Dad + Daughter = Camping

Last week Melissa flew to Wisconsin for a social call. Her flight left at 6 am from Bozeman, but getting up at 3 in the a.m. and driving for two hours is no one's idea of fun so we left the afternoon before and spent the night in the WalMart parking lot.

There's so many campers in this picture. The guy manning the RV to Ludwig's left said the Bozeman WalMart parking lot is, and I quote, "the nicest WalMart parking lot between Great Falls [MT] and Pensacola Florida." Point taken.

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't permanently mar some of Ludwig's cabinetry and add a paper towel holder.

Melissa on her way (she took a late-night cab to the airport), me and the Tater Tot drove down the road a little way to Missouri Headwaters State Park to spend the night. This marked TT's first time camping alone with her Dad, or alone with anyone for that matter. I declared it a "Tater Tot Day" (she calls all the shots), so there was some aimless--though lightly coached--hiking, and lots of playing dentist (?) in Ludwig.

another site 17; in the remote chance a reader plans to spend the night here, sites 16 and 17 are easily the best in the park, and are reservable

I'm pretending this cattail is a roller brush.

I see Ludie!

I'm helping a deer make its bed. (Right behind our site was a patch of tramped down grass with a bunch of deer hair interspersed; an obvious deer bed.)

helping Molly get used to being in Ludwig

Tater Tot was quick to point out I'd walked right past these cactus, which the park brochure told us we might find on some hikes.

I am throwing a rock. (Her commentary doesn't always have to be insightful or endearing, does it?)

I had to get up four times that night.

The next three are TT's pix:

TT got her own fire poker and was very respectful and careful in using it. She later said that sitting by the fire was her favorite part of camping. Hey! Mine too!

Don't you see the sun is red? Plenty of smoke is pouring into Western Montana from a few big fires in Idaho, but the air was still a lot better than it has been at home.

It's a different day. She slept like a rock. 
You wouldn't know it except for the signs, but this unassuming (if not downright bland) stretch of water is the Jefferson and Madison's confluence, and is thus mile 0 of the Missouri River.

Driving home, past what I think is considered the Northernmost part of the Tobacco Roots.

We got to the top of Pipestone Pass (6453 ft) without any trouble. TT promptly renamed it "Pikaho" (pie-kuh-HOE) Pass in honor of a dead thing we found there....

This is a dead pika. Yeah, I was thought it was a pika too, until I remembered pikas don't have tails. I'm pretty sure it's actually a Bushy-tailed Woodrat. But she says we still have to call it "Pikaho Pass".

Why was that pika [sic] dead, do you think? 'Cause a car ran over it. No nonsense, this kid.

avocado and cheese and bread, for the third time

She said she had fun and wanted to camp for five more days and four more nights. Success!

(miles 224,359-224,617 ←click for map)