55 on the fly

Our last campfire in Gardiner was on a typical cool evening with the gentle breeze that always blew through the mountains.  We made some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches in our pie iron - Yum!  We hated to go to bed knowing that we only had one last day in this peaceful place.  The next day we packed up, took a walk, and had dinner at Rosie's.  We met some good friends there for a last drink or two and promised to stay in touch. Grilled cheese done to perfection! Doug, Ben, and Wilson - some great friends in Gardiner. We certainly have done everything we wanted to do (except for my zip-lining) and definitely more than we expected.  We saw some beautiful places and went to areas where only a few lucky people get to go.  It was such a privilege to be able to experience YNP the way that we did.  Doug has been scouting out all of the best spots for the past several years and he picked out all of the best ones to share with me.  We a...

Living as a Gardiner MT resident for a month was wonderful.  The pace is nice and slow, the air is soft and cool.  The town itself is small and you can visit each store and business easily within a few hours.  There are no stop lights and the library is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays.   Once you are done checking out the town, there is nothing left to do but read, fish and relax. In Gardiner we walked everywhere.  It was good daily exercise since our campground was up a pretty steep hill.   Right next door is the amazing Yellowstone River and we could go over and play anytime we wanted to. Looking up at our campground.  Those buildings with red roofs are little cabins that you can rent. This is the view from the bridge going over the Yellowstone river.  See the campground in the upper left? Parks Fly Shop This is Park's Fly Shop where Doug works - or worked.  He is still tying flies for them throughout the year bu...

Last night we had Wally and Wilson up to our RV for dinner.  Hots, hamburgers, baked beans, deviled eggs, coleslaw and homemade camper cookies for dessert.  Michelle out did herself...  Later a campfire, a few PBR's and LOTS of fishing talk.  It was great to spend some time with the guys. With only today to fish and tomorrow for packing up and prepping to leave Yellowstone Country I fished my "Last Chance" for this YNP season.   We head back to VA. early on Monday, Aug. 22nd... Michelle decided yesterday's fishing was tough to beat so she settled in with a good book and the mountains for company.  But I had to get out one more time for a couple of hours on the Yellowstone River down the old road...  With 14 fish brought to hand and the landing of my first "double" in YNP,  I couldn't ask for a better ending. Here are some photos: Beautiful Cutthroat "Last Chance Double" a Cutthroat and a Rainbow, netting two fish at on...

Take a look at this short video clip from our hike into Gardner's Hole.  At the end of the clip you will see a dark green stand of pines.  That was where we were hiking for our fishing trip that day.  This is as close as I can get you without a plane ticket!  Enjoy!

Hayden Valley is in the southern part of YNP and a beautiful place to go to see wide open spaces and wildlife.  Well, we saw plenty of space but not much wildlife.  The gorgeous scenery made up for it and we had a great day.  We stopped at Canyon Village and checked out a small museum there along with the gift shops.  Of course we had to get an ice cream cone too! This is a view near Tower Falls area.  There is a river way down at the bottom of the canyon.  The rock formations are so varied and unique. A view of Hayden Valley. We saw a grizzly bear from the road and that is about as close as I care to get! Here is one of the tour buses that will take you through the park. This view is near Mt. Washburn.  We were so high up and could see for miles!  Notice the burned trees in the foreground from the 1988 fire.  The forest areas are reseeding themselves and the new trees are getting taller.  We are fortunate t...

Gardner's Hole is a favorite fishing spot of Doug's.  We hiked in about 2 miles past the stand of pine trees that you see in the picture.  There is a small canyon just beyond that spot that Doug wanted to explore and fish.  This area is so awesome - as in big and beautiful!  When you stand up on the trail and look out it is just amazing.  And you don't hear any noise but the wind!  It was a great day and hard to say good-bye to this amazing place on earth.  But we will be back! This is where we started fishing.  We worked our way up into the canyon area along the winding river. Doug found these elk sheds right around the river. Can you even ask for a more wonderful place to spend the day? We fished for several hours and caught a ton of fish!  Many of them were small brook trout but they are still fun to catch.  The male brook trout are so colorful.  Here are some pictures of Doug and I catching one of the many...

Michelle and I had fabulous dinner at Rosie's here in Gardiner.  After dinner we met up with Ben and Wilson and had a few PBR's and of course talked about the guide trips the guys had and our day on Slough Creek... At some point in the conversation Ben said he had the day off tomorrow and that he had marked me off on the PFS guide trip calendar as well, hmmmmm... I said: "Where are you thinking of going?" Ben said: "Black Canyon." "Wow, that's a good hike and I just did 11 miles into Slough Creek, the Black Canyon will be another 8-9 miles..." "So, are you game?" "Chelle is it OK with you?"  She said: "Go have fun." "OK I'm in." I said.  (thinking I must be crazy for doing back-to-back hikes on this ankle) Black Canyon of the Yellowstone - hiking in... Suspension Bridge over the Yellowstone River BUT--- I'm so glad I did... Ben and I had a great day of fishing and fellowship...

It has been over one month living in our fifth-wheel RV.  We have two more weeks to go and so far we are really enjoying it.  Our "rig" is very comfortable with all that we need and more.  There is just enough room for the two of us plus our dog Stella.  Here are some pictures of our home away from home. Dining Room and entertainment area. Bedroom; with sink, toilet and stand up shower. Kitchen, living room, foyer.  Can you find Stella?? Here is a view from our campground in Gardiner, MT. This is the entrance to the campground and the view as I take my walk into town almost every day.

This is a picture that Doug took at Slough Creek in 2008.  I have had this on my computer screen at work for a long time.  We also had this picture put onto a canvas and hung it in our living room.  This place looked so picture perfect that I was always wishing that I could go to that spot someday.  It is an all day hike since it is 5 miles just to get to this spot.  Well, I finally made it! The location has changed a little bit but it is still a beautiful spot!  The Second Meadow at Slough Creek is a magnificent spot!  It is a long hike in - about 5 miles -  with much of it uphill.  We started the trek in at 6:30 am.  The moon followed us in for most of the morning. After reaching second meadow and the "picture spot", we rigged up and started to fish.  We worked our way around to this canyon that had many boulders.  Doug had me rock hopping to get to many small pools.  Yes, we worked our way right down th...