Montana!

We have been having way too much fun here in Montana and I have been lazy with updating the blog.  We are currently in Fort Benton which is in central Montana and pretty darned close to Canada.  In my next life I want to be born in Montana!  I love it here.  Actually, getting to spend part of my summer here is almost perfect.  When we left Henry's Lake in Idaho we went to Livingston and spent a week there visiting with Kirby's cousin, Melani.  She has lived there for over 10 years...a California escapee!  While in Livingston Kirby got outfitted for some trout fishing and we have been searching for that big boy ever since!

We have seen some beautiful country on our travels and Montana is probably one of the very best!  From Livingston we went a whole 75 miles north to White Sulfur Springs which sits just south of Lewis and Clark National Forest.  It is a tiny town that is quiet, quiet, quiet!  The RV park was our favorite this year.  We walked to town and back many times, drove all over dirt roads searching for that perfect fish, picniced and played tourist at a home that has been converted to a museum.

I loved the simplicity of this old abandoned farmhouse.  I found it interesting that the white paint was still so white.  I have to wonder what brand of paint they used to last so long! There was no vinyl siding when this house was built.

Kirby found us this canyon to check out.  It was all rock and gorgeous. 

We were just driving down the dirt road minding our business when I spotted these two deer sitting under a tree.  Kirby slammed on the brakes and backed up.  I started taking pictures and walking closer to them very slowly.  They let me get quite close before the bolted off.  I felt so fortunate to get so close to them.  Their antlers were gorgeous!

This was one of our many picnics.  Convenient tree stump to use wouldn't you say?

Why do I take pictures of cows?  I have always done it and I am not too sure why.  Maybe because they are there.  This young one didn't know yet that you DON'T sleep in the middle of the road!

One day there were lots and lots of butterflies and they each had a thistle.

Driving a big truck and pulling a 38 foot trailer can be a bit of a challenge.  We had no idea this was waiting just up the road for us.  The picture is no where near as awful as the real thing was.  Lumpy, bumpy and very narrow.  I was so proud of Kirby!

This is the house museum that we visited - Bair Family Museum in Martinsdale, MT.  There really is no more Martinsdale - only a handful of people still living in the old houses but it used to be a nice little town full of people  that the sheep rancher, Charles Bair, employed.  The house was furnished by his two daughters throughout their lives with travels to Europe to purchase antiques.  It was pretty gaudy with all the big picture frames and gold gilt on everything but I fell in love with the kitchen.  It was remodeled in the 1960's and stayed the same thereafter.  Isn't the color incredible.  That would wake you up pretty fast each morning!

Gallatin National Forest, Montana

The day called for rain but we headed out anyway for a little road trip to explore Gallatin National Forest.  We left Idaho, entered Montana and then back to Idaho.  We even made a stop in West Yellowstone for lunch and a brew at the Slippery Otter Pub and a stop at the grocery and local hardware store for some light bulbs.  But the best was the views of course.  This is a gorgeous national forest.  So come along with us to explore!

We really didn't know what to expect when we started out.  The skies were cloudy and it was cool so we decided to bring Jake, our yellow dog, with us.

Kirby always reads the boards while I take pictures.  Then he has to tell me what he has read.  This is Earthquake Lake.  It was formed in 1959 when an earthquake happened and the result was a blocked canyon, much destruction and many lives lost.  It was interesting to think that something like this happened so recently.  It was like looking at the always changing earth in slow motion.

In this picture you can see how the mountain just slipped into the canyon below.

The earthquake happened so recently that the dead trees still stand along the shores of the newly formed lake.

This is an incredible view of the Madison River as it exits Earthquake Lake.

Thanks for coming along with us!

Custer State Park - Wildlife Loop

Our last day at the park.  We will move north just a little bit today and I am trying to figure out why we are going north when it is mid July and 47 degrees outside.  We are experiencing a cold spell!!  I guess so!  Way too cold for summer!  We need to go south!

Anyway our day on the Wildlife Loop was also incredible and I took too many pictures again.  So, I use little collages to try to give you some of everything,  Now come along with us -

Wildlife Loop - we didn't see that much but we did get up close and personal with this Bison.  Shot from the car window!

Pronghorn Sheep

Prairie Dog

The Pronghorn Sheep photo was out the windshield and the Prairie Dogs just kept popping back into their holes as I got closer so the photos aren't very good.

This is what a lot of our trip looked like.  I loved it!  But I sure wouldn't want to be there in the cold!

A roadside stop

Then we saw the sign for the Lookout and both agreed that we wanted to go.  How stupid could I have been.  I can NOT handle heights!  By the time we wound our way up the cliffhanger narrow road I was almost in tears with my eyes shut.  I was on the outside the whole way up which was one mile and the longest mile in my life!  Thankfully we didn't meet a car coming the other direction or I know we would have gone off the cliff and died.

This is the lookout tower that I did not climb.

After our picnic lunch we followed a little trail that we thought might take us to the Badger Clark Home.  It wound around this little lake and did indeed take us where we wanted to go.

Badger Clark was the Poet Laureate for the state South Dakota in 1937.  He is the author of the famous "Cowboy's Prayer".  His home in the mountains is still there just the way he left it.  I thought it was beautiful!  I could live there.  No indoor plumbing, no running water, no electricity.  It would so peaceful - for a bit of time and then I would want all my modern conveniences again! After touring the house we took his trail around the property and enjoyed the same mountain views that he enjoyed for over 20 years of his life.

This is my normal view when we take walks!

Hooten Hollow Trail

Norris Dam State Park, TN

The trail was very steep and constantly going down as we began our hike this morning at Norris Dam State Park and I was a bit concerned about the return trip!  UP, UP, UP!!  But we were lucky and found another trail that turned the whole thing into a nice loop.  Now come along with us....

That's me!

Twice on this trip I have seen trees just fall.  Last week we were sitting in our chairs enjoying the forest when I saw a large branch just fall off the tree.  We were glad it didn't land on our camper and our solar panels.  I know this is the way the forest lives and dies and nurtures itself and it amazes me when I think of the millions of years it has been doing this.

My view on our hikes - always.  This was toward the end of our trek and Jake is slowing down.  He loves it when he doesn't have to be on a leash and he just runs and runs.

You have to look closely at this photo.  I was walking on the trail when I looked down and notice this red brick.  Why is there brick on the trail in the forest?  Oh, I want to know answers to questions like that so badly! So, I make stories up to go with the brick.  Again, we decided it must have been a moonshine still!

This is in the campground.  Kind of speaks for itself I think.

Ugly and beautiful at the same time.  They were all over the trail.  What are they????  They are about two inches long and very eye catching!

Morning Walk in the Forest

 Pisgah National Forest, Lake Powhatan Campground

I just beat Kirby at Mexican Train so we are taking a break for a few minutes.  I am loving these quiet stay at home days we are having.  And it looks like quite a few of the weekend campers are leaving today.  Let’s just hope they go soon and take the 25 or so children that are on our loop!  I know the kids are having fun and it is really cool that they get to experience the outdoors but they are just so noisy!  Tomorrow should be even better!

We headed out this morning for another walk in the forest.  There are many, many trails but most of them are too long and too steep for me.  I always accuse Kirby of trying to kill me on our hikes because he is such a stronger hiker than I am and we go up and down the hills and I get so tired and he just keeps on trucking.  But he has been doing this to me since our beginning.  The joke is that I will ask how much further and he will tell me it is just around the corner or just over the next hill.  It is always further!

Here are some pictures from this morning’s walk where we were almost run over by a couple of young men on mountain bikes.  Oh, my but they were going fast as they came around that corner and of course I screamed as they startled me so much!  It took a while to calm my heart down.  

Lake Powhatan

In a busy campground how do you make certain that you will be the only ones on the trail?  We don’t like crowds and we don’t like other people on our trails when we hike.  So we have found the answer.  First, go early.  Second, go in the rain!  It works.

We knew that there were heavy clouds overhead and we could hear some thunder in the distance but decided to go anyway.  It was early – we wanted to beat the busy weekend crowds.  And of course it rained on us.  But it was OK.  Some of the time the rain went away, some of it we were under trees or a shelter, and some of the time it poured!  And by the time we were about to head home – it was gone.  Only bad part was that it was hard to get photos!  I had my camera wrapped in a big trash bag to keep it dry.  So here are some pictures from our rain hike.

The rain had not started yet when we reached the trail from our campsite.

You can't see the little raindrops on the water in this picture but this is where I first noticed it.

We made it to a very small shelter (really just an outdoor bulletin board with a roof) just when it began to dump!

By the time we made it around the lake the sun was beginning to shine.

North Carolina Arboretum

Since it was so close we decided to visit the North Carolina Arboretum.  The flowers were in full color and the trails were in great shape so we had a wonderful morning for our visit.

We didn't see any place that looked good for our picnic so we drove about a quarter of a mile down the road to Bent Creek Park.  This small park is located right where Bent Creek flows into the French Broad River and is used mostly by fishermen who fish from the banks or can launch their small boats from the shore.

This was probably way to easy a picture to get as I think his short life was about to end.  He just sat there and let me take his picture.