Trailhead to Dry Creek

I love hiking. It’s a wonderful way to see things you may pass by every day without a second look. Most of my hikes are within an hours drive of Boise, and this is no exception.

Dry Creek hiking begins a few miles up Bogus Basin Road, at a turnout prior to the switchbacks in the road. There is limited room to park, which explains why this hike was not particularly crowded.

You will hike up for a short bit on the single track until you are pretty high above the creek below. About a mile into the hike, the path leads you down to the creek where you can now enjoy year round running water, and you come to one of your first of many creek crossings.

Creekside - "Dry" Creek

You follow the path up, staying with the creek through several more creek crossings, until the half-way mark when you again separate from Dry Creek. Soon, I was starting to see more pine and less sagebrush, and the hike began to take on more of the forest hike I love. At this point, roughly 6 miles up, I was in the forest complete with birds singing and smell of Pine.

With the last couple of miles comes the climb to the summit and the more challenging part of the hike. Eventually, I made it up out of the trees and was treated to a beautiful view of the valley. Rain clouds were approaching from the West, and from the North, so I decided to turn around and back-track to where I parked.

Treasure Valley View

The trek down was pretty quick, downhill the entire way. Only people I ran into were on horseback and a couple of mountain bikers. Trekking poles can be pretty useful on the way down to keep you balance, I highly recommend them. I have to admit, the trip down felt like it took twice as long as the trip up, but it could be because I was pretty excited to get home and crack open a cool one. It is a beautiful day-hike, and worth your time again and again. It’s among my favorite nearby hikes, and will quickly become one of yours as well. Please enjoy the album, and I will be uploading the movie of this hike as soon as I get it edited. I will also include my trail from the EveryTrail site, where I track all my favorite hikes for you.

Dry Creek – Out and Back Full at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Travel Community

Trailhead to Dry Creek

Creekside – “Dry” Creek

Treasure Valley View

TJD