Adventure Travel Photography Blog
On my way to Buck Gulch Trail, number 772 in Pike National Forest of Colorado’s foothills, I came across a sign “Shooters: Be Considerate. We Live Here. & Been Shot”. Hmmm I thought, I’m going on a hike just two miles away!?! My drive continued past a homemade shooting range in a burn area from the High Meadow Fire that raged out of control in 2000.
Happy Hiking!
I looked through my guide book for a short hike. Something that would be four hours or less at a slow pace. I found a four miler (one-way) located on off County Road 68 in Pike National Forest. Trail number 663, also known as Rolling Creek, begins at an elevation of 8,200 feet. According to the guide book and map at the trailhead, Rolling Creek Trail gains 1,400 feet in four miles and terminates at the Wigwam Trail.
HAPPY HIKING!
From Dworshak State Park, we followed the Clearwater River through the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and made a roadside stop at the Ant and the Yellow Jacket. According to an Indian Legend, the stone arch was once two insects. Ant and Yellow Jacket fought over who had the right to eat dried salmon in the area. The Coyote, the all-powerful animal spirit, ordered them to stop. They failed to heed his warning, thus he turned them into stone while their backs were arched and their jaws locked together during combat.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
As I was leaving Missoula, I realized there were a few sights I probably should have explored, but I guess I was excited to get to Idaho which is the last of the 48 contiguous states in which I really haven’t spent any time aside from driving through a portion of it a month ago. I was hoping to fulfill my geocaching needs in this state, but AT&T doesn’t seem to exist here thus my apps are currently worthless.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Relative to yesterday, we had a slow day, including a slow start. I was blessed with a marvelous migraine and had to take Petey to the vet for a puncture wound. Once we finally bid farewell to Melinda in Kalispell, we took Highway 93 south along the western shore of Flathead Lake. The lake is lovely, but not very conducive to old, injured dog activities.
As a result, we made our first stop at its southern tip in Polson, where I had lunch at Pop’s Grill, one of a few choices in the small town. After lunch, Petey and I took a stroll through town and down to a park on the edge of Flathead Lake before returning to VANilla.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
What a wonderful day in Glacier National Park! Our first stop on the Going to the Sun Road was at the St. Mary’s Falls Trailhead. I followed the St. Mary’s Falls trail through the forest along the aqua blue river to numerous waterfalls. In fact, there were so many falls on the 3.6 mile round trip, that I, along with others, were confused as to which were which.
I was expecting to only see St. Mary’s Falls and Virginia Falls, but there were two more in between. What a pleasant surprise! At St. Mary’s Falls, water cascaded over the rocks as the river bent around cliffs like a backwards “C”. The next two unnamed cascades were multi-tiered falls certainly worthy of a visit. In fact, I liked them better than the final destination, Virginia Falls. That said, Virginia Falls, whose main falls tumbles 50 feet is quite impressive.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Well, I don’t know where the time went today. By the time I reached Glacier National Park, about 150 miles away from my starting point, it was nearly 4 pm, and I can’t say I have much to show for it.
My first stop was at Choteau, the home of novelist A.B. Guthrie, Jr. who is the author of The Big Sky. Choteau is known for its abundant wheat and barley harvests evidenced by the rolling fields of yellow and black (grain and fallow soil). The town’s courthouse, on the south end of town, required a $40,000 bond issue which
was very controversial, though it passed by about 50 votes. All I can think is…inflation!
We returned to Livingston this morning to visit an old train depot, to see world famous Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop, and to find a geocache in Montana. The old depot displayed a variety of old train paraphernalia and some fantastic western paintings and black and white frontier photographs. I just window shopped at Dan Bailey’s. It
was full of flies and rods and a variety of other fly fishing gear. The visitor’s center was a nice place for a geocache. I have now found a cache in 46 of the lower 48 states. Two more to go…then I’ll have to make a trip to Hawaii and Alaska.
I started out today visiting Old Faithful. The geyser is well known because of its consistency. It erupts every 40 to 126 minutes for a few minutes. While it doesn’t spew as high as Grand Geyser, the world’s tallest predictable geyser, it still puts on a good show. Old Faithful is located in Upper Geyser Basin along with 125 other active geysers. In fact, Yellowstone is home to 200 of the 500 active geysers found in the world!
While waiting on Old Faithful to work its magic, I wandered along the boardwalk past a variety of springs, pools, and geysers including Chromatic Pool, which I found to be the one of the prettiest as I breathed the rotten egg smell of sulphur. Chromatic Pool’s colors are created by microscopic lifeforms. Incredibly, these organisms can survive conditions that would be lethal to most other living creatures, including humans.
ON THE ROAD Again!
We entered Yellowstone National Park via the northeast entrance and bison peppered the valley while spectators peppered the road. I’ve seen so many bison lately, I wondered if the visitors were waiting on a bear to run through the herd. It didn’t seem like a very spectacular event to me especially since they were generally far away. Then I saw a line of them cross the river. I guess people were waiting for them to cross the water like people wait for wildebeest to cross the river in Africa.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN!