OK...I've been putting off working on my blog since we got back last Friday. I like doing my blog, but sometimes it takes a lot of time. However, I decided to just sit myself down and DO IT!!
I was finally able to get a break from work, so Noah & I took off for about 10 days of R&R. Our vacation plans went through several permutations during the weeks before departure, but they finally jelled, and now I'd like to share a bit of our trip will all of you, my loyal followers (all 2 of you!!)
On July 8th, we loaded up the old motor home and headed north, eventually stopping in Townsend, MT which is a little south of Helena. We camped in a nice park on the lakes of huge Canyon Ferry Lake, though we didn't get any fishing in that first night.
In the morning we headed into Helena and parked the motor home in the Wal-Mart parking lot, unhooked the Jeep and headed to the Spokane Sapphire Mine up in the hills to do a little prospecting.
Here's Noah cleaning some rock.
Here I am cleaning some more rock.
And Eureaka! I found something.
When we finished at the mine, we pushed a little further north to beat the heat. We spent the night in the parking lot of the Great Falls, MT Wal-Mart. It was a lovely spot right on a busy street with a wonderful oil refinery and railroad track right across the street, and did I mention we were right next to the International airport too?!!
After a refreshing night's sleep, we got up and drove the rest of the way to the shooting range outside of Simms, MT. We arrived early Thursday morning for the 3-day shoot. After setting up our campsite, we explored the Old West town the club had built on their range & talked to all the other shooters who were assembling for the Montana State Championships.
We shot side matches in 95 degree heat on Friday, but then it thankfully cooled down on Saturday when we shot 7 main match stages. Sunday was even nicer for the last 5 stages of the shoot. Awards were announced around 2 o'clock in the afternoon Sunday & I won 1st place in Ladies 49er (my first win in that category!) while Noah took first in Senior Deulist.
Receiving my 1st place trophy.
And Noah getting his 1st place award (eyes closed as usual!)
As soon as the match was over, we packed up & headed to St. Mary on the east side of Glacier National Park. On the drive there, we got caught in the heaviest hail storm I've ever experienced. We were pelted with large marble-sized hailstones for about 10 minutes just as we were entering the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The windshield of our motor home now has a large chip, but luckily, that was the only damage we sustained.
Once in St. Mary, we set up camp and I headed down to the showers for the first real shower I'd had in DAYS! It was wonderful! And the camp was wonderful too...there were Douglas firs everywhere, and the whole place smelled like Christmas. The weather was also blessedly cool--though the wind blew quite heavily the whole time we were there.
On Monday we drove through Glacier and into Kalispell, MT. Kalispell had a great hippie vibe that I really enjoyed. We bought a lot of nice, fresh produce (something that is in short supply in Cody) & Noah got himself a delicious slice of home-made peach/huckleberry pie. On the way back through the Park, I took a few shots of the scenery (the weather was a little gloomy) & got a pretty good picture of a mountain goat that wandered past the Jeep while we were stopped at a construction road block.
The next day, we went for a hike to Virginia & St. Mary Falls in the Park. It was a lot of fun. Here are a few shots of us and the waterfalls.
Noah on the trail to the Falls.
Buckskin at St. Mary Falls.
Buckskin on the trail to Virginia Falls.
Noah at Virginia Falls.
Buckskin at Virginia Falls (trying not to get blown over!)
We saw this doe on the way back from the Falls. She was very brave.
The next day we started heading back south. We spent the night in Three Forks, MT, then drove up to Virginia City to check it out. We'd been told it was a really great spot to visit. Turned out to be a semi-restored old gold town up in the hills. I got a few shots of some of the more interesting buildings:
After spending a couple of hours browsing through Virginia City, we drove to West Yellowstone, MT. On the way up, we passed by Earthquake Lake which was created in 1959 when a big 7.5 earthquake caused a landslide that dammed up the river. There are lots of drowned trees sticking up out of the water:
Once in West Yellowstone, we got ourselves a spot to camp, then went into town for lunch and a little window shopping. In the morning, we drove through Yellowstone. It was a beautiful day & I took a couple of photos of Lake Yellowstone:
When we arrived home in Cody, we were in for a rude awakening: it was 95 degrees & all the grass on the hills had turned brown in the short 10 days we'd been away. Oh, well...that's how it goes. I enjoyed the rest of my weekend, but it was back to work yesterday & I'm already up to here again with work. Oh, how I miss the days of my summer-long vacations when I was a teacher!!
Well, that's all for now (I think that was enough for this time). Noah & I are headed to Casper this weekend for the Bessemer Jailbreak. I'll let you know how we did when we get back next week & I'll try to take a few pictures to share. I haven't been very good about taking pictures at any of the shoots this summer.
Bye for now!!
Love,
Buckskin
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