Sunday, August 11
42 degrees this morning and a beautiful sunrise. We enjoy a nice breakfast of ham & egg tacos and bananas and coffee.
We decide to drive into part of the Snowy Range we haven't seen, on a good gravel road #100, to Turpin Reservoir. Nice drive through mostly forested land, though the early part was also open range.
The smell of pine was lovely. Noted several occupied boondocking spots.
Looks like the reservoir is another good spot for fishing.
On the return trip we came upon two young moose who quickly took off to find their Mom, who was no doubt not far away. They looked like darling stuffed animals, brown and furry and bounded away rather ungracefully as they are mostly gangly legs! Too quick for a camera shot. I remember that most moose give birth to two calves and am glad to see that these two are doing well.
Back to paved 130 and we head east, stopping at Marie Lake again. No rain this time as we drink in the scenery.
The Summer wildflowers are lingering here at high altitude.
.
A couple of fisherman at the lake and at the stream below. Much quieter today.
A self-guided walking tour of stromatolites - layered sedimentary rock is next. We had to park on a #130 pullout, and walk in on Forest Service road 332 (too rough for our low clearance vehicle).
We followed directions in a handout we'd gotten, past Jeep Lake to an "abandoned but still visible" two track road leading off to the north. The two track soon dwindles, then disappears. There is no trail to follow and we decided to backtrack rather than risk getting truly lost. Oh well. There were some interesting rocks and flowers, though we'll never know whether they were stromatolites!
Mid-afternoon, so we decided to check out two campgrounds off of Forest Service road 110. First was Nash Fork Campground, which had several openings. Nicely leveled sites, but hardly any trees (the bark beetles struck again), so we continued to Brooklyn Lake campground.
We pass St. Alban's Chapel where Beth's brother Tom married Sue - about 50 years ago!! Wish we had known they have a Sunday service (Episcopalian, Brett!).
Brooklyn Lake is a prettier campground and there are a few sites open.
We walk a trail next to the lake.
Many wildflowers.
We meet the nice camp ground hosts who are spending their 4th summer here. They are from Cheyenne. He mentions a trail to East Glacier Lakes, so we decide to try this. It is all uphill and rocky, but not too steep. Beautiful lake with a fair amount of snow on the mountain tops here.
Greg jokes about the "giant shark" in the lake.
Super clear water - and we bet it is very cold as well.
Really rocky in areas with ground squirrels and chipmunks.
A couple of fly fishermen arrive while we are enjoying the scenery.
Back at the campsite, we discover that the fridge has frozen things on the bottom shelf, so we have sloppy joe's and frozen carrots for dinner! Nice cool evening for a good sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment