Our Trip West 2018

[Bartman44]

The wife and I didn’t make it out west last year, opting instead for the Great Smokey Mountains. That was fun but this year we  decided to hit the land of big sky and huckleberry pie -  Montana -  It was   our first time  there.  We spent more than a week   bouncing from the Missoula area, to Whitefish and Glacier, then to a cabin on Rock Creek, then back to the Spokane area where we hung out for a few days to end the trip.

We explored,  hiked , I did some fishing of course and we ate well.   I found the fishing challenging partly because there was so much water. Still, I caught fish most every day and I caught my first bull trout and mountain whitefish.   One day, we drove on a gravel road 17 miles off the main road to find a beautiful lake filled with small, but eager   cutthroat trout.  Nobody  there but us.    I was also able to fish the Spokane River in Washington for a bit and was able to catch one of its red band rainbows so I now can say I caught a fish in the state of Washington. 

A wild fire forced us to make a 2 hour detour to get into the east side of Glacier National Park but the ride was worth it.  The west side opened the day we flew back (oh well).   The wildlife was diverse and we saw our first grizzly bear (from a safe distance.)
 
The night sky is all that is advertised if you can get away from the city.  I don’t have the right lenses for capturing the stars so my photos are bad but you still get the gist of what it’s like there  on a clear night.

After a great trip, its back to work but my son just got back from Rhode Island and the stripers are biting so it’s time to head "east"  soon.

Here’s a link to a slide show of the trip  I put together.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oTxO_gIG9c&t=2s


Bart
 

[dirtydeeds]

Great video, thanks for sharing!

[hunts2long]

What a great trip. Thanks for sharing....h2l

[Raquettedacker]

Great slide show Bart....   

[FrankM]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[SeanP]

Thanks for sharing!!!! I need to take some time off!!!

[filetandrelease]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

X2

[fishnmachine]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

X3

[bart]

Awesome trip for sure, thanks for sharing!

[taxid]

A lot of public land out there. Hope it stays that way.

[paulyum1616]

very cool!, thanks for sharing

[Jim C.]

Great photography!  That brown at about the 4 minute mark is impressive.  Thanks for sharing!

[zwiggles]

Looks like a great trip, and thanks for sharing it with us!

[Dug1898]

Wow, you must have had a great time. Great photos Bart. Thanks for sharing your trip.

[Tom Hannock]

Thanks for sharing what looked like a spectacular trip Bart.  Montana is on my list as well.  I just got back from 4 days of fly fishing and sightseeing in the Colorado Rockies.  Drove from Denver to Vail on I-70 crossing the continental divide going through the Eisenhower tunnel which was really something.  The aspens were in full fall color which was something to see and the river I fished was full of beautiful browns and bows which were fun to watch and fish for in the low clear water.