Lake Mead Recreation Area

We don't have any new pictures from this weekend as we just relaxed around the house. The following are pictures from the Lake Mead area, near Las Vegas. We spent about a month there in the early spring. We boondocked (staying without hooking to utilities) in three different areas.

Interesting rock formations.

Sunset at Government Wash

View from the Government Wash dispersed camping area.

Looking out over the lake from Stewart's Point camping area.

View from our rig at Stewart's Point.

Rock layers show how low the lake is.

What a back yard!

Camping with some friends on the Overton Mesa.

View from the mesa in the late afternoon.

A different view from the Mesa

Gravelly Range

Today, we took a ride on the Gravelly Range, which is in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. We drove about 60 miles on forest roads, which are gravel. Some sections were quite good, and others were definitely for high clearance vehicles. We wondered a couple of times if we might have to turn around if the road deteriorated further, but we made it through. The road elevation varied from 7000 to 9600 feet. Another wonderful ride.

The road ahead, disappearing over the next hill. (On the left side of the picture.)

The view back down to the valley and the next mountain range.

Two ranch hands keeping watch over a herd in Clover Meadow. The national forest allows ranchers to graze cattle on the land.

Wolverine Basin.

Rolling meadows above the tree line.

A rain storm in the distance.

Looks like a jigsaw puzzle picture.

A sampling of the thousands of butterflies out on this beautiful sunny day.

A high mountain creek. The water is crystal clear.

Gallatin National Forest Plateau Road

Today, we explored a dirt National Forest Road, south of West Yellowstone. The only animals we saw were a Yellow bellied Marmot, a few birds and many, many butterflies. The marmot was friendly and as curious of us as we were of it. It seemed to love to pose for the camera. We had our breakfast there as he munched on the flowers and sunned himself. We were on the road for 25 miles and never encountered another vehicle. It was nice and peaceful. When we stopped to take pictures, we could hear no other human sounds.
Here are a few of the 153 pictures we took today, here and at Sawtell Peak.

Sawtell Peak

In the afternoon, we drove up to Sawtell Peak, ID in the Targhee National Forest. From the main road we climbed over 3400 feet on a narrow gravel road to the 9900' peak. There is a FAA radar facility at the top. We walked around at the top and enjoyed a 360 degree view. The wildflowers were abundant all the way to the top, as were the bees and butterflies. It was nice being above the tree line, where the wildflowers are small and close to the ground. Not much else grows there.

Trip to Virginia City

We saw these mountain goats along the road near Quake Lake, MT last weekend. We were on our way to Virginia City, MT where we spent several hours walking around town. They have a large number of late 1800's artifacts. Some stores when you look through the windows, look exactly like they did back then. Main Street was paved, but the sidewalks are still wooden and boot hill is just a short walk from town.