Chief Joseph Wildlife Area - Joseph Canyon — Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021

I have long had this area on my list of places I'd like to explore, and was finally able to make it happen! This was just a short weekend trip with some nearby car camping, and my friend and I started with Joseph Canyon on Saturday following the drive down from Spokane. It was overcast and off & on drizzly all day, but didn't start raining hard until well after dark. For the hike, we followed the main trail to the first likely looking ridge to ascend, then started making our way up to the top for the view. It's steep and there's no trail, but it wasn't at all technical. The view from the top is excellent. We descended down a nearby gulch, checking out neat rock formations along the way. Once at the bottom we still had a little daylight left, so we continued the rest of the way up Joseph Creek via the trail. As others have noted, the trail comes to a dead-end not all that far up the creek. It wouldn't be much of a hike if one was just sticking to the trail, but the off-trail scrambling in this area is great.