Blogs from Montana, United States, North America - page 8

The lovely little town of Jackson shuts down for a month in between the ski and summer seasons. But we were in luck, and when we left, it happened to be the reopening date for the aerial tram to the top of Mount Rendezvous from nearby Teton Village. So, we went up to the top to where the snow is. Others took skis. We wore runners. It was snow/hailing most of the time we were up there, and we had to take refuge in the waffle shop, which smelt sooooo good. But we saw the really good views from the top looking over the valley and in the other direction to more mountains that were obscured by the first range. We then headed north through parts of Grand Teton NP that we had not yet visited ... read more

Today was a better day. I spent the morning fly fishing in the park, I'm sure that helped my attitude. I started first at Nez Perce Creek, a tributary of the Firehole River. I caught one small brown trout there, then moved to the Firehole River itself, where I caught two more brown trout. Yee-haa! At both rivers I was fishing alongside thermal features, with steam rising out of the ground and hot water running into the creek, yet there were plenty of happy trout in the stream. At one spot on Nez Perce Creek I could feel the warm ground through my boots. There is a lifetime of great trout fishing in Yellowstone. You don't need a state fishing license in the park, only a park fishing permit, which is reasonably priced at $18 for ... read more

So today we left Missoula and started the day with backtracking our way east on I-90, past Butte, Montana, then south on secondary roads to West Yellowstone, Montana. Our campground is right in the town and right on the border of the national park. After checking in and setting up, Barb and I scouted out the town a little but then she found a quilt shop while I went across the street to a fly shop. We had supper at the camper then made a short foray into the park. We saw several elk and a huge traffic jam when they crossed the road. We stopped at the first park campground we came to and stayed for the ranger presentation, which was about the park's wolf population. It was just enough to get us excited for ... read more

We drove up to Missoula, Montana, today to visit with our nephew David and his wife Caroline. The smoke haze was heavy all day, more so the closer we got to Missoula. We drove in on I-90 and there was no problem from the wildfires but we did hear that another more secondary route is closed. Unfortunately the haze was so thick that we can't see the mountains surrounding Missoula very well, but definitely the terrain here is more mountainous and forested than where we have been before today. It was good to see Dave and Caroline. We had supper together at the camper, then followed them into the city where we took a walk along the Clark Fork river. We plan to do a little more sightseeing in the area tomorrow. ... read more

This morning while it was still cool we visited nearby Bannack State Park. Bannack is a ghost town. It was a gold rush town that started in 1862 and was deserted by the 1940's. In fact it was the first territorial capital of Montana,which must have been a pretty wild place back then. The buildings are well preserved. They did warn visitors that there are rattlesnakes in the town. In the evening we went to the Dillon rodeo, and it was really great. Even Kate liked it. We had never seen a live rodeo before, and the skills and horsemanship were impressive to say the least. The smoky haze in the air seems worse today. We hear that there are wildfires up around Missoula, which is our destination for tomorrow. It should be another interesting day. ... read more