September 28-29, 2023 Wilderness Gateway campground, Idaho

 In the high 60's and sunny.

Selway Falls on the Selway River at low water. 

Selway falls and the Selway river.

The old ranger station on the Selway river. The Lochsa river on the way back. 

Sunset. 

John hiking up Weir Creek to Weir hot springs. The hot spring. It was very nice. 

The second pool at Weir hot springs. John hiking back down from the hot springs. 

A wall of ferns and moss. Mushrooms, snail, moss and flowers. 

Huckleberry, a sweet dog at the hot springs. Brush invasive seeds off your boots, amanita, no shooting at the hot springs, and a sign that should be in all campgrounds telling us not to burn plastic in our campfires.  John has a birthday candle in his grilled cheese sandwich for his birthday.

September 25-27, 2023 Bozeman to Lolo Hot Springs, Montana to Lochsa River, Idaho

 77 degrees and sunny. 

Cheapest fuel this trip so far. In Cody, $4.32. Heart Mountain heading out of Cody.

We are parked at the Gallatin County Fair grounds in Bozeman, MT. Beautiful evening for dinner in the grass.  Sunset.  

Beautiful downtown Butte, Montana. We have been trying to get across to the coast before it starts to snow. So drove across most of western Montana today. Topped off the tank twice. Saw this big silver slipper statue on a pedestal in Missoula. Looked it up and it is at the Silver Slipper sports bar and casino. 

Worked on this basket today. The needles color is pretty blah. There are three different dye colors - green, blue and dark blue. All came out green. Still working on the top. It is 8 1/2 x 4 inches. The center is a piece of glass I fused.  We are at Lolo Hot Springs, Montana. On the border of Montana and Idaho. The hot springs are lovely. Even tho they charged us $65 to camp here we still had to pay $10 each to soak. 

The lodge at Lolo Hot Springs. We are at the Lolo Hot Springs RV park. 

Sunset. We stopped at an old growth Cedar Grove just under the west side of  Lolo Pass in Idaho. 

Really big trees. Very pretty place. 

It rained pretty hard on our drive. The clouds were hanging low over the mountains. The Lochsa River. John has boated it many times in the spring at high water. It is very low now. 

Moss in the trees, many different kinds of berries. The sway back fence along the horse trail and a yellow flower.  Boulder creek that runs through the campground. 

Boulder creek. The sun came out for a little while here on the Lochsa River. 

Fall colors and John in his cagoule. Perfect for this kind of weather and hiking in wet foliage. The view from our campsite. Fall colors. 

Knapp weed, wild bug, snowberry flowers, moss, yellow flower, aster and moss on two different roof tops. Green foliage, pink and yellow flowers. A white tailed deer that I scared up. He stopped and posed beautifully behind a bunch of branches. And a seed head.

Ways to store your food in bear country, lichen, fall colors, a water logged bug, berries and a wooly bear. John trying the spigot on the horse trough. They turned the water off for fall already. 

We are camped at Wilderness Gateway campground on the Lochsa river. The only loop open is reserved for people with horses. But since it is the only one open I guess you don't need horses, no one else had any. The place was deserted, quiet and dark. Very lovely. John opening wine to have with our homemade tomato soup.

Welcome to Idaho and the Pacific time zone- we lost an hour. We crossed paths with Lewis and Clark on our drive. Maiden hair fern, sword fern, tansy, white seed heads, bracken fern and fall colors. 

Sunset. 

September 23-24, 2023 Cody, Wyoming

 Cold 58, windy and raining.

Downtown Meeteetse, Wyoming. John with the main street bear in Meeteetse.

Two murals, discover Meeteetse, WY, sign to Cody, Buffalo Bill beer, chocolate shop, and the fire dept. Cowboy bar with a pistol for a door handle. 

Classic view of rattlesnake and  Cedar mountains driving into Cody. We got there just  before a huge rain storm. 

 The bus a the Absorka Bay RV park in the rain. When the clouds cleared in the morning there was snow on Carter Mountain to the south west. 

We had lunch with Glenn and his twin sister Sue. Great to see them. We came to also visit Billie, Glenn's wife, my good high school friend, but she is in the hospital out of town. So sorry to miss her. The traffic light is red looking west down main street in Cody at Rattlesnake mountain. 

The light is green looking east down main street in Cody, Wyoming. Cody has changed so much since I went to high school here I barely recognize it. There are 2 new breweries in Cody. John wanted to check them out. Here he is with his IPA at Cody Craft Brewing with Ashley the bartender. 

John pouring his own IPA at  Wyold West Brewing. They had a delicious peanut butter stout there. The local deer out in the play ground this afternoon on my bike ride. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny 61 degrees this afternoon. 

A beautiful 70 degree sunny day. I visited with my high school friend Janet this afternoon. Great to see and visit with her. I finished this basket today. It is made with dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and the center is a dichroic glass scarab I cast. It is 7 x 6 x 2 inches. 

I finished this basket earlier. It is made with dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and the center is a piece of selenite that I shaped, sandblasted and painted a petroglyph mountain lion on. It is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 inches. This basket I made last spring, but I hated the beads around the center so I put a handmade bead necklace John got in Chile around the center. I like the claws with the paw print better. 

Nice fall evening for dinner outside on the picnic table with our basil plants at the table. The RV park is nice, quiet and uncrowded this time of year. Our view from our RV site.

Sunset had some fun lenticular clouds tonight.