Helena to Great Falls – July 11
It was a beautiful drive from Helena to Great Falls. The river was running near the road again, the mountains where closer to the highway here. The color of the rock was stunning – gray that hinted at red, purple and blue! We returned the car and had a pretty good lunch in the airport.
This is The Nature Conservancy (TNC) portion of our trip. I’m really excited about this part because the details are in someone else’s hands. We meet our group down at the baggage claim. Some people had come in early, like we had, and some were arriving that morning. Considering the logistics and timing of 10 people coming at different times, and from various directions, I was impressed that we all made it within an hour of our target meeting time. Laura Benedict was our local San Diego TNC representative. Allan May was the local Montana TNC representative. It looked like we had a good group and we were going to have a wonderful time.
Our band of adventurers also included Betsey, John, Don, Bryce, Sedra, Allan, Judy, Chuck, Scott and I. At various points others will join our group to share their work and love of nature and the environment.
We drove from the airport to the Pine Butte Guest Ranch. The Ranch is located just west of Choteau, Montana on the Rocky Mountain Front. TNC owns and operates the ranch, and it is open to the public. You can hike, ride horses, bird watch, fish, swim in the heated pool, or just sit back and relax. The food is excellent and they have a full time gardener who grows almost all the vegetables and fruits that they serve at the ranch. There are also a couple naturalists that can identify almost every plant or animal you come across.
This yellow flower is a blanketflower (I think the center image below is a bud of the blanketflower). I loved how bold they look!
Below on left is Indian paintbrush. We saw all colors and textures of lichen on rocks and trees.
Pine Butte Guest Ranch
When we arrived at the Ranch we got some pointers on hiking in bear country and took a short hike. We had a long wildflower season in San Diego this year and now we are hitting the wild flower season on Montana. I feel like we are following spring this year! The variety of flowers is amazing.
Too bad I don’t have some photos of the game of horseshoes we played before happy hour. Actually happy hour might have helped us out! I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. We weren’t really keeping score, but that didn’t stop us from making up new rules as we went along. There was a very tiny stream near the game and we managed to get three horseshoes into the water. Wish I could say that we were aiming for the water!
Like everywhere else on our trip the food was excellent. I just love that you can venture out into the wild and find good food, wine and conversation in these remote places.
Ab Guthrie Trail
After dinner we head out for a short hike at Ab Guthrie Trail to Ab Guthrie Ridge. In the top photo you can see where we parked our vans.
Just as we got to the top the coyotes started singing! I miss that sound. We used to hear them almost every night when we lived in Prescott, AZ. Somehow it seems like everything is right with the world when you hear that singing and calling.
We saw a cow moose and her calf. There were plenty of scopes so everyone got a chance to look for critters. The scrub around the ponds were full of moose. It is just tall enough to hide a standing moose. You had to look really closely to see them.
As we were walking back to the vans you could see lightning in the distance. It looked like a mix of heat lighting and direct strikes. The mountains and clouds sure make for interesting skies.