A Trip to the Bison Range with Grandma Dorothy
Springtime at its Best in Western Montana
June, 2013
Click on any image for a larger view;
Contact garya at this domain if you would like the high quality image for printing
One of Dona's mother Dorothy's favorite things to do is to tour the
National Bison Range in the springtime.
Since it's only an hour or so from where she lives in Missoula,
we took her up for a visit on a fine spring day.
There is a nice loop drive that winds through the area and climbs up
to where there is a great view.
After checking in at the Visitor's Center to see if there was anything new on the menu,
we headed out on the loop.
In short order we came upon ... guess what? Bison.
It's a small herd, but it's always a treat to see them.
 |
| Bison at Home on the Bison Range |
We took our time, checking the creek bottoms for birds.
The day was filled with bird song;
I wish I could identify more than a few of them.
We came upon a Bullock's Oriole,
a species we hadn't seen before.
 |
 |
 |
| Meadowlark |
Spotted Towhee |
Eastern Kingbird |
 |
 |
| Nesting |
Swallow |
The bison bulls were fat and lazy,
but the mothers were busy tending their calves,
who were enjoying running around.
 |
| Bison |
There were wildflowers popping out everywhere,
and we even found some bitterroot,
the state flower of Montana.
I had never seen them in their natural habitat before.
They are a fitting choice, beauty-wise, for a state flower,
although not as widespread as one might wish.
But that makes seeing one all that more special.
 |
 |
 |
| Lupine |
Arrowleaf Balsamroot |
Yarrow |
 |
| Looking across to the Mission Mountains |
At the end of our loop we came across some pronghorns.
They were pretty scruffy looking,
in the process of shedding out their winter coats.
On the way home we stopped at one of Dorothy's favorite place for dinner,
the Buck Snort Restaurant
in Arlee.
It was yummy!
Unfortunately, I was using a legacy lens and forgot to change the
image stabilization parameter from the 600mm lens I was using earlier for wildlife shots
to the 28mm one, so the picture below has a lot of image-stabilization-introduced blur.
Amazing what some sharpening will do to it, though...
 |
| Dorothy and Dona at Dinner |
