HORSE CREEK PASS

Location: Bitterroot Valley
Type: Mountain Bike Ride
Rating: Strenuous (hilly)
Mileage: 20 miles

The Bitterroot River bisects the valley that bears its name, bounded on the west by the Bitterroot Mountains and on the east by the Sapphire Mountains.The valley opens into wide plains with historic towns, including Stevensville, the first European settlement in the state. The Bitterroot’s West Fork was once the gateway to Montana, bringing first miners and, later, loggers north from the Salmon River Country. Today it provides access to Idaho’s Salmon and Selway rivers and to the extensive primitive back-country through which they flow.

For generations Native Americans used the Bitterroot Valley as a natural corridor in their annual migrations. On your way to the trailhead, you can stop and see evidence of the these migrations by taking a short hike on the Alta Pine National Recreation Trail.