Middle Fork CG

About a 4 hr drive from Mt. Rushmore, we picked this site in the Big Horn mountains simply because it was on the way to Yellowstone. There’s a beautiful stream behind the van and Rosie in this picture….

You can see the Volvo in the next campsite and our dog run on the left. The problem here was the weather, cold and rain. We spent two nights here. Will and the girls scrambled up rocks above to get a view of snow capped mountains late in the afternoon we arrived. We spent the next day hiking up Cloud Peak wilderness. But not before we helped a family of tourist from Japan navigate their way out of the national forest dirt road. They were in a rented RV and had ventured up this road and eventually found themselves unable to turn around. Finally they got stuck in a low, muddy spot. After some campers with a pickup pulled them out they sat there unsure what to do next. We offered to help direct them out using a small pull out. The husband was driving and obviously had never driven an RV before, maybe not a car before from his performance. He also spoke only broken English. His wife in the seat beside him had a look of utter terror on her face.

The hike, once we eventually got going, was our first encounter with snow, and tons of mosquitoes….

Will spotted a moose about 60 or 70 yards from the trail. Our stopping to look made her nervous, as she stood to walk away we saw she had a calf laying with her. Walked out in a hail/sleet/rain storm.

Saw two Barrow’s Goldeneyes on a high mountain lake, and earlier in the day I heard two other life birds which I didn’t record because I didn’t see them, Dusky and Hammond’s Flycatchers. Packed up on 6/23 and headed for Yellowstone.