Out and About in Montana/Wyoming

[ScottP]

Part 1

Lots of water in the rivers, lots of fish in the water, some fish were looking up and interested. Fun.


Whitlash, MT; father-in-law's homestead in the Sweetgrass Hills. Awesome country



Driving the Highline



This one's for Thunderthumbs; nice town, Havre.


Rock Creek and the (in)famous Testicle Festival


Sphynx Mountain, Madison Range; pretty cool lenticular cloud (for all the meteorology geeks)


All lit up. Hatches were spotty; no yellow warblers in the willows should have clued me in that the caddis were pretty much done


Used to be a mountain here


A required stop; Mr. Mathews was tying up some RAM Caddis


Columnar basalt, Tower Creek (for all the geology geeks)

[ScottP]

Part 2

Nez Perce Ford; water was way up for August; 5-6 big cutts feeding along the bank by the "No Fishing" signs at the picnic area (who says they're "just dumb cutts"?).


Take a wrong step there and you end up here:


Then here:



How green is my (Lamar) Valley?


Nature's grass clippers (bison were thick up along the road; 3-4 jams/day)



7 point jackelope (western count)


Soda Butte in the AM



and the PM (didn't fish up there, crazy crowded; photo ops only)



world's largest petrified mushroom



I was really hoping to see a mammoth in a restroom but no luck

[ScottP]

Part 3


Pocket water on steroids


Nature's handholds (thank you very much)






Better be good on the sticks here


Emigrant Peak


Last campsite, terminus for the Bird Float


Where the well-heeled angler gets to fish


Where the rest of us get to watch (guess which side of the fence I was on?)


All-in-all, another fun trip; can't wait to get back out in October.

Regards,
Scott

[pillcaster]

Nice, thanks for posting

[LadyFisher]

Very well done - we will be here until mid-October, would love to meet you when you come back! Lunch on us.

[ScottP]

Very well done - we will be here until mid-October, would love to meet you when you come back! Lunch on us.

You're on. That sounds a lot better than freeze dried Mountain House any day.

Thanks for the invite,
Scott

[Steve Molcsan]

Great photos , I really appreciate it when a photo is posted of an area I that I love and have not been in a long while comes up
makes me smile...

Thanks much!

[bobbyg]

Enjoyed your photo essay and captions immensely!

Especially liked the pics of Soda Butte and a couple of renowned fly shops.

Makes me most sad in that I can't make it out there this year!!

[Byron haugh]

Hi, are you a pro photographer? Some very nice shots.must tell you, I'm not well heeled, but my son and I were on the "right" side of that fence one day, and it was not a highlight of our trip.

[ScottP]

Byron,

With scenery like that it's pretty easy to get some decent shots; thanks. Camera is just a cheapy point-and-shoot I picked up in Polson on the way down. Unfortunately I had it set in "portrait" mode for a lot of shots and they didn't turn out very well; great thing about digitals is I can pitch them and no tech working in the photo lab is the wiser. I was at that last spot back in April (behind the wire) and talked to a guy fishing that pool. He said he hadn't done too badly, considering it was blowing a gale and snowing; I walked down to the rocks on the public side and managed a couple decent rainbows feeding on a pretty good baetis hatch.

Regards,
Scott