Getting out and doing some exploring

How's it going folks!  The snowboarding season has not started yet and I'm chomping at the bit!  I guess I got spoiled in Colorado when a lot of places opened up before Halloween.  Here in Montana I have to wait until after Thanksgiving.  

Well in order to pass the time.  I got my butt off of the couch and did some hiking and exploring yesterday.  I went into the Pryor Mountains south of Billings.  The landscape was wild.  During my trip I saw multi-colored quasi-desert areas.  I saw deep canyon lands and even some area that reminded me of my native Idaho.

Driving into the Pryors from the south west is interesting because of the abrupt transition from grassland to mountains.

Once I left the flat grassy areas, the topography of the land became a bit more interesting.

The first road I drove on was designated as a 4 wheel drive road.  I didn't feel like beating up my truck too much so I parked it and walked up the ridge.  I wanted to get some exercise anyway.

As a bonus I could really check out stuff with the binoculars and camera.  You cover more area driving but you miss a lot of stuff that you can easily investigate by walking.

Here is a picture of Red Lodge Mountain from near the top of Big Pryor Mt.  I think this picture was taken facing west (maybe a smidge north).

After my walk I did some more driving.  It kind of sucked because there were some more features I wanted to investigate but I wanted to "loop" the Pryors and was running out of daylight.  However, I couldn't resist pulling off the road and snapping a few pictures though.

Bored

Hey y'all how are things out there?  Up here in Montana we are kind of in the "dog days" of fall.  Not much is going on.  It is still hunting season but I haven't gone out much.  Compared to western Montana, the central part of the state has a lot of private land.  As a result the public lands are crawling with hunters.  I imagine in those areas the animals have high tailed it out of there.  If I did get an elk or a deer I would have to rent out some freezer space or something because we do not have a second freezer.

I went back home to visit with the folks and do some bird hunting a few weeks ago (deer and elk season hadn't opened yet).  As far as grouse hunting goes it was awesome!  I think I saw more birds on that visit than I had in a long time, probably since the time we lived in Idaho.  On the second day of hunting I shot my bag limit before lunch.  It's been a long time since I've done that.  It was so much fun I'm going to try to go back for some more bird hunting after I turn in final grades for the fall semester.

Our local ski hill hasn't opened up yet and there isn't quite enough snow yet to go cross country skiing. I tried fishing a few weeks ago and got skunked.  Sigh... I just gotta be patient before I know it the snow will be here and I'll be able to do some sliding down the mountain.  Maybe to pass the time I could bake a few of Grandma Prescott's fruitcakes.  I'll get some cherry brandy and soak them real good.

I hope all y'all are having a good time and are ready for the cold short days ahead.