Montana Nature Walk - Tranquil Mountain Road - Scenic Forest Treadmill Workout

Añadido: 2026-05-13

[00:00:02]Hello walkers and welcome back to CityWalks, uh the channel where I walk you around interesting and hopefully beautiful places like this, which is obviously not a city. Uh we'll be just doing another nature walk today. Sort of giving you the uh panoramic view from up high. We're just going to walk this fire road. Uh, and I'm gonna talk a little bit about fires. Uh, I guess it's a forest service road.

[00:00:34]And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about here. And then I'm just going to be quiet and we're going to enjoy the ambience of Mill Creek.

[00:00:41]Um, it is 50° Fahrenheit, roughly 10° C. It's about 1:30 p.m. Midmay and we are up uh Mil Creek Drainage at the kind of the end of the road of Navigable Road and then they have the rest gated and it's a little breezier than I expected and I actually thought the road would be gated about five miles further down. Uh, I'm surprised that it's open.

[00:01:16]And on the one hand, that's great because we get to start up here. On the other hand, I was going to ride my bike up here tomorrow, maybe.

[00:01:27]And I'm not sure I'm going to do that now.

[00:01:31]You can see these small pine trees. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the fire. First of all, I want to thank our Patreon supporters. I almost forgot to do that.

[00:01:41]um your support, especially in the days of super high gas prices, uh it really does make a difference.

[00:01:48]Fills up a tank of gas, which uh helps a ton in a state like Montana where we have a very big diff distances. So, thank you very much. I know it doesn't seem like a lot to you guys, but it seems like a lot to me. So, thank you.

[00:02:05]Uh this is Mill Creek.

[00:02:09]beautiful little mountain stream and it goes back up into or comes out of the uh Absara Mountains back in there which you can see still plenty of snow up high at least. Maybe not plenty but some. And we're going to walk along this fire road which I think is like 2028 or something.

[00:02:29]I call it a fire road. It's a forest service road. Um, you see all these small trees blowing around in the wind.

[00:02:38]This little afternoon wind as we see some uh clouds and weather maybe moving in. Uh, this is from a fire I want to say 10 or 15 years ago.

[00:02:50]Probably more than that actually. Uh, no it has to be way more than that. About 18 20 years ago. And you can see they haven't grown very large.

[00:03:00]Some of them are getting up there, but uh and they're all it's a monoculture, right? These are all the same trees basically, same species. And that is something which I think is super interesting. Succession forest succession, right? So these trees will start off, they'll go really fast. Well, actually, you got some of these bushes first. Uh then the trees grow really fast, relatively speaking for trees. And then other trees will come in as these guys, some of them make it, some of them don't, get knocked down, die, whatever.

[00:03:36]And another species will start to come in and then another species and then it'll probably burn again as is the nature. But one of the things that's kind of nice is it gives you this um sense of topography. the folds of the landscape. You know, you might not be able we might not be able to see those rocky outcroppings if the forest was still there.

[00:04:03]And it, you know, it brings a lot of nutrients back into this sort of uh desolate soil. It's tough going for plants up here. Uh, and all that new growth down low is way more edible for wildlife.

[00:04:22]Uh, the downside is all those trees and roots and plants that burned were holding soil back and at least one place on the way up. I don't know if it was because of root loss, but there's a little landslide that hadn't blocked the road, but had come kind of close.

[00:04:49]Um, I was also considering doing a walk up to Passage Creek Falls.

[00:04:55]Uh, which this road actually you can follow it and it'll go up and cross it eventually. Uh, Passage Creek just above the falls is my understanding from the map. Um, but I forgot my bear spray and it's barrel o'lock uh in terms of seasonality and I really probably should just be walking along that main road instead of this forest service road. But I feel fairly comfortable here, especially talking with you guys. And we're just going to walk along here and uh enjoy the views.

[00:05:35]So, uh, please, if you have any questions about the area, if you want to come visit Yellowstone, my wife has a website called Yellowstonerips.com and tons of information about visiting the Yellowstone area. Lots of expertise.

[00:05:54]Um, so hope you'll check that out. But also in the YouTube description, give me a shout out. Share your thoughts, your experiences, your questions, whatever and whatnot.

[00:06:32]Uh they do have a pit toilet down here at the end of the road and there's lots of campsites, established campsites uh along this road and it's only you can't a lot of forest service areas you can just camp wherever you want and in this little area you cannot you have to believe you have to camp at established campsites.

[00:07:17]I think the name for this particular little for service road, aside from its number, is Dutch Creek or Dutch something road.

[00:08:11]It's like there's some tracks here.

[00:08:15]Either a forest service or it looks like maybe mountain bikes.

[00:08:19]Also looks kind of bigger and some footprints. I heard a grouse, too.

[00:09:00]I've been reading I I read a lot of articles about walking. They come up in my feed.

[00:09:07]And one of the things I they did this with mice, but they think it might be important for humans as well. When we walk, we engage our abdominal muscles a little bit. Doesn't feel like it really just feels like walking. But at least in mice, they found that that action helps the pneumatic system like the fluid system in your brain and spinal column to move the fluid through and helps it flush out any of a lot of the bad stuff that might be accumulating over time, which I thought was super interesting.

[00:09:52]that back in there. Man, it really did burn, didn't it?

[00:09:58]And I you can see that this side, ton of trees, right?

[00:10:04]And that side, barely any. And I wonder if that's a more recent burn. Seems like there's more dead standing dead trees as well.

[00:10:16]Interesting.

[00:10:24]Uh I tend to share articles on this Facebook group that I created called City Walks and Virtual Travel for All on Facebook. So if you find any articles or interested in those kinds of articles, you might give it a a look see.

[00:10:47]Looks like ATV tracks almost.

[00:12:10]Uh, it's been too long, but I think but one of the things they talk about after a wildfire comes comes through is the morel mushrooms uh come in and colonize which can be delicious if you cook them right with lots of butter and bad if you don't cook them right but um the uh anyway I don't know if that's cuz you can find them easier more easily or if it's because they're part of that poorest succession.

[00:12:49]I talked about coming in harvesting all the extra nutrients.

[00:14:25]Okay, here's another possibility of why the trees on this side of the valley seem to be colonizing more rapidly.

[00:14:38]Another theory that is kind of a south facing slope and this is kind of a north facing slope. So what does that mean? Well, the south facing slope gets a lot more sun.

[00:14:53]It's warmer. the snow melts off sooner, which means that it has less water throughout the year, or it's not spread as evenly, I guess.

[00:15:05]The snow on this side stays longer, uh, is less rapidly rapid, less quick to drain off, more moisture available for these plants.

[00:15:18]Uh, I don't know if that's the reason or not.

[00:15:34]I like to look back sometimes if I'm not going to film on the way back and see the different perspective.

[00:15:47]Uh I try not to talk as much on these nature walks, but I end up talking a ton anyway because I'm like to jibber jabber. Um, so there were three other cars down at the trail head.

[00:16:05]Uh, a fourth had just left and to me that feels busy, right? All this open space, all this emptiness supposed or from some people's perspective. Uh, and yet feels busy. And then I have a buddy out in Seattle and he's he reminds me that actually three or four cars at a trail head is not busy.

[00:16:35]We'll say Passage Creek Falls had about 20 cars that trail head.

[00:16:42]Oh yeah, for sure is I love the birds.

[00:17:58]Dutch road. That's what it's called.

[00:18:04]Later in the season, they I guess they open up this road and you can, if you have an appropriate vehicle, drive back up in here.

[00:19:10]Wonder if this was logged.

[00:19:49]Look like somebody maybe had a little fire out here.

[00:19:52]A campfire.

[00:20:38]I'm also a little surprised sometimes often how much ground I can cover just walking and how much the scenery changes in what are we 20 minutes in so much to see at the slower pace and just uh I mean the scale is different it's enjoyable I notice more but also I cover a fair amount of ground that's one of the reasons I like bikes too is uh pace is a faster, super efficient way of moving, but you have plenty of time to absorb the surroundings.

[00:21:25]Uh, this bar here with the loops is a hitching rail for people that are going to go on horseback riding or who uh go on pack trips, that sort of thing.

[00:22:19]It says Collie Creek is what the sign up here says. We'll go see Go take a look at it real quick.

[00:23:04]A pleasant little place.

[00:23:11]Breeze picking up like is that a trail?

[00:23:17]An old road?

[00:23:20]Just a place to park.

[00:23:26]Let's take a look at this other side.

[00:23:30]You can see uh we'll we'll see it better up here, but you can tell that these trees are much more mature.

[00:23:39]And uh looks unburned for the most part.

[00:23:48]We'll see the line up here in a minute, which kind of makes me wonder if it was logged, too.

[00:24:12]I'm also a little surprised not to see more flowers.

[00:24:16]Guess it's still a little early.

[00:24:54]This tree is different.

[00:24:58]And those are the ones I think.

[00:25:01]See how the the needles come out versus this one over here.

[00:25:08]That might be the same. But this one over here, that's a spruce, I think.

[00:25:21]But I wanted to show you this kind of line over here. You see the little guys next to the big guys or bigger guys? Uh, and you can see it better from the other side earlier, but um I think that's where the fire or whatever happened here uh got stopped for whatever reasons or maybe started. I don't know. Oh, twisted an ankle there a little bit.

[00:26:20]258 H.

[00:27:14]Must be a forest service vehicle that had keys to the gate has come up here.

[00:27:21]Checking things out.

[00:27:24]Oo, look at this. Okay, so one of the reasons the fire cycle is important is it um returns nutrients back to the soil.

[00:27:38]Yeah, we all talk about that. But look at this big orange and gray dead tree.

[00:27:45]And the other thing is these standing trees get infested with insects and they're also no longer able to protect themselves and you get I think some of those might just be where limbs burned off. But birds will peck away at that.

[00:28:06]Woodpeckers, um, sap suckers, that sort of thing. Uh, and they'll feed and then other birds or those birds will come along and, uh, open up a space, put a nest in there.

[00:28:22]Like owls will often do that.

[00:28:26]Although I don't think they create the hole they take advantage of.

[00:28:33]Um, one thing you do have to be careful when you're in this kind of environment, if you're out hiking, especially on a windy day, these dead trees can fall over at any time and they're still pretty heavy.

[00:28:51]They can really do a number on you.

[00:28:56]I don't know if you guys have read uh about Yellowstone this month, but they've had they did have a bear attack over uh by Ferry Falls and that's not good. And then I think they had a more a fatality in Glacier. A hiker was found dead and they think it was maybe a bear.

[00:29:20]So, not the best move on my part to not bring uh my bear spray, but feel like I'm chittering and chattering with you guys. They're not trying to hunt people.

[00:29:37]Uh, generally speaking, it's a situation where either you've surprised them. This is from what I understand. Uh, or uh you've gotten between them and a food source or a cub.

[00:29:52]They don't like that.

[00:30:10]Oh, here's some flowers. Look at this little pink and white, guys. Let's take a look.

[00:30:16]These are pretty.

[00:30:19]Nice.

[00:30:26]There's a sparrow. I think it's a sparrow flitting about these uh dead tree limbs.

[00:30:33]And it's declaring its territory to me, I think. Look at this.

[00:30:38]All right. So, it's a prime example.

[00:30:40]That's a big tree. Yeah. Tall. I know 60 70t tall. And look about down near the bottom where it's bent over, cracked.

[00:30:51]That's one gust of wind away from toppling.

[00:30:58]Topply dopply.

[00:31:08]Look at the views up here. This is awesome.

[00:31:12]Love it.

[00:31:14]Okay, let's take a look back here.

[00:31:18]It's not as visible as I'd like, but you can see sort of that ledge of older trees popping up.

[00:31:30]Kind of interesting, you know, it makes you wonder what what was it about that line that it stopped or started, I guess.

[00:32:17]You can see the creek down here, how steep those banks are. And makes you wonder how long, how many millennia did it take.

[00:32:27]Started out as a riffle and then a little not a riffle, rivullet and then becomes over the eons that Uh, I'm just going to go ahead and share this. It's not really relevant, but I do other YouTube channels. One of which is called Amazing Nature Relaxation Therapy, which has evolved. used to just be nature footage, maybe a my stock footage of animals or landscapes and then a lot of like 8hour looped scenes of prairie grasses and flowers or a creek, something supposed to be relaxing. Anyway, it has evolved further into these animated scenes that I've been creating which have been a lot of fun to make.

[00:33:37]and then putting Celtic uh folk style music behind them again to relax and be uh soothing hopefully background. So if you want to check those out, I think it's amazing. Nature relaxation is a channel and I've got a second one that I've been working on called Desert Meditations and it's kind of uh Middle Eastern style music and anyway might be worth checking out.

[00:34:10]They're kind of fun.

[00:34:48]Look how far we've come.

[00:34:50]There's a red truck way in the distance.

[00:34:53]It's about where we started.

[00:34:57]Good for you guys for keeping up.

[00:35:00]Keeping at it.

[00:35:20]Big rocky austere mountains. Little ridge there.

[00:35:43]It's a willow tree.

[00:35:45]It's a little fuzzy, guys.

[00:35:50]Could be wrong about that.

[00:36:19]Plenty of dandelions around dandelion.

[00:36:26]Think that comes from French and it's or Latin and it looks it's uh lion toes maybe lion fingers.

[00:36:36]Not sure I have that right, but Hard to imagine how a tiny little creek like this and this is probably up near its peak flow.

[00:38:53]um can carve this valley, this ravine.

[00:39:01]Huh.

[00:39:22]Interesting little rock formation up here.

[00:39:25]A little different.

[00:40:03]Oh, the sweet new growth smell is really nice, really pleasant.

[00:40:27]Okay. So, you can see that white camper trailer and just to the right of that, if you follow the road, we'll start to see the parking lot where we started.

[00:40:41]And you can see how the road snakes up and around.

[00:40:47]Doesn't seem like as as steep as it did when I was walking it, of course, but nonetheless.

[00:40:58]All right. You can see a big white spot to the right of that camper, and that is where we started.

[00:41:09]So, good work everybody.

[00:41:12]Um, I'm just going to go up a little bit further. This is 259 off to the left.

[00:41:18]Um, cuz I want to look back up the valley or down the valley, I guess.

[00:41:26]A little water here.

[00:41:49]Must be seeping out of this hillside.

[00:42:06]Here we go.

[00:42:16]There's this really pretty canyon. Tight rocky vertical walled canyon that the road goes up road in the creek goes through. It's really pretty impressive.

[00:42:30]You can just kind of start to glance um get a glimpse of it.

[00:42:37]See if we can get a little closer.

[00:42:47]So, right now we are kind of looking I want to say west, but it might be north.

[00:42:54]This um and we're at 6,700 ft of elevation, by the way. Good work.

[00:43:02]Compass.

[00:43:05]Yep. We're heading west.

[00:43:25]Well, you can't we're not get a good view of it, but uh it's down there. Take my word for it. Uh I want to thank you guys for joining me today. Okay, it's about 43 minutes here. Uh, I hope you enjoyed it. It's I came up here for the well to scout a little bit, but also for the big scenery. Uh, the burned out trees are a little dreary, but it's also allows us to see so much so much more than we normally would have. So, I hope you enjoyed that. Hope you'll come back next week. Have no idea where I'm going to walk next week. Uh, but hopefully it'll be someplace fun and beautiful and interesting. Until then, as always, keep on stepping.