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.