St Regis, Montana

Yesterday we went to the National Bison Range. It's a preserve set up by the American Bison Society back when the bison were on the verge of becoming extinct. That is no longer the case but they still have the preserve. They even have a corral here where they round up the bison to give them their vaccines. There are a lot here but not near the number we saw at Yellowstone. These are right by the road also but there are several other animals in the preserve as well. There are 6 to 8 bears (they're not sure of the number?!), elk, pronghorn antelope, big horn sheep, mountain goats, weasels and various birds. We only saw the antelope, bison and big horn sheep but we were pretty excited about that! We consider that a JACKPOT.


Do you think we were close enough??


Pronghorn Antelope


Big Horn Sheep


We still haven't found the elusive moose. We were told several places to go by the office staff here but we've been there quite a few times and still haven't seen one. They're supposed to be out either early morning or early evening. Well, anybody that knows us knows we're not going to go looking early in the morning. We've been out where one is supposed to be every evening but nothing. Oh well, maybe we'll just have to wait for next summer when we go to Alaska.

Today we took a long drive through some beautiful parts of Montana and into Idaho. We were on a gravel road until we reached the Idaho state line and then the road was paved all the way. The canyons and rivers were absolutely amazing. The rivers are pretty low right now but apparently they are raging in the spring. We saw some rafters but they were standing in the water pushing their rafts. The water was up to their knees. There were a lot of fishermen too. We saw this one group of four guys. One of the guys apparently thought the fishing would be good on the other side so he tried to "walk" across a wire but wasn't having much luck so he was attempting to come back. We thought it was pretty funny watching him struggling with the wires while holding onto his pole so I took a picture. His buddies were completely ignoring him and going about their fishing.


We took a picnic lunch and found a really nice spot right on the river with a covered area and about six picnic tables. It was a little chilly but we got a table with a little piece of our table in the sun. There was nobody else there so it wasn't a problem finding a seat. Despite his expression he really did like his ham sandwich.



Some more of the amazing scenery


A Heron?


Tomorrow we're heading for Spokane and are staying at Riverside State Park. It's close to my internet friend Jenny so we're excited about that. After tomorrow she'll no longer be known as my "internet friend". She'll just be a friend! I'm looking forward to it but I just wish we had more than one day there.