Trail: Memorial Falls Trail
Hike Location: Lewis and Clark National Forest
Geographic Location: north of White Sulphur Springs, MT (46.91306, -110.69789)
Length: 0.9 miles
Difficulty: 3/10 (Easy/Moderate)
Date Hiked: August 2018
Overview: A short but rocky and occasionally steep
out-and-back to two small waterfalls.
Area Information: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/hlcnf/recarea/?recid=62652
Directions to the trailhead: The signed parking area
for Memorial Falls is located on the east side of US 89 2 miles south of the
town of Neihart.
The hike: Straddling
the north-south continental divide in northern Montana, Lewis and Clark
National Forest protects more than 1.8 million acres mostly of forested
mountains. The national forest is named
for the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition, which explored this area between
1804 and 1806 as part of their exploration of the land acquired with the
Louisiana Purchase. The national forest
was established in 1897, only one year after the United States signed the Treaty
of 1896 with the Blackfeet Nation, which established the adjacent Blackfeet Reservation.
The
national forest has lands in eight different mountain ranges, one of which is
the Little Belt Mountains. Located
southeast of Great Falls, the Little Belt Mountains consist of gently sloped
peaks covered by pine forest. One of the
area’s most scenic and popular frontcountry sites is Memorial Falls, the
destination of the hike described here.
Although this hike is short and not that difficult, the elevation is
high and the terrain rocky, so it is not as easy as the distance alone might
suggest.
 |
| Memorial Falls Trailhead |
An
information sign and vault toilet sit at the rear of the parking lot, where
this hike begins. Immediately the
asphalt trail crosses Belt Creek on a sturdy bridge with iron railings, after
which the trail surface turns to dirt and rock.
For the rest of the hike the trail stays near the bank of Memorial
Creek, which is a small tributary of Belt Creek. Memorial Creek’s ravine is very rocky:
talus-covered slopes rise to vertical rock cliffs on either side.
Sheets of
black plastic buried under the trail stabilize the trail surface as you climb
up the ravine. Ponderosa pines and Douglas
firs dominate the forest, and the understory is very open. Just past 0.3 miles, you reach the base of
the main waterfall. The main waterfall
is a ledge-type waterfall that drops about 25 feet. The small creek does not provide a lot of water
to fall, but the rocky area makes for a very rugged setting.
 |
| Main waterfall |
Some people
turn around here, but another waterfall lies a few hundred feet upstream. To get there, keep following the main trail
as it curves left to cross Memorial Creek and begins climbing a trio of switchbacks. The switchbacks are the rockiest part of this
trail, but careful stepping will get you up to the ravine’s rim.
 |
| Rocky switchback |
 |
| View from ravine rim |
 |
| Upper Falls |
The trail
continues upstream along the ravine’s rim to reach a view of Upper Falls at
0.45 miles. Upper Falls is more of a
cascade-type waterfall than its lower cousin, but it is still an interesting
site. The official trail ends at the
Upper Falls viewpoint. Although an
unofficial trail crosses the creek above Upper Falls and goes back down to the
main waterfall along the creek’s other (east) bank, I do not recommend going
that way: that trail is too steep and exposed for good safety. Thus, I chose to retrace my steps down the
switchbacks and past the main waterfall to return to the parking lot and
complete the hike.
No comments:
Post a Comment