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.