Badlands National Park is amazing even on a gray, drizzly afternoon.

John had an incredible morning of fishing! He caught this impressive 19 inch brown trout - his biggest brown trout from a stream, ever - and on his last morning!!

In his own words: I also caught a hefty 16 incher, at least 10 or 12 trout over 13 inches, 3 that were 15 inchers, most of them browns. I had other huge fish come up for my streamer (a black wooley bugger) that didn't get hooked. On my first cast in this hole, after only one strip of my line, the fish hit. It didn't feel that big right away, it dove down, then it felt like I had a snag, but it moved, made a long run, took drag out, and took me about 10 minutes to get him in. Since I'd lost my net last week, I had to bring it to shore to land it. What a memorable experience, one I will never, ever forget. What an exciting day! I also caught some on dry flies (Caddis). I feel elated, I caught the most big fish today. What a feeling when I saw it for the first time, it was so beautiful, I could see every spot on the fish and see how long it was beacuse of the crystal clear water.

What a view we have from our door here at Springcreek Campground outside the town of Big Timber, MT. John averages about 16 fish per hour on the Boulder River! We were here 2 years ago in July and the water was 5 feet higher then. The smart, big trout are schooled in a pool just to the left of our door but they are smart and wary of fisherman.
This is the view from the campground driveway. A house was built in the hills a couple of miles from here where they filmed the movie Horse Whisperer. Sometimes smoke is visible on the distant mountains because there's a fire 40 miles from here. The road is closed 25 miles from here.
The people of Montana, Colorado and Wyoming love their horses! The cattle and horse ranches are numerous.
Pronghorn antelope are plentiful in Montana and Wyoming. This large herd starting running up the hill when they spotted us. They return to this spot every morning and evening. In Wyoming we joked that we saw more pronghorns than people! In fact, there are more people in Monmouth County, NJ than in the entire state of WY.
The sunset was outstanding last night. While we are anxious to begin our return journey east tomorrow morning, and especially anxious to see our families again, we will leave here with fond memories, rewarding experiences and the desire to head west again someday. I have benefitted in many ways from this journey: spiritually, physically and emotionally. I've learned to appreciate wide open spaces, solitude and the natural world.

The view of the mountains and grasslands is awesome from the overlook just outside the town of Ennis, MT. This statue of a fly fisherman adorns the intersection in Ennis. When we were in town having lunch yesterday we noticed large signs being replaced over some of the stores/businesses. Today we noticed the banner which replaced the one about the fly fishing tournament and the orange cones blocking off parking spaces. The store owners told us that a movie is being filmed here this afternoon! Jason helped us look it up online and we found out that it's called "Taking Chance", stars Kevin Bacon, will be on HBO, and Ennis will fill in for Dubois, WY because the town didn't approve filming there. Yesterday the sign over the store said Ennis Cafe, now it says Dubois Cafe. The movie's about Kevin Bacon accompanying the body of PFV Chance Phelps (killed in Iraq) back to his home town and today they're filming the parade through the town. We saw the film crews beginning to set up those big stands for cameras, too. Glad we got in and out of town before the detour went into effect.

What fun we had this morning visiting historic Virginia City, MT. It was started in 1863 when gold was found. It was a thriving area until the gold ran out. Many of the buildings are from the original era, some are restored. We did a self-guided walking tour before the crowds arrived and soaked in lots of history. As we walked we could just imagine: drunks getting tossed out of the saloon like John; horses hitched to the railings (well, we didn't have to imagine that as there actually was a horse there); ladies walking the boardwalks with long rustling skirts; goldminers having their ore assessed; and life as it was 2 centuries ago. There are follies here at night, train rides for kids, narrated stage coach rides and horse rides on nearby trails. Just down the road 1.5 miles is Nevada City which we just drove through and saw the mining equipment. Very interesting morning, that's for sure.

John's showing us the nice brown trout he caught this morning in the Madison River. It's a beautiful river, moves quickly, and he's fished several sections of it. We spent 3 nights at a nice campground right on the river where a highlight was our first restaurant meal of our journey - at a hugely popular with the locals cafe - where we enjoyed breakfast for lunch. Today we drove north to the outskirts of Ennis, Montana and are staying at a nicely set up RV park where we are taking full advantage of wi-fi and cell phone signals. There are several good places to fish the river not too far from here. In fact, the town of Ennis is quite charming, small main street with interesting shops. We spotted a Chinese restaurant and had our second restaurant meal of the trip for lunch today. It was delicious.
This is a view of us in the parking area by the river. The mountains rise up on either side of the road. Pronghorn antelope are plentiful in the sage fields. The air was smokey yesterday from the 19 wildfires burning in Montana but today there's a breeze and clear air. It's a good thing we enjoyed campfires in WY and CO because they are now obviously forbidden in Montana.

What a treat it was to have my cousin, Mary and her husband, Hop come visit us on a rainy day in the Gallatin National Forest campground in Montana. We got to share fishing and traveling stories and a good time was had by all. They were heading to Wyoming the next day and had already fished nearby so Hop had lots of good tips and even a couple of flies for John. They are rugged outdoorspeople - they've hiked the entire Appalacian Trail! Their current trip, during which they tent camp in out of the way places, began mid-May and will not end for almost another month after visiting their adorable grandchildren in New Mexico.
They've got inflatable pontoon boats in the rooftop carrier and their dog, Bea, in the back seat. Just like us they are making the most out of retirement :-)

It was thrilling to watch this sable-colored grizzly bear working on a bison carcass by the Lamar River in northeastern Yellowstone National Park. We were told where to look for it - all you have to do is find the long line of cars. We got out of the car and got this good pic by zooming in, we were hundreds of yards away.
There are so many bison in Yellowstone and they just cross the road and stand in it whenever they feel like it. This big guy decided to take a dust bath right outside my window!
We took a drive late one afternoon and were pleased to see this mother grizzly bear and her 4 cubs that everybody'd been talking about. They were right near the road and not interested in people. We did NOT get out of the truck here but many people were walking along the other side of the road.
We hiked the Slough Creek Trail for over 6 miles (one way) and John had quite a good fishing experience. This colorful cutthroat was one of several he caught here. We saw bison from the trail and some sandhill cranes. It was a long, hot hike but we were prepared and enjoyed it thoroughly.
We also saw these colorful butterflies near the trail and on many of our hikes. Don't their colors remind you of the trout? Our 4 night Yellowstone experience was rewarding and very different from our other 2 visits to the park (2-day day trips each time). The rustic, secluded, but full campground was just what we wanted, right on the river. It's a park with so many wildly different geographical regions and so much to see and do. Unfortunately, smoke from wildfires filled the sky our last morning and the mountains are obscured in our pics from 2 lookouts.

Three bull moose came through Gros Ventre Campground in the southern part of Grand Teton National Park and we were lucky to be up early enough to get come awesome pics. Here 2 of them appear to be kissing!
Our hikes were scenic and spectacular. The afternoons were hot so we started early each morning.
Here the mountains are reflected in Taggart Lake.
This is a view of the mountains from the road. This park is very different from Rocky Mountain because it's on the plains in between mountain ranges. You have to hike to get into the mountains, which we did. There are huge herds of bison, some pronghorn and mule deer.
This hike was along Jackson Lake. I'm standing on Hermitage Point, about 5 miles into the hike. It sure was hot and sunny but not strenuous and was enjoyable.

We enjoyed 4 nights at 6 Mile Gap Campground in Medicine Bow National Forest in Southern Wyoming. There were 9 campsites and anywhere from 2 to 5 were taken so it was nice and quiet. It was about 2 miles from the road which made it extra quiet. John fished the North Platte River with success, catching many browns and rainbows up to 18 inches.
This little guy stopped by our site to say hello.
There were some late afternoon thunderstorms a couple of days and we took some good rainbow pics. This one was the brightest with a dimmer one above it.
This is a view of the river. There was a trail all along it which I hiked for over a mile and which John hiked for maybe 3 miles and then fished his way back. One evening the fish came up for dry flies and we both had fun catching them right near camp. Sometimes other fishermen came to the river to fish. It was quite a wilderness experience for both of us, and is a place we hope to revisit someday.

We reached this lake after a harrowing, 4-wheel drive up the side of a mountain! The map said it was a 2-wheel road but no way! Once we got on the narrow, steep, twisting road there was no way to get down so up we went for a mile. John was quite the expert driver. Then we hiked a mile up to beautiful Lake Agnes. There were lots of cutthroat trout here, not biting, and there were about 20 people fishing. We were nervous about the steep drive down, mostly hoping we wouldn't meet anybody coming up. We didn't and everything was ok.

There are tremendous amounts of hummingbirds here! The camp has about 6 feeders out and all are constantly filled with hummers.
This is the black-throated male. They twitter and make a lot of noise in flight, so much fun to observe.