A fine day in September is too good to waste, so on this one I drove over past Gt. Falls and up Belt Creek to Sluice Boxes State Park. It's a pretty creek, and in the area of the park it cuts through some limestone cliffs to form a wonderful canyon. There's an old mining town up the canyon, and once upon a time there was a railroad that went up there... up the canyon. The track is abandoned, but the grade makes a great hiking trail.
The first part of the trip you end up fording the stream a few times. You can avoid that by coming down one of the side canyons, but I didn't discover that until on my way out.
The water is pretty low in the fall, but I'll bet it's a boiling cauldron in the spring!
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| Sluice Boxes |
The old trestles and bridges are decaying and falling apart, but they're still passable on foot.
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| Decaying Railroad Bridge |
The canyon is spectacular -- alternating pools and riffles. There have to be fish in there somewhere.
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| Sluice Box Canyon |
The old railroad grade is overgrown with young trees, and occasional boulders which have crashed down. There was bear poop in a few places, as there are a lot of berries in the canyon.
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| Railroad Track Bed | Old Railroad Bridge |
The side canyons spanned by the bridges and trestles had small creeks in them, some with nice waterfalls.
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| Waterfall |
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| Sluice Box Canyon |
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| Top of Trestle | Tunnel |
I was hoping to get up to the ghost town to check it out, but it was getting late so I had to turn around. I hope to go back next summer and spend a few days exploring more!
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
