Week one in North Fork, Idaho.

So far our first week has provided us with a nice surprise, no forest fires.

First order of business is to take the Gibbonsville, Idaho dirt road of 26 miles over Big Hole Pass to Wisdom, Montana. Beautiful country, no animals.

This older Department of Agriculture sign is interesting. If the rain drops land on the left of the sign they end up in the Gulf of Mexico, if they land on the right side of the sign it will go to the Pacific Ocean.

Not wanting to get into a debate about "global warming" I will say that the forests of today throughout the west, are under attack from the deadly pine beetle. 30 or 40 years ago, locals will tell you just how cold the winters were compared to the last 10 or 15. These warmer winters have allowed the beetles to survive and multiply at an ever increasing rate. Seems like one out of every three trees is under distress.

Snake-rail fence is very common in the higher altitude meadows of Montana.

Seems everything in Montana is "big country"...☺

Here in Wisdom a local rancher named Jane bought the Hook and Horn last year, which is a mountain mercantile store. We saw the store right after Jane bought it and in the past year she has done a wonderful job of remodeling it. Besides hunting and fishing supplies, Jane has brought in "high-end" Indian and Western art, photography and even a small coffee corner with sweet treats. 

We see a lot of Bald Eagles in our adventures but rarely come across the Golden Eagles. Some folks think the Golden is much larger but that is just not true, both birds are of equal size. The Golden may have larger talons but the Bald has a much larger beak. We saw three different Golden Eagles in the 40 mile valley and we are sure of our identification. Although the head looks white in this photo is was really light brown. Another particular thing about the Golden is the way their feathers at the tip of the wings are like spread fingers.

South of Wisdom is Jackson, Montana which is at the most, a farming community. The Jackson Hot Springs Lodge did live up to it's name, the hot springs were 103.4 degrees this day.

Besides the beautiful woodwork that has been varnished over and over for the last 90 years were the animal mounts and stone fireplace with recent soot marks.

This 1/2 scale model of a beaverslide was at a historical view point on top of the road looking down at "Big Hole Valley". The beaverslide was invented in the 19th century as a way to make huge hay piles.

This scenic byway started about 20 miles south of Jackson and then went for about 50 miles thru the Pioneer Mountains to the Wise River in the north by following Polaris road.

The little community of Grasshopper Valley on the scenic byway was very pretty but winter might not be as hospitable. 

Not only is this some excellent fly fishing water but there has to be a moose or two down there, am I right or not?

Besides the excellent moose habitat we saw evidence of beavers nearby.

Unidentified flower pods on a dirt road going over the Skalkaho Pass road.

Montana State Highway 38 is a 40 mile dirt road that goes from the east side of the Bitterroot Mountains to Hamilton Montana in the west. An excellent road with always the chance of seeing a moose or bear...we missed both though.

This is the second time we have visited Skalkaho Falls but unfortunately due to bad timing on my part, both times were later in the afternoon when the sun misses these beautiful waterfalls.

This is enough for our first week...stay tuned for week 2.