Ninemile Road, Siegel Pass

We took a drive last week up Ninemile Road to get to a hike that leads to a waterfall. It was just a day trip, but we've split it into two posts. This one is for the drive there, the next one will be the hike.
Just when it looked like the last couple small pockets of snow left on Lolo Peak would melt away, a storm blew in and left some dust to remind us that Winter is not far in coming. This snow is mostly gone now, though.

What is this thing? Seen headed East on I-90.

Ninemile Road (I-90 exit 82) lazily winds up the Northwestern arm of Missoula County and gave Ludwig an easy grade to climb up into the mountains.
I've often thought it might be cool to pan for gold recreationally. Some people (of course) do it for profit though and I'm told that you'd better be careful around here about where you go prospecting. That is, legend has it that some of these guys won't hesitate to fire if they catch you nosing on their claim (surprisingly, you can make private prospecting claims on public land). I've never heard of anyone actually getting shot at, though. If I try it I promise I'll be careful, or at least well-armed.
Once we turned off Ninemile Road to get over the mountains, the road narrowed as it took on several sharpish switchbacks. Melissa tried to make a video of Ludwig rounding a bend, but our camera wasn't having it, as its battery door has been half-busted for years and sometimes it needs to be repeatedly turned off and on in order to work. It finally gave up the ghost on this trip. The vegetation was very thick through here.

The top: Siegel Pass (5120'). That pointy mountain in the far background is Squaw Peak (7996').

We took a break for nursing and stretching. The NF sign behind the gals has seen its share of gunfire. Maybe it had been claim-jumping.

Esmé looks wary of the road down the other side, but I assured her Ludwig was up for it.

The West side was a lot less twisty, but the road was rougher. You can tell I was in charge of the camera a lot of the time because there're lots of pictures of rocks. Above is a decent example of creep, probably my favorite type of mass wasting. The underlying bedrock (probably slate or shale in this case) is bending over to the left because of tiny cracks in the joints of the rock, and the weight of the overlying soil which kind of pulls it downhill.
GoWesty is going to have to pony up for the gas for one of our trips sometime, given how often I (accidentally) showcase their logo.

(miles 219,230-219,289)