Our Sunday drive took us up Skalkaho Road to the top of the pass and down to Rock Creek where we got on a Forest Service Road and drove it north to Interstate 90 east of Missoula.  The roads were pretty good considering all the rain we have had.  The views were great.  I had not been on the road that follows Rock Creek that far to the north so it was a new road for both of us.  We have driven to the top of Skalkaho Pass many times and over it to Phillipsburg quite a few times.  It was mostly cloudy but we had no rain.  The first part of the drive on the Forest Service road was very scenic with some very nice ranches.

Skalkaho Falls.

Looking west down the canyon towards the Bitterroot Valley.  You can see all the burned trees in this area.  The fires have been really bad in western Montana in the past decade.  In my opinion, the forest service is not doing a very good job of managing our forests.  They have been letting the fuels build up so much so that when a fire starts, it burns hot and out of control for sometimes weeks or longer.

This is what I mean by the fuels building up.  The trees both standing and down are very thick.  Fighting a fire in these conditions is almost impossible or it is impossible!

The first part of the Rock Creek road.

As I said, there are some nice ranches in this little valley.  And they are in the middle of haying.

Rock Creek.

Some pretty rock formations along this section of road.

The road in this area is a little narrow. 

Some nice stands of pondarosa pines.

Click to enlarge.  And this campground is closed because of Covid.

Nice meadows.

Our lunch spot. Only one camper in this campground.

And now back to civilization.  A paved road.

Interstate 90 headed to Missoula.

Just south of Florence we had fire trucks pass us on their way to this structure fire.