Hungry Horse and the Jewel Basin - Day 2

Next day we got up bright and early with the mission on our minds of hiking the Clayton Creek trail to Clayton Lake in the Jewel Basin. But, our first stop was a reprise of Lion Lake. The water was like glass and, as you can see, it made for a perfect mirror. Mornings like this make a person mighty glad to be alive.



The trailhead for Clayton Lake is about 20 miles in from Hwy 2. Once we got underway on the trail we were immediately treated to a riot of fall color. The mountain ash were just drooping with berries and we thought we might see a grizzly because the picking was certainly easy. But, unfortunately, we saw very little wildlife signs on this trail. A few elk tracks and one, two or three day old, bear scat at the lake.



Above is my handy dandy bear detector Koty Bear. And, in fact, this is exactly where we saw the scat but Koty is more interested in something he sees across the way. Koty is a great hiking companion, drawing my attention to things I might not otherwise see. Of course, this is a double edged sword as he can make it a little tough to capture wildlife photos. But, it is a price I gladly pay. To see more of Koty at Hungry Horse go to Koty's Korner New Photos




The hike to Clayton Lake is mostly up hill but it's a very easy hike. The distance from the trailhead is a little less than three miles. I'd reckon for the determined the hike wouldn't take an hour but for dawdlers like us it took and hour and a half as we have to investigate and admire everything along the way.

Mother Nature did a cleansing operation in the area about three years ago. You can see the bare trees on the mountain in the distance. It's just amazing how quickly things have come back. And, how beautiful it still is in it's own special way. Clayton Lake is a little Jewel and one of the things we so love about Montana is we mostly have these fabulous places to ourselves, especially in the off season. You can hike around the lake using either the west trail or the east trail. We chose the eastern trail.



We stayed at the lake for a couple of hours exploring and having a little lunch. On the way back down we were treated to this view of the Flathead Range and the Great Bear Wilderness. You can't see it but this view is looking east across Hungry Horse Reservoir. You can see on the left the dead trees that didn't survive the fire. More Mountain Landscapes



And, lo and behold what did we see on the way down but another human being! This fellow was a local and he was using this trail to get in shape for hunting season. Looked to us as though he had a way to go. ;)



And, so, we bid adieu to the beautiful Clayton Trail. Another day in paradise under our belts.

Be sure and check out KOTY BEAR'S 2009 CALENDER

©Kinsey Barnard

Osprey, Kocanee, Lagoni and Fall Colors

As usual, we took our weekly walk along the Tobacco River. The Fishing Birds were perched in their trees looking for salmon to catch.



And, of course, the kocanee were there for them to catch. I was just playing around with this photo of the salmon. I love the way the motion of the water turns the fish into more of a colorful abstract photo rather than just a picture of some fish.



Up at Burma Pond just a bit of fall color is beginning to show.



But, down on the trail to Lagoni Lake it's beginning to look a lot like fall! Lagoni was the destination for our main outing this week. We had never been there before so we thought we'd check it out. It's a short drive from 93 to the trailhead. The trail is pretty short too. It's maybe just a mile in distance.



But, once again we struck pay dirt as this turned out to be another pretty little lake. We really like to explore water sites as they have a tendency turn up some of the best Landscape Photos.

We also tried to get to Stillwater lake but our efforts there were thwarted by a downed tree. We will return for further exploration of this area because there is definitely more to see.



The above is a photo of a moon set we had that was pretty awesome.

That pretty much sums it up for us for now. We are starting to get things ready for winter cuz the chill is most definitely in the air.

©Kinsey Barnard