One-Nighter at Yellowstone's Madison Campground

Just prior to backing out of the garage.

Sparkling clean instrument glass. Thanks, Colin!

We were assigned site B-45 in Madison Campground. Madison is a very packed-together campground. The dishwashing station was just across the road, which was convenient.

The campground's ampitheater appears to have been handed back over to nature.

Looking west at the junction of the Firehole (from the left) and Gibbon (from the right) Rivers, marking mile zero of the Aashalatatche: "Where the River Runs Straight", aka the Madison River.

I lost.

The next morning on the way out we hiked the first couple miles of the Purple Mountain Trail. Fifteen hundred feet in 3 miles proved too much for me unfortunately and we turned around. But not before she cleared the trail a bit.

Mallard's Rest

Mallard's Rest is a fishing access site south of us on US 89 with a good number of campsites. Being just off the road there's a fair amount of noise, and being an FAS it's really more about fishing boats than camping, but it's easy as hell to get to and there are actually a few pretty decent sites. It's a good place to just go and laze and throw rocks into a river. And it's fantastic place for observing alpenglow (not pictured).

Longtime readers of this blog may recognize Mallard's Rest as the campground where I (Mitch) lived during the week for three months during the summer of 2015. (Long story.) On this recent weekend the Smaller One and I picked my favorite site. It was just us.

Again: a good place to laze, throw rocks in a river, and have a campfire.

Except sometimes in fall it's pretty windy and when one gets up from one's campchair the wind blows it into the fire and melts it. Bye bye, campchair, and thank you for your decades of service.

Weekend in the Castles

We camped at Grasshopper Campground, east of White Sulphur Springs in the Castle Mountains, with another VW family. It's a bit less than two hours away. 

Lots of sitting around the fire b.s.ing, not many pictures. Sorry! 

Halfmoon in the Ominous Mountains

We drove about an hour and-a-half to Halfmoon Campground, in the Awaxaawippíia ("Ominous Mountains", aka the Crazy Mountains or just "The Crazies") north of Big Timber. It was pretty close to our anniversary so this counted as our (mostly) annual anniversary camping trip.

Our site was perched on the edge of a densely-wooded ravine.

Big Timber Peak 10,759 ft / 3,279 m

There was a short hike through vegetation to a waterfall. You can keep walking and find more waterfalls. 

Aspen fleabane Erigeron speciosus

Hemlock Water Parsnip, maybe?

Beebalm Monarda fistulosa

some species of Indian Paintbrush

Orange Hawkweed Hieracium aurantiacum (non-native)

Upper Big Timber Falls

The older child came along too (see first picture) but she was shy about being in photos. Hey, so was I!

It rained a little bit on the way home.

Tom Miner Once Again

The girls and I met another family at Tom Miner for a one-nighter. Ludwig was running poorly so my brain was distracted, plus it was a little rainy. But it was good to meet with friends nonetheless. 

 

Anniversaire XXII

For our 22nd anniversary we camped a couple nights at Pine Creek Campground, about 40 minutes from our house. The ladies took Ludwig but I had to leave later so I drove Gertrude.

E baked a cake in that Dutch oven.

 

Lake Superior Summer 2021 Day 1: Sully Creek State Park

Two Summers ago we had planned on driving Ludwig to Crater Lake and Redwoods and the Oregon coast and Rainier and all that, but there were a lot of fires out that way that year which threatened not only to negatively impact our breathing, but could outright cut us off of primary routes and send us hundreds of miles out of our way. At the last minute we decided to go to the tip of the UP instead.

Some of these pictures are E's.

landscape near Glendive

near Medora ND and Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Sully Creek State Park (Theo. R. NP was full)

miles (2)44,533 to (2)44,940

Vigilantes

Vigilante Campground site 6, about 27 miles outside the nation's 6th-least populous and 6th highest state capital, Helena Montana. 

front

rear

Trout Creek

Trout Creek Canyon Trail, an abandoned (it washed out too often) road. As a result, it's not very steep.

goofball, fake chicken, chicken (l to r)

goofball, fake chicken, chicken, M (l to r)

goofball, goofball, fake chicken, chicken (l to r)

Okay.

All cleaned up and ready to go.

On the way back we took a side trip to this dam.

miles (2)44,150 to (2)44,530
map (minus in-town driving)