CAMAS LAKES HIKE

Connie and I had a great fall hike into the Camas Lakes on the west side of the Bitterroot Valley.  I have been in there before but this was Connie's first time.  And the best time to go is in the fall when all the leaves and the needles of the larch or tamarack are changing colors.  We did 7 miles total but some of it was boulder hopping and bush whacking.  Really glad we did it though as the fall colors were at their peak.  There are three lakes in a row and we got to the first two, but ran out of time and energy to do the third one.  In the 3.5 mile hike to the second lake we gained 2100 feet in altitude, most of that at the end.  The hardest part of the hike was coming out.  My old knees were starting to hurt coming downhill.

The trail head.

When you get near the creek, the hike is in thick trees and a good trail.

 

Then you start to get into some rock slides and a rougher trail.

Zeph always hams it up when I get my camera out.  

The tamarack needles are really changing colors before they fall off.

Almost all of the vegetation was changing colors.

The aspen from green to golden.

And the views just got better the higher we went.

The first lake.

And of course our "dock dog" wanted to retrieve sticks from the lake.

The second lake.

Connie hiking up by the second lake.

Connie took this picture of some foam designs on the water.

Me and Zeph in a photo op.

The first lake is just visible in the center between the trees.

Lots of color.

A lot of granite provided the walking surface between the lakes. 

And lots of color from the trees to the brush.

I kept busy while having lunch just taking pictures.

Between the first two lakes you have to do some boulder hopping.

This really made my legs tired.  I had some cramps going out and my knees were a little stiff last night.

UPDATE 20 SEPTEMBER 2015

Fall is here in Montana and we sure seem to be busy.  Connie has been putting in quite a bit of time riding her jumping horse Bill both in the arena near Florence and around here preparing for a "mini event" in Missoula.  There are elk around and bow season is already in full swing.  We have elk coming through our place almost daily. 

Click to enlarge and you can see the fire lookout on top of St Marys peak.

Zeph and I ran into some elk and deer the other morning on our walk.  Was fun just sitting watching them go by.

The first rays of sunshine on El Captain.

We love the good visibility in our valley now that fall is here and the smoke has cleared out.

THE AIR HAS CLEARED

After weeks and weeks of smoke in the valley we have had a change in the weather pattern.  We now have more visibility than we have had for weeks. We can see the mountains on both sides of the valley.  What a welcome change this is.  We even had snow in the high elevations so some of the fires have been snuffed out.  For the most part, the fire folks are saying this might be the end of our fire season - we sure hope so.

A firecracker penstemon we got from Poki this spring is blooming.

Our valley without all the smoke.

And there is snow on the palisades.  

Two days of clear skies - we are getting spoiled.

Still have elk around though.  We spooked these while on our morning walk the other day.

It sure is nice to see the other side of the valley!

THICK SMOKE FROM FOREST FIRES

We have had some pretty thick smoke in the past week although the last 2 days have been great.  I took a few pictures of the smoke around our place and they are below.  We have been running into the elk the last two mornings also.  But they are really getting spooky as hunting season approaches.

These pictures were taken with my old small pocket camera so are not that good.  But there are 3 cow butts lined up there.

Where did you people come from.  The elk bolted right after this and ran all the way across Coal Pit as shown in the picture below.  You will have to click on it to enlarge to see them.

Below is one of the bucks that just lay in the trees and watch us walk by.

Below are pics of smoke around our place.

The above pic is from our upper fire pit.

From the cabin porch looking towards the east mountains.