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Tag Archives: Montana

Next Stop on a Roadtrip

We continued north, driving all the way through Yellowstone National Park and ended up at a Forest Service campground just a few miles away from the park boundary. It was a nice place to stay with a string of beaver ponds along a creek and lovely fall colors. There were trails through the sagebrush outside the campground that were perfect for dog walks. Our friends from western Montana, including their dogs, joined us for a few days. The girls and I stayed there for ten days. After so many days of trying to find a good place to camp, it was such a relief to be in a nice place with clean air. The night sky was clear and I could see and photograph the comet again.

One Last Adventure

Our last stop was in the Bitterroot Valley to visit some good friends. We enjoyed another really nice hike in the mountains and playing with their new puppy. Don’t ask me why I don’t have photos of the pup. I don’t know. That’s just not like me. You can see Mary’s photos from the hike here. It was hard to say goodbye and end the trip but it’s always good to be home.

Elk and Bighorns and Moose, Oh My!

Yellowstone is home to all manner of wildlife and we enjoyed watching lots and lots of animals in the snow. Our biggest challenges were moose, otters and fox. We did find one fox on our last day as we were leaving the park. We never saw an otter. And as we approached our friends’ house, south of Missoula, Brad jumped out of his car and began waving his arms like crazy. What? There was a cow/calf pair of moose in the pasture not a mile from their house. They weren’t in the park but we were happy to see them on our vacation to Montana and Yellowstone!

Montana Ghost Town

We left the Big Hole Battlefield and stopped at Jackson (home of Bubba the nearly fifteen year old basset hound at Rose’s Cantina) before our final destination – Bannack.

Bannack was Montana’s first territorial capital and the site of Montana’s first major gold strike. You just imagine its wild and woolly history. It is now a well-preserved ghost town along Grasshopper Creek with over sixty buildings to explore. Being a holiday weekend we found the parking lot to be quite full. However it never seemed crowded while we strolled through the town and poked around in the old buildings. Many visitors brought dogs. Not us. Mary and I took many photos and Ken enjoyed learning to pan for gold along with a bunch of kids. Volunteers were leading tours and demonstrating gold mining and performing music of the era.

This looks like a map
Grasshopper Creek
This dog dressed up for the occasion
This dog jumped in the creek
Church
Probably cold in the winter
School
School downstairs. Masons’ meeting room upstairs is still used.

 

 

The Road Home

Luna and I had a great visit in Montana. We did well at our first agility trial and even though we did not get any qualifications, we showed improvement throughout the weekend and had a couple of ‘clean’ runs. We will try it again sometime. Luna loved playing with her new buddy, the puppy – Gus! All things come to an end so we said our goodbye’s and headed down the 400 miles of road to home.

 

 Gus and his people

 

 Luna, we need to get going.

 

Serviceberry and pines

 

Balsamroot, serviceberry and pines

 

Lilypads on a pond in Idaho

 

An ancient apple tree in bloom shows that someone once tried to make a life in this wild wet place in Idaho