Days 5-7

Day 5:  Most of this day was spent driving through the mountains, stopping often just to look and take pictures.  It was soothing to my soul–moountains do something for me that no other landscape–or seascape–does, however beautiful it may be.  Especially the high Rockies.

This was the scene on the morning walk with CJ, before leaving camp.

The road from there dippes down into Wyoming before looping back up to Montana.  Because of the rain the night before, much of it was foggy–

and of course as we climbed, we were in the clouds in any case.

It’s been awhile since I was above the timberline.  It’s always interesting to me how it puts me into a whole different frame of mind.  It’s like there’s a part of myself that emerges as I cross from trees to . .  would tundra be the right word?  and then I swich back when the trees rise up around me again.

It got down into the 30s as we got higher, with the frost to prove it.

That second picture was taken at the pass.  Made me wonder if the rain we had the night before where I was had perhaps been snow up here.  But it’s perhaps more likely that the combination of 32 degrees F, wind chill, and blowing mist produced the frost flowers.

There was rather a lot of traffic for a place that looks so remote on the map.  I stopped in the middle of the road to capture this picture of snow that had actually lasted into August, thinking I’d have plenty of time, but nope–a car went around me while I was stopped.

This was on the way back down, just before re-entering Montana.

This was taken on the way back down, almost back into the trees.
Now all the way down, or nearly,  I spotted this stream and stopped to take pictures–and then stayed for lunch.  Not sure what the main stream is, but the creek coming into it at that point was Rock Creek, aptly named.

With my soul (and body) thus restored and refreshed, I drove on up to I-94 and headed east.  Stayed that night in a pretty nice county campground in Forsyth, Montana.

It was nearly empty when I got there, except for a bunch of these.

See him sitting there in the background?

Anyway, I had seen several, while driving in and when walking back to the entrance to pay.  They were wary but all looked sleek and healthy.  About 45 minutes after I took the above, this happened

Which explains both their numbers and their health.  In most ways I think this is cool, but I wish I knew someone was also capturing them and getting them spayed/neutered.

In any case, it made for a nice quiet time for me, cat-wise, because my cats found them fascinating, but had no interest in going outside because of them.

Day 6: Got a late start because of doing the previous blog post, and then just drove all day. The countryside was greener than it’s been when I’ve driven that stretch before, and a lot cooler (in the 70s instead of the 90s-100s), so relatively speaking it was pleasant. Stopped just outside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park for lunch.

Stayed that night in a rest area.  Not the best sort of stop for me, though I slept better than I anticipated, but both CJ and the cats loved it.  It had a nie expansive lawn that I turned J loose on, and she took off running, learly relishing the opportunity to streth herself out.  And the cats loved it.  I thought they’d be too intimidated by the traffic noise to want to go out, but no–they happily went for leash walks, even demanding them, first one at a time and after dark, both at the same time (I was getting tired.)

Day 7:  Another driving day.  I was pooped even before lunch, so dceided to stop early, and found this spot in Akeley, Minnesota.  I was very impressed by the size of this coleus

And happy with the spot she put me in.

This was my view while louging on my bed.

Whew!  Am now all caught up with myself.  Now to get packed up and head east some more.