Columbia Mountain

Sunday, October 14, I hiked up Columbia Mountain with Patti and Mary.  Patti and I had never hiked on Columbia Mountain even though it may be one of the closest and easiest hikes for us to reach.  I see the mountain every day out my front window.

Teakettle Mountain is on the left.  Columbia Mountain is on the right.

Easiest to get to doesn't mean it is the easiest to hike on.  This trail went up from the get go.  What is worse than going up is... going up, then going down before going up again.

Mary said the trail originally started a mile to the south.  But the trail access was through private property.  The Forest Service then built and extended the trail thru public property to the north to the current trail head.  The trail extension is the reason for the up and down (to connect to the original trail).

I don't know why, but the elevation profile on the right doesn't show the down section of the trail a mile or so into the hike.  I need to get a GPS unit to accurately map the trails I hike on.  And if you compare the elevation profile to the first photo, it also doesn't look like it matches.

Fall colors.

Columbia Falls is on the left side with Teakettle Mountain on the right side.

This is not the waterfall.

Here, and later above the waterfall, were some makeshift memorials to someone.

Here is where the waterfall stream crosses the trail.

Stream below the waterfall

I climbed up above the waterfall.

More photos from above the waterfall as I followed the stream a good distance before quitting and turning back to Patti and Mary.

We continued up the trail after the waterfall side trip. 

Our late start, the long time spent exploring the waterfall, and Patti's 4:30 pm commitment meant we couldn't make it to the top of the mountain today.  I don't know what we all were thinking as this was more of a hike (climb) than we anticipated. Our underestimation of the hike may because we see the mountain everyday.

Patti and Mary turned back.  I went up the trail a little more as Mary said there was a break in the trees and a view of the Valley up ahead.  Here is where I stopped.  At the point where I could now see how far I was from the top.   Or near the top.  I don't think what we are seeing is the very top of Columbia Mountain.

I included both photos to give you an idea of just how far I had left to hike.  The second photo shows the distance better.

I booked when I hiked back down the trail in order to catch up to Patti and Mary.  They were waiting at a viewpoint a little over a mile from the trail head and said they had not been waiting very long.


There are not a lot of views along the trail due to the trees.  Here are a couple photos of the Valley.

Columbia Falls

Looking towards Kalispell

The video of various parts of the waterfall is 4:37 long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5dPD6tVhE