A Wildflower Morning

You might be anticipating photos of the wildflowers of the Beartooth.  Those are coming, but first before we got there we had to drive through Idaho.  The most direct route follows the Lochsa River from Lewiston, ID to Missoula, MT along Highway 12, also known as the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway, because Lewis and Clark followed this route back home.  If you you haven't driven that road before, I definitely recommend it for your next road trip.  Here is a link to a publication about the road.   http://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/1/nez-perce/hwy-12.pdf I think there are 5 wooden suspension bridges over the Lochsa that is for foot and pack animal traffic only and crosses over to a trail. The one we stopped at is at mile post 143.  Sometime long ago, when my kids were little, we stopped there and I remember William taking a lot of photos down under the bridge with a camera we were letting him use.  It seems this was an important part of...

Prius Camper and Long Lake on the Beartooth Highway My husband and I went on vacation for a couple weeks in July in our camper, our Prius Camper. I'd seen videos about people doing this since I bought my 2007 Prius. I knew I wanted to try this at least once. We had wanted to drive to Alaska this summer to celebrate our 25th anniversary, but Mr. Covid is keeping the borders closed to all but essential workers. We had to come up with alternative plans and stay closer to home. We needed a vacation and some time of restoration in nature more than ever after a whole spring quarter of isolation and intense online work activity. While Rob was finishing up his final responsibilities, I got our Prius camper ready. The foundation of the bed is a piece of nice, thin, Masonite board, cut to size to level out the changes in elevation when the seats are down. The next layer is some floor mats made for shops that fit together like a puzzle from Harbor Freight. Then came the bed roll. This was two...

So the post about this weekend was supposed to be titled, "Three People. Three Dogs. Four Backpacks. One Tent." It would have been all about our backpacking trip up Bear Creek in the Wallowa Mountains, in Oregon, with my husband and daughter. There would have been evergreen trees, a rushing, cold-water creek, meadows full of wildflowers, a little camp stove, and some yummy, homemade, camp food. The dogs would come along, even the 4 month old Poodle puppy. The older Poodle would even carry her own Poodle-sized backpack. Covid-19 has shut down many things, but it hasn't shut down nature. Nature heals many things. I needed to be out in nature. It was going to be the perfect weekend. But I'm not in control of everything. My dream weekend didn't happen. A new title is needed, "Did You Lose a Backpack?" We didn't leave home quite as early as we hoped this morning, but there would still be enough time to make it to our trailhead and get in a good ...

Get ready for an epic day of snorkeling photos.  The fish were thick today, both little ones and big ones. But first, we have to swim out there between the floating dock and the round observation building.  If you don't want to swim out, you can pay to walk out on the walkway above our heads.  But the real action is in the water. Judy's snorkel has the yellow tip, and Matt's is black.  This is the trip that got them excited about snorkeling. Convict Surgeonfish Acanthurus triostegus Picassofish Rhinecanthus aculeatus Threadfin Butterflyfish Chaetodon auriga Pacific double-saddle butterflyfish Chaetodon ulietenses Redfin Butterflyfish or Oval butterflyfish  Chaetodon lunulatus Yellowfin goatfish Mulloidichthys vanicolensis Trevally:  Is it a Bluefin at the top?  What is the white one? Is the big one a Bluefin Trevally?  Is the one in the lower right corner with the bu...