Wild Montana Skies

​I could match a photograph with every amazing line of a song that has ever been written about Montana, the USA, or our lush countryside.  Here I am on this day, back up at the Sula Campground with Ward and Nettie, enjoying the beautiful state we live in, the vast forests surrounding those of us who live on the western side of Montana ( the ‘Western Slope’ 😏), and enjoying the gift of friendship. As is typical for me, I was up early, so I headed out for a walk. There was a low lying fog which made the air smell so woodsy and fresh. After yesterday‘s 92° day, this morning 60° air felt especially lovely!  In fact, after we got the camp set up yesterday, we were all pretty much toasty and overheated. I suggest suggested we go for a drive, because my intent was to sit in an air-conditioned truck for a period of respite from the heat😂😂. So off we went. Ward pulled out his handy dandy Montana National Forest Atlas, and mapped us a path that would take us over hill and over dale and bring us out near Wisdom, one of the small towns in the Big Hole Valley.  Every so often we would pass one of the brown markers which would reassure us we were on the right road. After a time we came to a fork in the road…unmarked no less. Ward consulted the atlas once again, and then chose to take the road to the left.  It wasn’t long before we figured we probably took the wrong tine of the fork, so maneuvering the beast (aka 3/4 ton truck), we retreated and took the other road. Deeper and deeper we went into the forest, as the road, got smaller and smaller…narrow and down to two tire tracks with the strip of grass growing in between them.😂😂😂

The road before us…

And the road behind us! 😂

Thinking again that we should’ve stayed on the original road, we again maneuvered the beast back around, and retreated over BUMPY hill and dale, this time probably about 6 miles that felt like 50😂😂😂.  At last, we arrived back at the fork and headed down the road we initially started on. After a time, it too began to look like the other… ragged tire tracks in the road, separated by strips of tall grass, and with pine trees lining the edges. So close that they were scraping against the truck.  Certain this had to be the right way, we continued on for some time, while watching beautiful storm clouds settling in overhead. It wasn’t long before a torrential downpour began. As the road became worse and worse, now compounded by the heavy rain, we decided just to retreat the way we had come. We hadn’t prepared for the lengthy drive, had no snacks nor water, and had been on the road for about five hours by this time 😂😂.  But we DID have toilet paper! 😂😂😂

Our spirits remained high, although Ward felt at fault for getting us lost. Pulling out the Atlas, we realized it was from 2017, and most likely should be updated 😂😂. But on our retreat, we saw so much wildlife that was starting to stir because of the late time of day!  An eagle, a deer, an elk, and this, captured by Nanette, who was in the front seat.

And now some examples of the song lyrics to go with some of the pictures I snapped…

‘Misty Mountain Morning’

‘Fire in the Sky’ (John Denver)

‘There’s a storm across the valley, clouds are rollin’ in’ (again John Denver) 

‘Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head’ 😂

‘Edelweiss’

‘Wild Montana Skies’ 

Going to make my 2nd cup of coffee, and then I’ll post some of the beautiful pictures that I snapped along the way on our adventure yesterday. I am kind of hoping we get lost in the wilderness again today! We will just be better prepared for it😂😂😂😂