The Best Kept Secret

 One of the best kept summer secrets of this area is the Woody Creek Cabin owned and operated by Beartooth Powder Guides. The cabin sees quite a bit of use from back country skiers in the winter months but tends to be forgotten by the locals once summertime rolls around.

Located a short two and a half miles (admittedly all uphill) from Cooke City, the cabin is basically luxury "camping" in a beautiful, pristine part of the ecosystem. Although you end up sleeping in Montana, much of the best hiking out of the cabin is in Wyoming, just a mile south of the building site.

Ken and I hiked in on Thursday with the goal of trekking up to Submarine Rock on Friday. The weather was threatening as we drove across Chief Joseph highway and rain started to fall as we arrived in Cooke. The thunder and lightning were impressive but we decided to push forward and make our way up the 1000' in elevation to the cabin. Much of the heavy weather was to the southeast of the trail in the area of Pilot Peak and when we arrived at the falls on Woody Creek we saw the result, evident in the photo above. The Absaroka Mountains were formed by past volcanic activity and are much more prone to erosion than the granite heavy Beartooths to the north and east.

 One of the many joys of living in this area is the ability to find "spring" in any month from March to September, depending on the elevation. The wildflowers were spectacular everywhere we went and I had a chance to play a little with my macro lens.

Our garden was overflowing with columbines of every color this year but there is something about the wild variety that is so much more delicate and beautiful than the cultivated flower.

 On Friday we woke to relatively clear skies with a little mist in the lower areas by the river. We headed out about 7:30 am, expecting a long day getting to our destination.

 The fringed gentian were just beginning to bloom, still furled in their newness.

 This ground squirrel was totally unfazed by our presence and continued collecting and eating wildflowers as we watched. This is the first time I have ever seen a ground squirrel at this elevation - approximately 10,200'.

The paintbrush were glorious in shades of red and magenta, luminous against the bright green of the grasses.

Elephant heads were growing in the marshy areas. I never tire of the amazing details of each flower with ears and trunk so like the pachyderm for which it is named!

 Once we made our way up to Submarine we had a great view of Pilot and Index, although we were looking right into the sun. It is not often one gets the chance to take a shot of Pilot from just 1500' below its summit.

 This shot of Submarine shows just how verdant the area was. The snow had just recently melted from much of this area and the moss and flora are at their peak.

The view from the top to the north shows the Beartooths in all their glory. If you look closely, you can actually see a few of the buildings in Cooke City far below on the left.

The hike ended up taking less time than we expected and we were back at the cabin by early afternoon, just in time for the next round of afternoon thunderstorms!

Moving Day

 What a treat it has been to watch the activity in the kestrel nest this summer. For a long time we did not know if the pair had been successful; then, all of a sudden, it seemed that mama and papa had all they could do to supply food to the vocal youngsters. All along I thought there were twins in the box until last Thursday when the first chick braved the world outside and we realized there were still two heads peeking out the hole!

The problem with being first out of the nest is that mama still has two hungry mouths to feed, as the adventurer quickly realized.

 In the shots above he is doing his best to remind mama that he is hungry too. In the image below, she seems to acknowledge his presence.Eventually he found his way back into the nest where he spent the night with his less daring siblings.

 By the next morning however, all three chicks were testing their wings. In this shot below you can see them spread out diagonally across the tree.

When mama arrives with food (lower right corner) the chicks get so excited that the one in the middle falls off the branch and just catches himself with his chin!

 In the next shot you see the youngster trying out his various balance moves. He quickly got the hang of it.

 Papa showed up a few times with grasshoppers and seemed to be comfortable feeding the babies outside the nest. The middle chick does not want to share with his screeching siblings.

All three youngsters seemed to be doing well by the end of the day. They spent that night in the box and then moved out to more expansive digs the next day.

I hope the fact that three of them successfully fledged this year means that we will have more entertainment in the box next year!

Seeing Red

 Today's post is a very photo intensive piece about my recent three day trip to Wyoming's Red Desert. A fellow photographer and I had talked about doing a short camping trip in the area with the goal of getting some unique landscape shots. What we didn't count on was the heavy smoke from the massive wild fires in the Pacific Northwest that cast a thick haze over everything.

Lucky for us we ended up seeing quite a bit of wildlife so the trip was not a photographic loss, by any means. And I still got a few landscape shots - they were just not the ones I thought I would get!

 We started our trip by heading south and driving into the desert not far from Eden. We picked a camping spot with a great view of Boar's Tusk and hoped the haze would clear by morning. It didn't. The smoke in the air did make for a red sunrise over Killpecker Sand Dunes as you can see in the shot below.

 We spent the second day driving a lot of miles over dirt roads to get to our destination of Honeycomb Buttes. Along the way we saw an amazing variety of wildlife which you will see in the photos following the landscapes. The first two shots of Honeycomb are early morning looking north.

 By the third day the haze had cleared a little bit compared to the previous day so the closer landscapes were actually sharp with the smoke clouding up the more distant landmarks.

 Prairie dogs were in abundant supply just about everywhere we went and seemed curious about our presence.

 The highlight of the trip for me was the chance to see numerous members of the rare and unusual Red Desert non-migratory elk herd. They actually have a slightly different look from the animals I am used to seeing in Yellowstone and they are much warier of humans. A large group serenaded us for some time that evening as we settled in our tents. They were a long ways away and out of sight but they were extremely vocal!

 Desert cottontails were also active throughout the areas we visited.

Another treat was the chance to see several herds of wild horses. Like the elk, these animals were much more cautious toward humans than the ones I have seen in this area.

 We saw several small groups with foals.

 The biggest group we saw consisted of about a dozen horses - ten mares and foals and two stallions. As soon as we stopped the truck, still some distance away, the stallions rounded up the mares and drove them even further back from the road. We thought that was it but then the stallions turned and began running straight at us. The message was pretty clear - they didn't want us there. We immediately backed off toward the truck and they stopped some distance away but they had made their point!

 Another unexpected and thrilling sighting was of this rare mountain plover, below. She looks as if she is standing up for an ovation and she certainly deserved it. Never have I seen a bird so convincingly mimic a broken wing. If we hadn't spotted her running around before she went into her "poor me" act, it would have been impossible to believe she wasn't injured.

The last shot is of a pair of young antelope twins with their mother. The Red Desert hosts the largest migratory herd of pronghorn in the US.

All in all I would call it a successful trip!

Iced T

 Last friday we decided to saddle up four of the llamas and head into the Beartooth Mountains for a short camping trip. Because it was the first trip out this year for "the boys" and because there still seems to be an inordinate amount of snow in the mountains, we elected to head for T Lake, a relatively short 5 mile hike from the trailhead.

Even expecting it we were surprised by the amount of snow still present above 9000 feet. It made for some exciting moments as the llamas wanted to panic each time their legs broke through the snow crust.

When we arrived at T Lake we found the lake still frozen in many places. It looked more like early June than mid-July. The grazing areas for the llamas were extremely limited due to high water and snow cover so we were glad we planned a short stay of only two nights.

Shortly after we set up camp we had a visitor who spent quite a bit of time interacting with us while we were there. A female yellow-bellied marmot seemed to be intrigued by the llamas and kept walking right up to them before scampering away and going on to the next animal. In this photo on the left I swear she actually posed for my shot!

 One of the goals of the trip was to climb Lonesome Peak which we did on day 2. In the shot above you can see Lonesome off in the distance. It is not a technical climb but it is difficult because of the extended bouldering, especially with a 30# pack. The top of the peak sits at 11,500', almost 2000' above our campsite.

We had major thunderstorms both nights we were there and the temperature dropped below freezing, creating a new layer of ice on the lake until the sun had a chance to warm it up during the day.

The first morning I went down to the lake to pump some water for drinking. As I got to the edge I noticed movement and suddenly realized I was being watched by a very curious otter.
There were two of the animals that I could see although I was not able to get them both in the same image. The second otter was not as social and kept his distance across the lake from us.

 The shot above was taken from the top of Lonesome Peak. On the left is Clay Butte and in the distance, far right, are Pilot and Index. You can see that the snow cover is most evident at the higher elevations but there is a huge amount of white stuff still left to melt. I suspect this will be a year when some snowbanks do not disappear before next winter.

The gray skies meant the landscape shots were a little challenged but it was fun to play with photographing the many streams created by melting snow.

The shot below is of T Lake from above on the second morning. You are looking down the length of the top of the "T". The stem is off to the left midway down the lake. 

Cruisin' the Beartooths

 Yesterday we decided to celebrate Independence Day early by driving up into the Beartooths and then having a nice dinner in Red Lodge.
Just a few miles from home the skies darkened and rain started to fall but by the time we reached the top of the plateau the skies were beginning to clear.

 We had no real destination in mind. The goal was simply to see what the snow condition looked like in advance of some backpacking trips in the area. Unfortunately it seems clear that we will have to wait a few more weeks at least before we can think of taking llamas into the mountains.

The wildflowers in the snow-free areas are colorful and abundant as is to be expected in a year with such high moisture levels.

 The mountain goats were visible from afar. We could see at least three kids-of-the-year so decided to stay quite a ways back to keep from stressing the animals.

 Years ago I took a workshop from renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman. One thing he said that has stuck with me is that when depicting wildlife you can either feature the orchestra or the soloist but not both. I think the shot above is about the orchestra. The goat is an interesting focal point but the image is really about the wonderful textures and lines of the background.

I told Ken I wanted to try and capture a shot of a pika. He was willing to scramble among the rocks with me in search of the small rodents. There was no shortage of the creatures but getting a good shot was not easy as they seemed to know exactly when the lens was pointed their way!

 The last shot shows that there are many more wildflowers to come. This is a cluster of silky phacelias just getting ready to bloom.