Blodgett Canyon Hamilton
— — granite that holds the afternoon long after the valley lets go.
Not only on a wall.
“A glacially carved canyon a few miles west of Hamilton, cut into the Bitterroot Range. Vertical walls of grey granite stand most of three thousand feet above Blodgett Creek, and climbers from across the West come for the long routes on Flathead Buttress and Shoshone Spire. The trail follows the water in. Past the second bridge the canyon narrows and the wind drops, and the rock takes the late light a colour the valley below has already lost. — from the studio
Blodgett Canyon Hamilton, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Blodgett Canyon opens directly west of Hamilton, Montana, into the Bitterroot Range, inside the Bitterroot National Forest. The U-shaped trough was carved by Pleistocene ice and now carries Blodgett Creek east toward the Bitterroot River. The main trail begins at Blodgett Canyon Campground and runs roughly 12 miles to Blodgett Lake, climbing past a series of waterfalls. A separate, shorter trail leads to the Blodgett Canyon Overlook, with a long view down the trench from the south rim. The canyon is one of several glaciated valleys along the east face of the Bitterroots that form the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness boundary.
The walls are Idaho Batholith granite, raised and exposed when the Bitterroot detachment fault stripped the overlying rock from the range about 50 million years ago. The same body of rock forms Trapper Peak farther south. Climbers know Blodgett for long alpine routes on Flathead Buttress, Shoshone Spire, and Nez Perce Spire, with some lines reaching twelve to sixteen pitches. The granite is coarse, light grey, and stained orange where water seeps. In late day the west walls hold a warm glow well after the canyon floor falls into shadow.
The trailhead sits about five miles west of Hamilton via Blodgett Camp Road. Day hikers commonly turn around at the first or second bridge; the High Falls is roughly three and a half miles in. The Overlook trail, reached from a separate trailhead off Canyon Creek Road, gains about a thousand feet and gives the postcard view. Snow lingers in the upper canyon into June, and afternoon thunderstorms are common in summer. The canyon burned in places during the 2000 Bitterroot fires, and standing snags remain a visible part of the lower forest.