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.