. They were all within a 20-foot area.

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!

The Goose Fire area closure order was rescinded on October 7th, allowing the reopening of the following trails: Cliff Lake Bench Conklin Lake East Bench Elk Lake Jackknife Jackpine Gulch South Bench The condition of the affected trails is unknown and will be updated soon.

Due to the Goose Fire, the following trails have been temporarily closed: Conklin Lake Elk Lake Road beyond Elk Lake to Hidden Lake is closed Jackpine Gulch Jackknife Cliff Lake Bench South Bench East Bench Currently, the West Fork Madison River is the edge of the closure area. More info on the closure can be found here: Goose Fire Closure Order

We had less smoke today than we have in the last couple of weeks. It was nice to get out on the trails, although today was a very busy day in the mountains. No complaints, beautiful views, and a nice breeze to keep the bugs away.

Nice little road that breaks out of the trees into the open and has some beautiful views.