Paradise Mine & Law Creek/Falls

[Landrew]

Thanks to those that mentioned these areas and to the people who posted pics of Law Falls on google earth.

We made it up and over Paradise mine and through the snow (3 - 450cc motocross bikes) back down to the bottom and then to Law Falls. The falls trail starts out slow and builds from there. We had to cross a rickety bridge, and ladder bridge across a raging creek, cross a snow chute and battle fuel consumption. (each had to bring 2L of spare fuel)
We did a lot of coasting with the bikes off on the way back from Law falls and from Paradise down you can almost coast the whole way and still be going over 40km hr (we had to save fuel). Good for mtn biking if you like hot brakes and big rocks!
It was a great ride and a little hidden but well worth it. We saw great scenery on the way to and at the falls but had to head back after about 10 min at the falls as we were loosing daylight. I'm glad to report only 1 beer can found and evidence that people were staying on the trails and keeping that area clean. I could have spent all day enjoying the sights but we got a late start and took a long lunch at the bottom of the backside of Paradise mine near the trappers cabin.
As always it was hot and dry in that area and great fun!

As much as I love to watch the dirt and skeg fly from my back tire it's nice to see a clean trail in and out of a remote area. I hope to go there for years from now on.


Cell phone pics only this trip:

 

[kootenaycat]

I posted a few pics of the falls on Google Earth from our trip out last summer, and yes both bridges you cross to access Law ck are sketchy! That skinny one was stable with the quads but wouldn't want to slip off the side! How was the trail up Law ck where it comes out of the trees? We had to fix a few spots that had sloughed a bit, would have been wide enough for a bike, but too narrow on the quads. Did you travel above the falls to the big rockslide? I'm curious if a trail has been built over it, would like to see the end of Law ck someday. I've been told there is a mine worth checking out.

 

[Landrew]

We did travel above the falls (barely) and we also passed a rock slide earlier on before the falls. That slide was worthy of a stop and pause to view, we did have to do a tiny S-curve to get past some big boulders but an ATV should make it. Not sure if its the same one you are metioning, this one suddenly appears in the trees and if you look up you see what almost lools like a cave. There were big boulders and little or no grey shale, it was quite multicolored rock.

We went up another trail that we got stopped at as there was a shale slide, you could see the trail on other side that zigged back up the mountain. That one was pretty steep and we didn't have time or the desire by then to walk our bikes across the shale slide to the other side.

We were upstream of the falls a little bit but not much, we stopped at an area that made a good parking lot for atv/bikes and that was as far as we went. As it was we got back to the trucks at dark.

We would like to see whats past where we were and there was a trail that continued on, meybe next year or end of this year.

When do they start to get snow again - is it as late as November ?

 

[kootenaycat]

When do they start to get snow again - is it as late as November ?

The rockslide above the falls was big, impassable even on bikes without help, we walked over it and could see where the valley just leveled out (old truck along creek) and went for a long ways, tempting but not with just the 2 of us.

I would think higher elevations will get snow early, starting in Sept depending on the year and definitely staying on the ground by mid Oct.

 

[pano-dude]

We did travel above the falls (barely) and we also passed a rock slide earlier on before the falls. That slide was worthy of a stop and pause to view, we did have to do a tiny S-curve to get past some big boulders but an ATV should make it. Not sure if its the same one you are metioning, this one suddenly appears in the trees and if you look up you see what almost lools like a cave. There were big boulders and little or no grey shale, it was quite multicolored rock.

We went up another trail that we got stopped at as there was a shale slide, you could see the trail on other side that zigged back up the mountain. That one was pretty steep and we didn't have time or the desire by then to walk our bikes across the shale slide to the other side.

We were upstream of the falls a little bit but not much, we stopped at an area that made a good parking lot for atv/bikes and that was as far as we went. As it was we got back to the trucks at dark.

We would like to see whats past where we were and there was a trail that continued on, meybe next year or end of this year.

When do they start to get snow again - is it as late as November ?

we rode 3' of fresh snow Nov 11 last year.