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Toward the end of May I set out on a long-awaited visit to Banff and Jasper National Parks, followed by a week-long stay at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD.

A casual drive northward delivered me to renowned Highway 12 that cuts, like a necklace, west to east across Idaho just below the panhandle. This two-lane highway keeps company with the Lochsa, a National Wild and Scenic River which drains the prodigious snowmelt of the Bitterroot Mountains that stymied Lewis and Clark’s quest to find and securie a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean. In late May, the river was running fast and muddy, luring river rats from across the nation to test their skills on levels III-VI rapids.

The first night I camped off a side road. The only other rig I saw on this road was a Fish & Game truck, which was gone by the time I drove out the next morning. A one-mile loop trail at Colgate Licks, in the company of a chorus of birds, jump-started the morning. This natural mineral lick is the result of 106°F water seeping from the earth’s surface in an grassy glade. The hot water carries calcium, sodium and potassium to the surface soil, attracting deer, elk, and moose who round out their diet by licking the mineral-rich earth and rocks. The location took its name from the hapless camp cook of a hunting party in the early 1890s. Trapped by heavy early snow, the hunters had to walk out, abandoning George Colgate who was too sick to walk. (Suppose his own cooking did him in?) The next spring, his remains were found and buried near the licks.

Next up was the National Bison Range in Montana. I stopped at a wildlife underpass which doubles as a great nesting habitat for cliff swallows. Across the road a herd of Bison conveniently munched verdant spring grasses of the bison refuge.

This overpass provides a safe wildlife commute under the two-lane highway. However, underpasses serve predators better than they do prey animals like deer, who fear being trapped in a dark, enclosed space.
The beams under the overpass provide safe nesting sites for swallows. If you click on the image, you may see the little moms’ heads sticking out of the nests.
The bison were out of my iPhone’s range. But I enjoyed watching them through binoculars.
The Mission Mountain Range
Looking down at the hamlet of St. Ignatius, on Flathead reservation, with Mission Mountains as backdrop

West of Flathead Lake I drove to the top of Blacktail Mountain ski resort, from which the gems of the Mission, Lewis, & West Glacier mountains gleamed. Also, perhaps Canadian ranges of Waterton and Fernie were observable. The day ended on a side road off a side road north of Olney, MT. It wasn’t an ideal spot, but it was quiet. Campgrounds, which I’m not fond of, were full with the Memorial Day crowd.

Blacktail Mountain Ski Resort
Mountains greeted me pretty much which ever direction I looked. You’ve gotta love western Montana.