Hazel & Hub Lake

     Just off mile marker 26 on I-90 is a dirt road. Taking this road forces you deeper and deeper into the Bitterroot Divide, the line that separates Montana and Idaho. At a bend in the road, a trail head presents itself for conquering.

     The start of the hike takes you through a beautiful cedar forest. The smell of such a forest is intoxicating. The kind of smell that makes you forget about the elevation gain that is making your calves burn.

     Around the half way point a beautiful waterfall, Dipper Falls, seems to emerge from nowhere and you are left wishing there were a way to get a closer. Not long after Hazel Lake appears through the trees. She is a temptress though, and cannot easily be reached by her steep banks. So one is left to continue on their current path and leave Hazel in the dust.
      Three miles in and nearly all of the +1,700 ft elevation gain in the last mile, the mountains open up to a beautiful meadow & Hub Lake.
    
     The colors that spattered the mountainsides this time of year were just beautiful.