Red Ants Pants festival - Summer 2015

From Summer 2015

What can one say about the Red Ants Pants Festival? It is a joyous, beautiful time. There is so much great music and camaraderie. I met so many great people here! 

I decided to camp this year, great decision! It was the biggest sleepover I've ever been to, and included late night jam sessions of my favorite bands!

Meeting Kass was great! Not just because of her warmth and enthusiasm, but now she is a great member of my camp staff!

I love that children can run around and do their own thing at the festival grounds. 

The sunsets are incredible!

Lil' Smokies!

Taylor Fork - summer 2015

From summer of 2015! 

Not far from Big Sky is some of the greatest camping I've ever experienced!

This is the best free campsite ever!

Dinner time

Organizing my huge amounts of non perishable foods in my car.

Early morning view from my car.

Crazy Mountain photos - Summer 2015

From Summer 2015

It isn't just that these are crazy awesome photos of mountains, this area is actually called the Crazy Mountains. This was my first solo backpacking trip, and for the most part I loved it, except that I got really sick and stayed in my tent for two days. I didn't go as far as I would have liked, and I was very appreciative of my kindle with a couple books on it, but all in all I think solo backpacking is pretty neat!

I was very sick and only made less miserable by the amazing scenery

I made it back!

Hyalite Peak

I had heard good things about Hyalite Peak and I was glad I did, it was very beautiful. Chris and I headed out early in the morning from a very full parking lot, but aside from the trail runners and hikers checking out the nearby falls the trail was pretty sparsely populated considering how close the trail is to Bozeman.  I hope to bring any visitors on this hike!

There were waterfalls lining the trail most the way up.

From behind the falls.

Pretty nice lunch view.

The lake near our campsite.

We crossed a couple snow fields.

We made it!

Back to Montana!

I certainly missed the cooler, and certainly drier weather, the big sky (lower case) and the mountains of Montana.  Oh yeah, and the lack of people in general. I was fortunate enough to have a friend pick me up from the airport and whisk me away so that night I could camp in the beautiful Bridger Mountains.  We easily found a free camp spot along the road leading up to Fairy Lake and the next day hiked around said lake.

This is a scene that I'm happy to wake up to in the morning.

Another thing Leo loves is chasing sticks, he's not so much into the scenery as he likes to get into the scenery.

But for all of us humans, look how gorgeous the lake is!

We found a different but also great free camp spot the next night and made a delicious meal of gnocchi with a red sauce, had a fire and were only moderately bothered by the flies.  Well I guess that depends on who you ask.

Leo found our campsite to be restful too.  This dog is a great camping companion.  He virtually never barks unless someone or something suddenly comes up and surprises him.  Which in bear country is nice.  Luckily he only barked once on the trail and it was a trail runner.  No bears in sight.

The next day we decided for a slightly more strenuous day and we found Ross Pass to sound like a nice hike. So we drove up the gravel/mud mountain road about as far as we could then hiked to the pass.  The weather was fickle.  At one point we were sure there was a storm (there was thunder and all) so we stayed right by the truck to eat lunch, but by the time we were done it the skies were blue. So we headed out. 

Leo makes a good model.  This is the flowery meadow where we ate lunch.

My sister gave me this pack as a last minute carry on piece of luggage, I was happy for it the next couple days so I could have a backpack on our hikes.

Up the hill.