Bob & Cindy's 2013 Travel Web Site
Central Montana
Wise River - Shadow Mountain Ranch - Paradise Valley
We left the cool climes of Colorado on Sunday, August 10th and drove to Boulder, WY ... did a quick overnight and then drove on to
Dillon, Mt ... also a quick overnight. Then a short hop to Wise River in the Pioneer Mountains. Still perfect weather
but beginning to warm up. After 3 nights at a wonderful spot by the river, we made our way to Wilsall, MT and then 10 miles
west of there to Shadow Mountain Ranch ... home to Mark & Joan Sinnard ... dear friends who happen to live in a wonderful
location (what a deal!). Cindy and Joan and a couple of other guests were going to ride horses into the Crazy Mountains, located
behind the ranch. After 3 enjoyable and relaxed days, we did a short drive to Paradise Valley where we are just going
to chill for three days before heading back toward Idaho. Pictures and details below.
Paradise Valley
Emigrant, MT
Shadow Mountain Ranch
The Sinnard's
These are the Pioneer Mountains, kind of an out of the way spot but very relaxing for us. The area is a big fly fishing spot, especially
along the Big Hole River.
A lot of open meadows, no wildflowers here,
The area is beginning to feel the effects of the pine beetle infestation. These trees are in the first year (dead but brown)
.. next year they will be gray (as many of the trees in the background are). Also, notice the slight smoke .. yep, there was
a fire that had just started over the next ridge.
Our camping spot on the Wise River. The camp fires felt good as the sun was setting.
Then we drove over to Shadow Mountain Ranch for the women to ride into the mountains. This is the morning after we arrived,
everyone is up and saddling up the horses to put them in the horse trailer.
Got to get that last sip of coffee to get started.
Bridger is patiently waiting, she knows she is going to have a long day on the trail.
Loading them up .. Abbey leads them in.
Radar (Abbey's horse) is not wanting to get inside that dark trailer.
So Abbey has to give Radar some "encouragement".
The fearsome foursome ... Cindy, Joan, Vanessa, and Abbey.
On the trail and headed up.
Taking a break ... then things got interesting when they got to the really high country.
This was the goal of the trail ride, a hidden lake in the high country over a very steep ridge.
Remember Cindy's "vertically challenged" statements?? Well, this was the part of the trail where she said "no way". Actually,
this picture was taken from a previous trip ... the group didn't make it this far. Just showing you that it was pretty scary
if you didn't trust gravity.
Joan, after the group got back to the house. Yep, they were a tired bunch of ladies but they did have a good time.
Thanks to Mark and Joan for another wonderful memory to add to our trip collection.
Then we went on down to Emigrant, Montana ... in the Paradise Valley. It's usually a quiet and peaceful place, but
this time we encountered fires on both sides of the valley. We were fortunate the first day as the wind was blowing out
of the west and we were in mostly smoke free air, but that changed. This is one of 4 fires, the Emigrant Fire ...
about 9 miles away.
So we did go down into Yellowstone, about 40 miles south, but the smoke was bad and they also had 4 fires in the park. In fact,
the day we were there, they temporarily closed the road through Hayden Valley due to smoke. We had a nice picnic, stayed
cool in the shade and avoided the crowds. This is a picture of Undine Falls ... nice spot.
Next stop, Teton Canyon, Idaho.
Hopefully we'll dodge the smoke and have some reasonable days. It's been abnormally hot in the day but night time temps have
been seasonable.