Skalkaho Pass
Travelling west on Mt38 approaching the Sapphire Mtns, you
encounter the sign "steep and winding, mountainous
gravel road ahead". This is a shameless exaggeration.
The road goes uphill, but as the profile shows, steep is
really something else. Many turns west of the summit show
up on a 1:250 000 map, and they do slow down motorists
considerably, but switchbacks are something else again
entirely. Also the surface is fairly smooth medalled with
a minumum of washboard surface (as of Sept/10, but
conditons change). Instead this is a fairly tame, lovely
mountain road that seems to take no end. There are no far
views to speak of on the ride, but a splendid waterfall,
no traffic, more trees than you can ever imagine, and lots
of peace.
|
1.(00.0km~00.0mi, 1670m~5479ft)
START-END EAST: jct FR2000-Mt38
2.(20.7km~12.9mi, 2210m~7250ft) TOP: Skalkaho Pass
3.(41.0km~25.5mi, 1431m~4695ft) Skalkaho Rye Road
diverts on left
4.(62.8km~39.0mi, 1102m~3615ft) START-END WEST: jct
Mt38 - U93 south of Hamilton |
Approaches
From East. The road starts climbing
perceptibly after its junction with FR200. It turns from paved
to a smooth dirt surface soon afterwards. But pavement
returns, as the road takes up the narrow space between West
Fork Rock Creek and a huge talus slope, that seems to crowd
the road onto the very edge of the stream for a while. A few
miles below the summit the road leaves the creek and now
becomes a climb in deep forest. The shallow wide summit comes
up without any prior notice. There are no views.
From West. (also described upwards) Turing west onto
paved MT38, 2 miles south of Hamilton, The Skakaho Road leads
in a straight line towards low wooded mountains, past well to
to do suburban housing and ranches. Somewhere around mile 14
the road takes on a different character. The shoulder
disappears and a narrow strip of asphalt closely follows
Skalkaho Creek upwards. Soon the road traverses uphill
on the ridge leaving the creek below. The opposite ridge has
been completely exfoliated by a forest fire, turing that side
into a complete matchstick forest (Sept/10). The perceived
major attraction on this side, Skalkaho Falls, is signed 6
miles before you get there, and these 6 miles, go by a lot
slower than the previous stretch, due to somewhat steeper
climbing on hard dirt. The falls are directly next to
the road. Motorists don't even have to get out of the car.
After the drop the stream continues on its way unceremoniously
through a drainage tube under the road. From this point along
the road can also see the short shelf section of the road a
few hundred feet higher. That is about as exciting as it gets,
but who needs excitement when you can have peace and quiet
instead. A few more turns and the road reaches the summit.
Tours
Dayrides.
An out and back ride from near the jct Mt38 - FR200 <>
Skalkaho Pass <> Hamilton <> starting point,
crossing the pass twice measured 88 miles with 5600ft of
climbing in 7 hours (VDO MC1.0 m3:10.9.2)
back to Montana's
passes and summits by bicycle
|
