Western Montana

Between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks we made a couple of stops. 1st was in a town picked for being halfway between the two: Deer Lodge, Montana. We stayed at a KOA because it seemed the best out of the town's two parks. It was great, in fact, because there were few people there and we got a spot on the end of the row and backed right up to Cottonwood Creek:


Nancy had a lot of work to do, and we were staging for our week in Yellowstone/Teton, so lots of chores, not so much play. The smoke from wildfires burning in Oregon often tinged the sky, turning the sunset into a hazy blaze:


The creek had trout in it, and I took the opportunity to do some fly fishing:


Once I finally used the right fly at the right time I caught a beautiful brook trout and this smaller brown:


After buying a week's worth of groceries, we headed down to West Yellowstone, stopping at a Walmart in Butte for some of the things we missed at the little grocery in Deer Lodge. There we saw this unique sleeper bus from Germany:


We camped at Baker's Hole camperground in West Yellowstone. They don't take reservations, so we were lucky to score a nice site with electricity:


Went for a bike ride on the XC ski trail system there, which was very tame but gave me my needed exercise. Here I am at a little ski patrol cabin:


The campground is bordered by the famous trout river, the Madison, so I was obligated to wet my line some more:


This time I caught a couple native mountain whitefish:


And a rainbow trout:


So, a pleasant and fishy several days, leading up to a week in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks, where we will be joined at long last by my parents! Should be fun!