We are getting mighty close to our summer home. Today we are in Bozeman, Montana, about 400 miles from our destination. We decided to take a drive up Hyalite Canyon to visit Palisade Falls, but found the road closed at the mouth of the canyon.
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| Hyalite Canyon Road |
It turns out that the road is closed to vehicles from April 1st thru May 15th to protect it during the spring thaw. The roadbed gets soft during this time and is easily damaged, so the Forest Service closes it for six weeks. This meant that we had a very peaceful hike beyond the closed gate!
It is still cool here and the trees are just beginning to bud out, so there were not a lot of birds to be seen.
We saw a few Townsend's Solitaires, a sure sign that we are in the western mountains.
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| Townsend's Solitaire |
Hyalite Creek was swollen with snow melt and flowing fast. It is wonderful to see and hear these mountain streams once again.
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| Hyalite Creek |
We were surprised to see a pair of Mallards swimming around in the creek. They didn't seem at all bothered by the fast-moving water.
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| Mallard Female |
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| Mallard Male |
As a reminder that we are still early in the Spring season here, many of the shaded areas in the canyon still have snow. Brrrrr.
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| Snow beside Hyalite Creek |
Mark
I hope you make it to your summer destination without any more storms. Did you see any dippers?
ReplyDeleteWe kept saying that it looked like a perfect stream for Dippers, but no luck!
ReplyDeleteWe've been in that area several times... had friends from college that lived there for many years. Of course I always look for James Lee Burke when I'm there.... but haven't seen him yet ;-)
ReplyDeleteI read his books, but would have no idea what he looks like!
ReplyDeleteWe are about 300 miles to our summer home...just pulled in to a rv park for four days before we march on to the last leg of the trip. Whew!!!
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