Big Creek Trail - Selway Bitterroot Wilderness -Bitterroot National Forest

Between the elevations of 5000 and 5400 feet, on the Big Creek Trail in the Bitterroot Mountains, there exists an old growth larch and engelmann spruce forest (among a few more varieties) that is situated in a protected bowl type valley. There are large specimens of both species in this valley, but there is also a massive build up of lichens, dead and down trees, and dead but standing wildlife trees. The valley is situated about 7 miles down the Big Creek Trail and is part of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area. The lower sections of this trail have been burnt by wildfires in the past, but this upper valley has no evidence of fire or logging.