Black Leaf Canyon

Lacey patterns of snow grace the cliff bottom.
Herd of mule deer next to the road on the way to the canyon.
These twin spires gaurd the entrance to the canyon.
Someone had walked into the canyon a few days before I was there. Some of their tracks remained.
Snow was falling and landing on my camera lens. You can see the white dots in this photo.
The colors in these rock cliffs are amazing. My grandma could paint these walls so they looked so beautiful! She lived under a reef like this, and knew it's moods each day.
The sounds of the creek were magical inside the canyon walls. I wish I could get Robert to walk with me, so he could have heard this also. He sits in the car and waits for me. He misses a lot. On the other hand, that allows me time alone in the mountains, which I love. It's hard to describe what it's like to be inside a canyon like this, alone, to hear the sounds, smell the smells, and feel the wilderness...
This is looking down country from inside the canyon. I walked a ways back into the canyon, but chickened out when I ran into bear scat.
This is the trail going back into the Bob Marshall, made me wish I was on my my horse, headed in...
This is the road heading toward the trail head at the canyon.
And here was a star fish on the mountain!
These crocus were fresh and their color was rich. They hadn't opened up yet.

To see more of our photos from this trip. I've uploaded a few hundred to flikr! There are many more photos of the avocets, the horses and mules, and the scenery.

Hope you enjoyed the trip!
Donna Ridgway

More on the Black Leaf Cut Off Road

The crocuses are blooming right now. These little guys were my grandma's favorite flowers. When she and my grandpa had the ranch, she was so excited each spring, when the crocuses bloomed. Some people call these Pasque Flowers, I believe.
The sun played hide and seek with us all day long. It was either sunshine, for a second or two, then it was rain, wind or snow.
I've never seen a cow with a face like this! She was humped up from the wind and sleet, making her look even more humorous!



I had Robert drive fast to get ahead of the herd, so I could jump out and take a photo of them following us. They acted so happy to have company...:)
When we drove away from the herd, the mules followed the car, look at the wistful look on this guy's face. It almost broke our hearts to leave them!




Next post, I'll show the Black Leaf Canyon...
Trip to be continued!

Black Leaf Cut Off Road to Campbell Cut Off Road

Robert asked me what I wanted to do most of all, to celebrate Mother's Day. Of course, I said I wanted to go up Black Leaf Canyon. We've been all around that area, but not into the canyon itself. I've been waiting for him to mention another photo shoot, so we could go there. For once, I had a definite destination in mind!

We left Vaughn, and before we got to Choteau, we'd seen avocets, geese, several varieties of ducks, an osprey and it's mate, antelope, elk, and some awesome Montana scenery!

An entire herd of antelope ran across the highway in front of us, when we crossed the Fairfield bench. We stopped to watch them go, and took photos of them as they ran. They didn't know we had no evil intentions where they were concerned.

This was the view, west of Choteau. I guess it's easy to see why we're called the "Big Sky Country". This is one big sky!
Snow clouds hung over Ear Mountain, and before the day was over, we had snow, rain, sleet, wind...the normal gamut of weather. It isn't quite summertime yet on the Rocky Mountain Front!
Nostalgia took hold of us. Both of us went to school in one room school houses, with home made playground equipment. We couldn't resist one more ride on the merry go round.

Sand Hill Cranes were in the meadow opposite the old school house. These huge birds make the most interesting sounds. I like listening to them.




This is one herd of horses and mules that we've dubbed "ours". When we saw them in the distance, I yelled, "Hey, are you coming to see us today?" They were a quarter mile away, but their heads came up, their ears came forward, and their hooves began to move! It wasn't long until we were surrounded by these old friends. I don't know who they really belong to, I think it must be an outfitter in the area, for these animals are very used to people, and they love visiting. They're very mannerly, and don't push and shove each other around a whole lot while we pet them. One mule took the camera strap and tried to pull it away from Robert, the mule wanted to take some photos of us!

The magpies were out, in full force, squawking around, trying to stay out of my "shooting" range. These birds are so wary, it's hard to get them close to my camera. I think they believe I have another kind of apparatus in my hands. :)
Mule slobbers on the car. They smelled and felt of every inch of this car.
Last fall, I took a photo of this mule, as he stuck his tongue out at me.
Feet the size of platters! This horse could be a pmu rescue. He's so huge, makes me feel like a midget when he comes to see me.
The mules loved the car. They slobbered over every inch of it. They also stuck their heads in the open windows, looking for treats! You do have to watch these critters, they will scrape the paint off your car with their teeth.

My one shot of the day where the sun shone perfectly.

I'll continue this post, it's getting difficult to keep track of the new photos each time I upload some more. I wish blogger would add them to the bottom of a post, in the order they're selected, instead of placing them at the top. Takes so much cutting and pasting!

Continued....

Elk Creek Road

On Easter Sunday, we decided to head for the hills and see what we could find. We turned to the left when we drove out of our driveway and decided we'd see what the country looked like west of Augusta, Mt.
You might not expect to see Yak, but we did! If you leave Augusta, heading south west, toward Bean Lake, you drive by this herd.
These white tails watched us as we crossed the creek, the buck is growing his antlers for next season, you can see the velvety nubbins on his head.
We drove by the sign to Smith Creek Road, but when we saw a sign to Elk Creek, we had to turn off the highway and see what this road was like.
This is Hay Stack Butte. I liked the way the snow laid in the coulees and draws.
Here's Sawtooth in the distance. Most of the time, we drive to the base of Sawtooth, in the Sun River Game Range. On this day, the snow blocked the road on a lot of our old trails.
A road like this, beckons you onward! You can't wait to see what's around the next corner.



This is another view of Hay Stack Butte, we're now on the south side of the butte.
A forest fire raged through this area, you can see the burnt forest every where you look.
We stopped to visit the ranchers who live in this area, while we were talking, this bay horse herded wayward calves through the fence, back toward their mothers. He was free lancing!
I didn't think I got very many pretty photos while we were here, but when I looked through my selection, I had a hard time choosing. This is a beautiful area, and I'm sure glad we found it!
I don't know the name of this peak, but it's shape was so interesting. It's a large mountain.
Robert noticed this pond as we were driving along, it was on his side of the road. We had to stop and take photos as the patterns, colors, and reflections were awesome.


There were some fish in the pond, they got into a fight and stirred up the mud before we left.




The road goes on beyond this cabin, but we had to turn back at this place. The snow blocked us from going further.

When we left home, we threw some shrimp and lettuce into a cooler, along with some salad dressing. So this made a good place to eat lunch!

Hardy Creek area and River Road from Cascade to Ulm

We had some worrisome news yesterday, and couldn't bear to stay around this place, so we headed out toward Great Falls, McDonalds, and a great photo shoot. Those are the times when you most feel the need to create, so here are these photos for you to see.

Our trip began on the back road to town, where we realized we were starving. I had my favorite chicken nuggets and honey mustard sauce and Robert had his favorite, cheeseburger! From there, we headed up past the airport, down the back roads to Ulm, and from there, took the old highway to Hardy Creek.

At that point, Robert thought we might come home again, but I convinced him we still had an hour or so of light and we ought to take advantage of it, since we were all ready "out there".

We took the back road to Cascade, ordered some meat at Cascade Meats, and from there, crossed the river, deciding we'd take the first road that turned left.

Ended up on River Road! A delightful road to poke along, looking for photos. It's very difficult nowdays, to get photos of Square Butte, with no houses, power lines, or commercial enterprises ruining the view. From River Road, I was able to satisfy that urge to show a "pure" Square Butte, I wanted it to look like it might have when Charlie Russell saw it in the old days.

Eagles were fishing along the river, and sitting in the cottonwood trees along the road. Wild turkeys scratched at the base of trees, and deer watched us go by. The moon came out in the late afternoon sky...Robert spied an old Buick in a yard, and all in all, it was a great trip!

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. The photos here are just a teaser to maybe get you interested in seeing the remainder of photos on my flickr site.
Donna Ridgway
Email me at artistreferencephotos@gmail.com
Nature of Montana Photo blog.
Photos and art studio blog.

Great Falls on 226 to Ulm on 330.

This little old windmill sits by itself, out on the prairie. I look forward to seeing it, each time we travel this road. It's on road 226, heading south out of Great Falls. We take this road in a circle until it joins 330, heading into Ulm.

I love taking photos of cattle chewing their cuds. This bull was chewing away...I catch the rhythm and click when the mouth is open! It's kind of a silly game I like to play. Cattle are always chewing their cuds, so you know you can play often...:) To bad the mouth is always in line with the top wire on the fence...


The prairie is beautiful. I never get tired of finding it's secret places.

This house sits on a bluff, I can't imagine homesteading there. But perhaps in the old days, a creek ran there, so it made sense!
This is the bluff the house sits upon.
Smith River, near Ulm.


There are always deer along this road. This trip, there were some magpies sitting on the does back. You can see them if you look closely. The deer were a long way off, I barely caught the magpies.
Donna Ridgway

Email me at artistreferencephotos@gmail.com
Nature of Montana Photo blog.
Photos and art studio blog.

Gypsy Basin Road

This is Gypsy Basin. Years ago, Robert and I discovered this place, but later on, couldn't remember how we got here, or what the name of the place was! It's taken us about 5 years to find it again. It was worth the wait, it's just as magical now, as it was then.
This is The Old Man of the Mountain. If I had to choose a favorite mountain, I guess he would be mine.
I could guess we saw 500 deer on the way to Gypsy Basin. We drove through slowly, but they still thought they had to jump the fence.
The Rockport Hutterite colony is along the way to Gypsy Basin. We love to stop at the colonies to buy vegetables, homemade sticky buns, and lots of other goodies!


Nothing makes me happier than to see a long, enticing road stretching before me!


This coyote was way off in the distance, very wary! He ran away even though he was a mile off!


At the start of our trip, we went by the game farm. When this guy was 7 years old, his dad asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. At 7 he replied, "I want to raise camels!" And now he raises camels, his lifelong dream. Some of these camels appeared in the "Weeping Camel" movie. We met these people when they brought the camels to a western feed store grand opening.
Some of the elk from the game farm, one of them lets you pet her, the bull tries to stick his antlers through the fence to poke holes in your body, watch out for him!
The eagles were fishing. There are more photos from this trip on my facebook photo site. Become a fan while you're there!
Hope you've enjoyed Gypsy Basin! I can't give exact directions to this place, but when you are heading north toward Dupuyer, Mt, about 10 miles before you get to Dupuyer, look for a road that heads west, it's actually named, Gypsy Basin Road. Imagine that? LOL. I have no idea why we lost that road for five long years.... I suppose it was because the day we first found the basin, we took several other roads before we got to the basin.
Donna Ridgway

Email me at artistreferencephotos@gmail.com
Nature of Montana Photo blog.
Photos and art studio blog.