#beartooth road

Rock hop across Elkhorn Creek

5.21.2013 I rock hopped across Elkhorn Creek and would soon do the same across Willow Creek. My car can see parked in the background as I got underway on my hike into Mann Gulch. MY MANN GULCH HIKE STORY: Monday 5.20.13, I braved a muddy, deeply rutted road, leading sharply uphill from the southeastern end of Holter Lake. I found an authorized camping area on Cottonwood Creek and checked it out.…

Mann Gulch sentinel and cross

Nature always seems to provide the best memorials to man. Here an old snag stand near the top of Mann Gulch. Below it I saw could see the upper reaches of Mann Gulch where the men parachuted in and then collected their strung out fire fighting equipment that was badly scattered because it had been dropped from a higher elevation than usual. Also as I gazed down at this view from near the top of…

Mann Gulch (L) & Rescue Gulch (R)

Rescue Gulch fall off steeply on the right and the slope to the left leads down into Mann Gulch. The smokejumpers race with the fire, took place center left. They were all forced to seek the ridge and travel up gulch to try to evade the huge fast moving fire that chased them. Only two made it over the ridge before the fire (Bob Sallee and Walter Rumsey). William Hellman crossed over too, but only…

Looking back at my progress

There is no trail from Willow Creek to Mann Gulch but the route is intuitive and the open country allows you to gauge where you are going and where you have been. Here I turn to look back down to the Willow Creek Canyon, where I had just hiked up from. MY MANN GULCH HIKE STORY: Monday 5.20.13, I braved a muddy, deeply rutted road, leading sharply uphill from the southeastern end of Holter Lake. I…

Rich colors of Mann Gulch “wall”

5.21.13 I started my hike down the ridge top which separates Mann Gulch on the left with Rescue Gulch on the right.

All along the ridge separating Mann Gulch from Rescue Gulch are walls of rock standing vertically. At places there is a lower wall and then another wall up higher. There are a few saddles where you can cross from one gulch to another without any rocks at all blocking your progress,…

End of great hike~I can see my car.

It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be hiking down to Willow Creek. Clumps of bunch grass made foot placement a little bit of work. The frangrance of larkspur, balsamroot and shootingstar, and the warmth of the sun, more than compensated for the sore feet and slow pace. OMT

Here is a link to the photographs of the 13 men, who died attempting to fight the Mann Gulch fire on 5 August 1949: www.…