Saturday, March 7, 2009

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.

Friday, March 6, 2009

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.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

West Simms Road to Benchmark-Willow Creek/Beaver Creek junction





(Teaser photos, click to see the entire photo shoot.
West Simms Road Photo Shoot
We left home and decided to turn to the left... Each time we came to a gravel road, we'd shake our heads and say, "Nope, doesn't feel right!" We kept that up until we'd gone through Simms, Mt and climbed the hill west of town, heading toward Lincoln, Mt on Highway 200. Suddenly, we saw this little road branch off the highway, and new we'd found our trail for the day!

We didn't know this ahead of time but this road wound around the prairie, and came out on Highway 21, headed for Augusta, Mt.

When we arrived on 21, we decided to keep going, through Augusta, and up onto the mountain side, driving along the road to Benchmark. At some point during the day, it began to snow- those huge floating flakes that dim the landscape-it was wonderful, like driving on silence.

At the end of our trail, the drifts were deep enough to stop our four wheel drive. We'd gone down part of the Beaver-Willow Creek road but had to turn round and head back to civilization.

We include survival gear when we take these photo shoot trips. We have water, food, sleeping bags, heavy winter clothing, material to start a fire and whatever else we might need. I can power the computer for downloading from power inverters, and charge camera batteries as we go. If we should get stuck, or held up, we figure we can do just fine until we get ourselves going again. It's good to be prepared.

Now I'll let the photos tell you what kind of trip this was!
Donna Ridgway

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

The Red Dirt Road. Cascade, Mt to White Sulphur Springs.

Years ago, when Robert was driving truck, he delivered a log home to an area near Cascade, Mt. He didn't remember the exact location of the delivery, but he knew he went through Cascade, Mt to arrive at his destination.
We went to Cascade, then took off on country roads. Made a few wrong turns, hit some dead ends, then finally came to a place he remembered! There's a county shop along the Smith River when you're heading to the Eden Crossing, take that road, heading south, up a steep hill, and you're on your way! This is dirt road 330 on a map, and you'll be heading for road 360, roughly following the Smith River.


I've posted a photo shoot of our trip, complete with animals and scenery. We took this road Memorial Day of 2007, so the weather was a little cool, and the wildlife was out roaming around. We saw antelope, a badger, a coyote, an elk, bluebirds and hawks and some deer. The elk and coyote were to distant to show in photos, but you might spot them. See the Cascade to White Sulphur Springs photo shoot now, to really enjoy the trip!
Donna Ridgway

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