We paid our $5 at Mirror Lake. The welcome party informed us that they were also working on the cattle fence, at least on the Rez side. The 2015 fire devastated the area around Bird Lake, and the first stage up the Bird Lake Trail was through the blackened snags of canopy fire. However, the blueberries had turned crimson and the meadow grasses were golden. There were one gentian and one subalpine daisy still in bloom. By the time you get to Crooked Creek Falls, you’re out of the fire zone, and from there to Hellroaring Viewpoint it’s unscorched open parkland.
Taking the Climbers Trail down the rim above Hellroaring Meadows, we soon entered the fire zone again although this time the burn was patchy. Cows have been all over the area, and because the trails haven’t been hiked a lot, there are a couple of spots where cow trails are a distraction. Then we headed back to the meadows and took the Bluff Lake Trail through a total burn back to Bird Lake. The campground area looks like a World War I battlefield: all the trees have been logged, so I assume they’ll reinstitute the campground at some point. It will be a rather exposed affair.
On the way back, I stopped at the Pine Way Trailhead. The trail itself hasn’t been maintained, but I found the trailhead sign lying on the ground. The route appears to be a major cow path these days (as it was in the past), so should be hikeable even without human maintenance.
