Camp du Nord 11/25 - 11/29/15

Northern Minnesota

Interstate rest stops are the best

 

 

"Home" for the holiday...

Lynx Lodge

Hard to believe it's the end of November

A little new ice one dawn

Plenty of hiking trails

And plenty of walking back and forth to the dining hall

Wintergreen - leaves look like small poison ivy but smells like - wintergreen

The Voyager -- yes it is on rails

 

The mystical Blueberry Island

Reflection of moonset at dawn

         

The Gray Fox Is Back

"This species and the closely related Channel Island fox (Urocyon littoralis) are the only living members of the genus Urocyon, which is considered to be among the most primitive of the living canids."

Settled down on the rock behind 136 Yale Ave.   These foxes are known to climb and even live in trees.

Demonstrating canid heritage

A Man & His Spider

While jumping spiders are my favorite, they don't spend their time with messy web building but just run around jumping on stuff and semaphore signaling, I also love web building barn spiders because they can grow to be sort of big, the size of a small marble, and they look spiderly--hairy legs.

So, every late summer I keep a sharp lookout in the corners of sheds and around outside light fixtures for them.  The last good barn spider was on our porch light about 15 years ago.  But, now we have one in our master bedroom deck light with a web between there and the petunia on the little table.  A perfect spot for small bugs  So, here's hoping for a mild fall and hundreds of offspring (I fondly consider them grandspiders).

How now my pretty?

Yellowstone 7/14/15

The one day, flash trip, from Big Sky to Yellowstone

The wonderful thing about Yellowstone is that it's a thin part of the earth's crust just simmering along until it's next big explosion and we're just checkin' it out.

Entered at West Yellowstone and jumper out at Painter's Pots

This was an active, little mud pit with plenty of burps and flying mud blobs not captured in this photo

Moving on to Norris Geyser Basin

Recent eruption that left a bunch  of debris around the pool

We waited for Vixen's on-again off-again eruptions and were rewarded

Love that Vixen Geyser

 There's also the regular old nature part of Yellowstone which is pretty great, too.  Here are the lower and upper falls on the Yellowstone River.

This is the lower falls--really strange how the rainbow seems to be a boundary between the mist and the clear air.

Upper falls from the lower falls trail. 

Nice to think about it being out there without an observation platform at it's edge.

Beehive Basin 7/16/15

Beehive Basin:  about a 5 mile round trip hike in the Lee Metcalf/Spanish Peaks Wilderness, Gallatin National Forest, Montana

People pictures

Powwow

Rest stop with Lone Peak background

Moving on with Ivy on board

Made the basin--love them shades

Two generations

Two other generations -- our rock band, Big Maia and the Dwarfs



Know for it's wildflowers here are some Beehive Basin Residents
 

Geraniums are definitely pinker here than in Colorado

Pink monkey flower--another flower not seen, by me, in Colorado

 Next stop--Yellowstone

To Big Sky 7/15

Didn't do a very good job of photographing in Big Sky

It just goes on forever....

Bloods & an in-law at Ouzel Falls

Ridin' the truck

Why?

New & nice mountain bike friendly trails

Some local residents