DARK CANYON

Zeph and I went out and explored some more of Carl's new property.  We walked down a ridge line then dropped into what we called Dark Canyon years ago as it is usually a little dark down there and at the upper section it is quite steep on the sides.

Still pretty smoky around here but not as bad as it is north of us nearer the fires.

The mouth of Dark Canyon.

Lots of rock on the sides.

Since it doesn't get a lot of sun down in the bottom the small pine trees are still growing.

Zeph on one of the elk trails.

Right at the bottom it flattens out and there is a lot of grass.

Looking south towards Hamilton but there is enough smoke that you can't see to far.

KAYAKING MINERS LAKE

Connie and I headed over to Miners Lake near Jackson to kayak that lake and to get out of the smoke.  The smoke was not as bad over there but there still was some smoke.  It is really bad here in the Bitterroot.  Might get some rain this evening so I hope it will help the firefighters working the Lolo Peak fire.

Lily pad flower with lots of little bugs.

Did not get out of all the smoke, but better than the Bitterroot is.

Paddling up stream where the creek comes in.

Just got to get a picture of that cute dog.

Wind came up and it got cool.

This grass even has a blossom on it.

This is the outlet of the lake.

Have no idea what kind of plant or flowers these are but must be some kind of lilies.

Paddling through the lilies was a little harder than we thought.

UPDATE 23 AUGUST 2017

Not much is happening around here except smoke from the fires.  It is getting old.  Today is one of the worst we have had in the past week.  We are going to get out of the valley tomorrow and go back over to the Big Hole and breath some fresh air.  The Lolo fire is still going strong and is consuming about all the news.  I guess Missoula has worse air quality than we have so that is a plus.  A few pictures without smoke, well maybe a little smoke.

This deer could not believe I walked up on her during my walk.  I think she is a little deaf.

My new favorite place to look at our Bitterroot Valley from a rocky point on Carl's new property.

Hard to see the mountains with all the smoke - and this is a good day.

The start of the solar eclipse through a welding helmet.

The moon starting to cover the sun.  We left a little after this picture and went for a horseback ride over to the big ditch.  Thought that was a lot more fun than watching the eclipse through a welding helmet.

FIRES IN THE BITTERROOT

We have a number of forest fires burning in our area.  One is 16 miles west of Hamilton and is in the Wilderness area so they will not try and put it out.  It is dumping a lot of smoke in the valley though.  We also have a very large fire in the north end of the valley called the Lolo Peak fire which has destroyed some homes and out buildings.  Over a thousand people have been evacuated in this fire.  It is located north and west of us.  It has closed US Highway 12 going west to Idaho.  It is now almost 28,000 acres large and is pumping a lot of smoke into the air.  And there are quite a few others in western Montana but those are the close ones.  We had some southwest winds last night so had some good visibility for awhile.  I took a few sunset pictures last night.

Zeph went with me last night to watch the sunset - he just loves the "go" word.  Doesn't care where, just go.

Visibility yesterday.

Visibility tonight.

With the dry summer most of the little pine trees are dying.  There are a few as in the front center of this picture, but you can see the majority have turned brown.  Click any picture to enlarge.

UPDATE 15 AUGUST 2017

This post is a catch up of sorts with pictures that never made it to the blog. 

Of course lots of flowers.

The sun through the clouds and smoke.

A paddle on Como

Grandniece Hailey during her graduation that I presented the colors.

New pines coming up in old pines.

A friendly dragon fly.

A couple of owls that allowed me to take some pictures.

BIGHOLE GETAWAY

We decided to get out of the smoke here in the Bitterroot so headed over to the Bighole to gain a little altitude and maybe some cooler weather.  There was still smoke over there for the first day though.  We camped at May Creek the first night, Miners Lake the second, and along the Pioneer Mountain Scenic Byway the third night.  The air was definitely better over there.  And it rained a little all three days!!  Ate a lot of great food - both that we brought and some we bought.

Miners Lake

Hiking up to the new FS cabin at May Creek

The new cabin you can rent.

Supper

Hay bales out of Wisdom

Zeph always gets in the water.

Just got back from a hike in the rain.

Rain on the lake.

Calm water the next morning.

Nice meadow.

An old mining camp.