Pausing for Mama and Dodging Butterfiles

June 26-27, 2018
Island Park, Idaho - Livingston, Montana

Both of us have the same idea for Tuesday - take a loop drive through the forest. Another beautiful day.

South on Hwy 20 to Big Springs where we pick up forest service roads then Fish Creek Road for several miles. It's a quiet journey in the trees. Until we enjoy a short encounter with a brave mother, which adds a bit of excitement to our day!

Miles of healthy forest surround us.

The trees lining the road have all be cut for fire breaks.

Coming around a corner we find this. We stop to see what she'll do. Her several glances to the brush make us suspect she has little ones.

And then the baby kit appears.

Mama lets us know she's not going anywhere until the little one clears the road.

Once the kit has moved on we get closer. We laugh when  Mama calmly scratches her ear as if to let us know she's not bothered at all by the large Jeep beast facing her.

Eventually she moseys off the road to find her family.

The beautiful symmetry of lodge pole pines.

The joy of tracking a cotton ball cloud through the trees.

The only person we see is a lone older man loading the cut branches into his trailer. We stop for a chat before moving on.

Hardwoods join the pines and soon thick brush, and then a variety of wildflowers. There are so many butterflies!!! I can't capture a photo of any, and continuing down the road it's a challenge to dodge them all. 

We're back on pavement when we turn on Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. Not surprising, it takes us to Mesa Falls :-)

Lower Mesa Falls

The Visitors Center at Upper Falls was originally the Big Falls Inn, built in 1916.

A large, inviting porch.

A film tells the history of these beautiful falls - in an equally beautiful sitting room.

The Snake River rushes over the falls.

At the end of a perfect sunny day, a stormy sky passes to the north of us.

Wednesday morning we realize just in time that our GPS is routing us through Yellowstone. Not that I don't want to see it again, but I don't really want to navigate all those cars in the motorhome. Instead, we reroute north on 191, and east on I-90 to Livingston, Montana. It's another pretty, very green, drive. 

The short road to Osen's RV Park is full of pot holes, but the park is very nice. Typical for small town parks, the spaces are tight, but we're in Space 1 with a large green space. FHUs with 50 amps, decent WiFi, level, and our satellite connects around the shade trees.

We're only here for two nights and looking forward to seeing another part of Yellowstone!