Located in the Hoodoo Mountains, the northwestern-most portion of the Clearwater Mountains, this loop is quite literally a walk in the woods. Don’t expect much, if any, views, but the trail is nicely shaded and if the sharp contrast of emerald-green trees, glazed with a fresh crust of snow, against an azure-blue sky gets your heart rate up, then this is the ticket.
Category: ClearWater Mountains
Giant White Pine Loop
Although lacking in views, this three-mile loop surprises with a pleasant walk along Meadow Creek, its beaver dams, and lush cedar forest. Alas, the 600-year-old white pine rotted and was cut down in 1999.
Widow and Lookout Mountains
This trail moves along the divide between the Marble Creek drainage (St. Joe) and the Little North Fork Clearwater drainage (Clearwater), with views of several lakes and ponds on the Clearwater side. Lookout Mountain, as the name implies a former lookout tower site, offers fantastic views into Clearwater country as well as as westwards towards Grandmother and Grandfather mountains. Portions of the trail are in the Grandmother Wilderness Study Area (BLM).
Hobo Botanical Loop
This loop is a short walk among giant cedars that survived both the 1910 Great Burn and the extensive logging that occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century. Sited on a 240-acre plot in the Marble Creek drainage, the trail was designated a Nation Natural Landmark in 1980. It consists of 2 intertwined loops, of which the shorter not even half a mile and the larger about twice that.
Hobo Historical Loop
The Hobo Historical Loop is a discovery tour of North Idaho’s logging past. The trail leads to a decaying logging camp on Marble Creek, an abandoned steam donkey, including some 5000 feet of 1″ steel cable, and an old splash dam.
Grandmother and Grandfather Mountain
The Marble Creek drainage has seen some serious logging activity in the past, but looking at a sheer endless sea of trees from the top of Grandmother Mountain, that is now difficult to imagine. Views aside, mid-summer wildflowers and August huckleberries are sure to make this one of your favorite hikes as well!
Marble Creek Loop
Heavily logged in the early twentieth century, the Marble Creek region is now blanketed with a mix of fir, larch, cedar, spruce, and hemlock, with little evidence of the coveted giant white pine stands that once covered the hillsides. The route commences at Gold Center Creek, which drains into the Clearwater system, then crosses the divide and drops beneath Grandmother Mountain to Marble Creek, which empties into the St. Joe. The way back moves past a splash dam and remnants of a bygone logging camp.