Gearing up to travel

Each year Kinsey tries to take at least two trips in our RV which she calls Clementine. Here in Montana there are only six months to get the trips in, if you are lucky. Kinsey prefers to get the trips in before the tourists arrive and after they thin out. Our spring trip this year was to St. Mary on the Blackfeet Reservation and in July we took a quick trip to the Blackfeet Pow Wow in Browning. This is the first in a series of posts recounting our experiences on the trip we just finished to Yellowstone and the Tetons.

FALL COLORS AT DANCING DEER

Along with the mule deer come the fall colors here at Dancing Deer Ranch. A native Californian, I have come to truly appreciate the seasons after ten years living here. Where I grew up, near Santa Barbara, the temperature was pretty much perfect all the time. A winter temperature, on the coast, was forty degrees. Here in Montana the evenings often get into the forties at night during the summers. In winter you are likely to see forty below.

Down in the meadow, in view of the house, are the remains of a homesteader's cabin . I often wonder how anyone could survive these Montana winters in a place like this. It's easy for me. I have electricity, a wonderfully insulated home,  a four wheel drive vehicle to get me up and down the mountain and indoor plumbing. Can you imagine going to the out house at forty below? A sturdy people these early Montanans.

I digress. The extended forecast calls of rain and snow in the coming days so yesterday afternoon I took a walk in my forest to enjoy the fall colors. They will soon be gone. As usually happens I ended up at Walden Pond, my personal rendition of Thoreau's sanctuary. The pond is surrounded by aspen and cottonwoods and whilst it is beautiful any time of year it is most beautiful in the fall. This is the same pond where I had my moose encounter about a week ago.

Below are a few photos of the beauty my eyes begot.

Walden Pond

Aspen in full fall color

Aspen

How lucky am I that I never have to leave this blessed place to have all that is nurturing and important to me.

©Kinsey Barnard

Snow Canyon - St. George Utah

Want to skip the jabber? Just scroll down to the photos.

Last night was the pits. The racket from the highway was deafening. How people can stay in places like this is beyond me. But, I guess things are relative and most people don’t live in a serene forest, as do we. But, golly, I just wonder how people cope. Are they even aware they are coping?

Well, after an evening thrashing around to the tune of eighteen-wheelers, the first order of business was to check out RV parks closer to Zion. So, away we went into the sunrise. We found a nice park in a place called Hurricane. It is twice as quiet, has a nice lawn at your door and is ten bucks cheaper. Not to give the impression I’m a cheapskate, really I’m not. But if I’m paying top dollar, by RV standards, I expect a little something. What I am beginning to understand is, the “little something” means different things to different people.

Apparently, a lot of folks are happy to be camped out on a freeway if they have social activities, are close to shopping, can get junk food easily and have clean showers/bathrooms. I, on the other hand, travel in an RV so I don’t have to use public facilities, could care less about social activities and just want a little quiet and privacy. The main reason I went with the motorhome was because so many motels put pet owners in smoking rooms. Cough. Cough! And, you need reservations. Boo. Hiss.

At the place in Hurricane we spoke with a nice gal, Becky, and she gave us the scoop. We found a lovely little space with shade. We were ready to move right in, but, when we checked in with the place in St. George they said they needed 24 hours notice. I ain’t paying for two places so I said fine we’ll move to Hurricane tomorrow.

Now, remember how I always say every cloud has a silver lining? First, I never planned to stay in St. George at all. We left a week early because of the weather. Then I got stuck in the RV Park from hell. Then I was a little miffed when I found out I had to stay another night. But, we got out the map and found Snow Canyon. Wow, what a beautiful place. Looks a lot like Sedona. We spent the day hiking and photographing. It was awesome and I’m so glad we didn’t miss it! So glad for all this “misfortune”.

Ciao for now,

Koty and Kinsey Learning the RV ropes!







If you'd like to see these and the rest of the days' shoot in high res visit our Trip Gallery. To see just the Snow Canyon Photos enter "Snow Canyon" in the search box

©Kinsey Barnard

HUNGRY HORSE & THE JEWEL BASIN

On day three we rose early and headed back to Hungry Horse. Our objective this day was Handkerchief Lake. It's about thirty miles down the west side of the reservoir. As you can see from the above photos the reservoir was looking mighty fine this fall morning. It was an awesome drive. VIEW MORE LANDSCAPES



The only folks out on the road were wood cutters and there were lots of those. You can get a wood cutting permit from the Forest Service for five dollars and for that five dollars heat your home pretty much all winter. The rules are you can only cut down dead trees but because of the fire three years ago there are dead larch everywhere. Larch, otherwise known as tamarack make great firewood as they have a high BTU and there were some really nice sized trees. Montanans are always up for passing the time of day so we stopped to chat with these guys. Mostly the conversation centered around how lousy things were in the economy.



Finally we found our way to Handkerchief Lake. As usual it was a pretty lake. It's located right off the road so the only hike involved was around the lake itself. The above photograph is just of clouds floating on the water that I thought looked pretty. I'm a regular sucker for reflections.



Whilst picking our way around the lake we came upon this group of mergansers paddling along on the other side of the lake. I was so focused (pardon the pun) on the mergansers I tripped over a log and went flying. Fortunately, the mergansers didn't reach this photogenic spot until after I had righted myself.



This last shot is of Handkerchief looking northwest into the Jewel Basin. Handkerchief is fed by Graves Creek and the creek comes out of those mountains. I really fancy this photograph as it looks almost like an oil painting.

It was a great trip to Hungry Horse and the Jewel Basin. We will certainly do it again because there is a lot we didn't see.


©Kinsey Barnard

Clem Gets a Clean Bill - Day 1 at Hungry Horse

After much adieu the Dodge people (Clem has a Dodge Sprinter chassis) said they could find no problem with the electrical and to take her to an RV repair place which I did. After much adieu they too said they could find nothing wrong with the electrical. Whilst I was in no hurry to incur a large repair bill I would have felt more confident if they had found something and fixed it. It seems that our new cars have so much electronic equipment in them that even when you turn the engine off things are still drawing on the battery and can drain it after only a couple of weeks.



So, I decided we should spend a few days exploring Hungry Horse just in case Clem decided to misbehave again. It's not very convenient living 80 miles from the repair place. And, alright, I was hankering to get some fall color in pixels.

The dam was completed in 1953 and is the eleventh largest concrete dam in the U.S. and is situated on the South Fork of the Flathead. It got it's name from a tale about two hungry horses. For those into statics Hungry Horse Dam Stats



By the time we got ourselves situated at an RV Park in Columbia Falls they day was almost done. Days are getting mighty short, mighty fast around these parts. Our first stop was at the Hungry Horse Ranger Station where we picked up some hiking trail maps. The ranger told us Lion Lake was not far and a good spot to stretch our legs and take in a little fall splendor. And, by crackie, he was right!



The above is a lichen rosette growing on an aspen. Probably not of much interest to anyone but me but little natural art works are fascinating to me. It seems Mother Nature can make interesting art out of just about anything.



There certainly was a riot of color reflected on this Lion Lake and we whiled away the afternoon walking the little path that surrounds it. It was a perfect autumn afternoon in the Rockies. More Fall Color Photos


©Kinsey Barnard

At last! The Last Day. Moraine Lake. Lake Minnewanka, Castle Mountain

I know. I know. I haven't been holding my end up but it has really been hectic around here. Things will get much better as soon as we are on the road again. At least I hope they will. Mom has signed up for Verizon Wireless Broadband so we should be good as long as we are in a service area. Anyway, on to our last day in Alberta.

September 17, 2007

First thing this morning we headed up to Moraine Lake. It truly is a rocky mountain jewel. One of the most beautiful lakes in the world, or so mom says. It was kind of a cloudy day so the water color was not what it can be Course, I don't care that much about it, I just want to hike and explore. All this blasted beauty just holds me back cuz mom has to stop and photograph every darned thing!

Today the lake was dark and calm with snippets of sunlight.

From Moraine we headed south to Lake Minnewanka. Minnewanka is a pretty good sized lake just east of Banff. The best part about it was a small herd of Big Horn ewes that were protecting a baby . Those ewes really held that baby in a huddle. Course, I nearly got my ears boxed because I went a little crazy in the car. Darn I wish I could get myself under control. But, what can I say? I am just a true, blue husky boy.

After Minnewanka we headed over to Banff. The town was pretty torn up with construction. There is a promenade that goes along the Bow River that mom just loves. Across the river we watched a bull elk chasing his girls. That was fun. The sun had finally made an appearance and it turned out to be a wonderful autumn afternoon.

It was getting late so we headed north toward Lake Louise. For the return trip we took 93A. Along this route it was pretty clear autumn was in the air.

As we drove along saw what looked like really perfect moose habitat and soon came across a sign that said it was "Moose Flats". As we drove we saw some photographers crouched down in the grass. Mom thought maybe they had sighted some moose so we pulled over to check it out. She could see they weren't being particularly quiet so she approached them to find out what was going on. It turned out to be three photographers from New Jersey. They were mostly studio photographers and were just like kids in a candy store playing with their cameras and taking pictures of everything. It was truly lovely to see their excitement and appreciation for beauty that surrounded them. They were with nature and they were little boys again.

Heading on up the road we made a stop at Castle Mountain. From there we continued north and made a stop at Morant's Curve.

By this time we were running out of light so we headed for the barn. It was kinda sad cuz we knew this was it for this trip. Tomorrow morning we will pack up and head for home in Montana.

Until next time ....

LAKOTA SUNRISE

©Kinsey Barnard

Pyramid Mountain, Patricia & Pyramid Lakes, Big Horns & Elk

Before I get back to our Canadian story I have to tell you, true to her word, mom did take me for a walk along the Tobacco River and the fall colors were just awesome. The walk was a gift to both of us!



September 10, 2007

We started the day at Patricia Lake. This little lake and Pyramid Lake are very close to Jasper township. Looks to me like a place where local people would come to play, swimming and canoeing and such. But, the thing about Patricia is the view of Pyramid Mountain. Pyramid looks pretty much like its namesake. It provides an impressive backdrop for Jasper. Patricia sits smack dab in front of it. Mom could tell there was a photo op here. The mountain is reflected in the lake and early calm water could produce a stunning photograph. We were just a little too late for this day but made a date with ourselves to return first thing tomorrow morning.

From Patricia we continued on to Pyramid Lake, which is only a stones throw further down the road. There looks to be a very nice lodge on this lake, which is also pretty but does not have the same view of the mountain as Patricia.

By this time I was getting rambunctious for a walk so we went to the end of the tarmac road and took off down and a closed dirt road that ran along the lake. For no particular reason we took one of the many side trails that went down to the waters edge. While I was sniffing all the glorious odors we heard what sounded like a fish jump. But, mom thought it sounded like too heavy a splash for a fish. Course, she could have been very wrong about that because just a few minutes earlier at Patricia a fisherman had told us the rainbow trout in these parts get really big. He said the record taken from Maligne Lake was twenty-two pounds! Now, that’s a lot of trout! But mom was right, on this occasion, because as we stood there looking out over the lake a beautiful loon popped up right in front of us. Make this photograph as big as you can. What's going on with the water is very interesting.

We continued on up the road but after awhile the road turned away from the lake and we turned back. When we got back to the parking area it was just a short stroll down to where you can walk out to Pyramid Island. This is a very pretty little island that has a footbridge to reach it and very nice views. I point these things out because I think you might be interested. Personally, I could give a fig. My nose was in overdrive. There were so many incredible aromas. So many smells to chase, so little time. Soon we headed back to the RV Park for lunch and a siesta.

Late this afternoon we headed out to see if mom could get some shots of mountain goats or big horn sheep. They are known to hang on the cliffs out along highway 16 north of Jasper. We didn't find any goats but we did find some Big Horns but ewes only. On the way we stopped to wander along the Miette River and made a stop at the Palisades (pictured) interpretive site.

At Palisades we took off for a little walk and very shortly ran into a gal that said she had come across a bull elk if we cared to photograph it. Well, it was back to the car for me. Mom changed camera lenses because she assumed she would need her telephoto. As mom tells it, it turned out to be the wrong assumption. Apparently, she nearly fell over the thing as he was sitting in the shadows right along the trail. He could have cared less about her presence and wasn’t in the least inclined to move from his repose. There wasn’t much in the way of a photograph either. The shorter lens would have been just fine! Better in fact.

That pretty much took care of this day.

©Kinsey Barnard