Wildlife Vacations blog

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Montana Camping Posted On 2009-03-30 , 1:08 PM As we have mentioned before, both Chance and I spent some time in Montana in our youth. One of the great things about Montana is how one can drive just a short distance to get away from civilization. Hyalite Canyon, which we have written about previously, is one of these great areas to get out and do some hiking. On a larger level, however, it is possible, and often favorable, to go deeper into the wilderness on an overnight or weekend getaway. In high school, a group of friends and I went camping in an area known to us as “Thousand Lakes” near Big Sky, MT. While trying to find the exact location today and perhaps some nice pics on the Internet to remind me, I couldn’t find any area in the region with this name. Oh well, I was there and whatever the actual name of the place is, it was truly breathtaking. Our preparation for this event was quite extensive since we were going for the whole weekend. Also, this wasn’t a place you could just drive to, unload your gear, and set up camp. There was a trail in most places, however, and as it turned out, we needed horses to get to our final destination. Several miles deep in the wilderness, we finally came to our clearing. There were probably a dozen of us on this camping trip and we all had our tents set up and gear unpacked in no time. Soon we set out for firewood and a chance to explore our home for the next two days. This place was amazing. There were several little lakes in the area and, determined to defy death as teenagers do so well, we found a perfect cliff high above one of them for some cliff-jumping. For those of you who may not be aware of this activity, it is very similar to bridge-jumping into rivers from old, rusty bridges on remote dirt country roads, only you are jumping into a lake, not a river that varies in it’s shallowness. As the afternoon wore on, we fished, hiked, sunbathed, etc… in the most beautiful environment that we all took for granted at the time. Now, living in Nevada, I would love to go back and find that exact spot again and take the time to truly appreciate it. The fresh mountain air mingling with the smell of the trees was absolutely refreshing. The sun filtering down to the earth felt phenomenal. If you sat still and listened, you could hear birds singing and chipmunks chirping, even fish splashing. Little streams babbled contentedly over the stones in the creek beds. It was paradise. The sad part comes when it is time to pack up and return to civilization – return to our busy, can’t stop for a minute lives. But, you can always go back eventually if you want to.
So busy Posted On 2009-02-05 , 8:36 PM Hello again. It's been awhile since we have done much on here. It's been so busy around here the last few months some things have kind of been neglected for a bit. It's been pretty frozen around here too though, so there hasn't been much going on in the way of wildlife. Maybe we should do some ice fishing. Well, for now, here are some great pictures sent to us by our friends in Alaska. These are some Kodiak bears. The pictures were taken on a fishing trip on Kodiak island. Enjoy.
Bored Orangutan Posted On 2008-11-13 , 7:14 PM It's been a while since we added to our blog. The weather here, among other things, has kept us from doing much. We were in Salt Lake City recently though. We like to visit the zoo when we are there and we did so this time. It had started to snow a little bit so many of the animals were in their shelters. This also meant we had the zoo mostly to ourselves. This led to some fun we may not have had otherwise with a bored juvenile Orangutan. The Orangutans were also hanging out indoors today. There were four Orangutans. Two of them were the parents of the youngest Orangutan in the area. The mother and father Orangutan were lazily eating and dozing off. The youngest Orangutan wanted to play. She harassed her father for a few minutes but he was ignoring her. When she spotted us, she ran over and picked up a cloth toy she had and tried to offer it to us. She was behind the glass of the enclosure though so this didn't work. The young Orangutan then started making faces through the glass. She rolled her eyes, stuck out her tongue etc. She would also turn her back to the glass, then turn her head and look and make faces or stand on one leg and look between her legs and make faces. This went on for a little while. With almost no one else in the zoo, the young Orangutan continued to put on a show until we moved on to another area. We visited the many other exhibits at the Utah Hogle Zoo. On our way back, we were passing near the Orangutan area again. We decided to stop in and see how the young Orangutan was doing. When we came in, the adults were all sleeping, the juvenile Orangutan was sitting in some hay eating. Once she saw us, she came over to the glass again and put her hands up on the glass. She would leave her hands there until someone put their hands up, then she would kind of slap at their hands like she was giving a high five. She also went back to making faces and making herself the star of her own Orangutan show. We had to go eventually, its a bit of a drive back to Nevada. We had fun though, and it seemed, so did at least one Orangutan.
Marlin fishing in Mexico Posted On 2008-10-05 , 3:03 PM Several years ago, a group of friends and I went to Mazatlan, Mexico for spring break. Besides lots of drinking and lying on the beach, we wanted to go Marlin fishing while we were there. We found a charter service who did fishing trips, including Marlin fishing. We were told that the best Marlin fishing in the area was usually a bit later in the year but we wanted to go anyway. Almost everything in Mexico is negotiable. We got the initial price reduced and a few cases of beer included on both boats. We were ready for a full day of Marlin fishing. The morning of our Marlin fishing trip started early, too early for a bunch of college kids who had been drinking for a few days. Somehow everyone got up and ready to go. We caught a cab (the cabs in Mazatlan are an adventure by themselves) to the dock where we paid for our Marlin fishing trip. There were ten of us so we were split up onto two boats. The actual Marlin fishing didn't start right away. They took us quite a bit out into the ocean before we really got started Marlin fishing. Once they got far enough out, they looked for flocks of sea birds feeding. We would then troll around the edges of the areas where the birds were feeding. After just a little bit, one of the lines took off and my brother landed a tuna that was probably around 15 lbs. A while later, another friend landed another tuna about the same size. Then the Marlin fishing really got fun. A line took off and it was obvious very quickly that is was something much larger than the two tuna. Then the Blue Marlin broke the surface and danced across the water. They are incredible fish. We took turns fighting the Marlin for about 45 minutes before finally getting it in the boat. It was a great experience, though I think I will have to get in better shape before I go Marlin fishing again. Our Marlin fishing trip continued for several more hours but it was already a huge success to us. We returned to the dock and were told that we had caught the first Marlin of the year. I know Marlin get much bigger than ours but I don't think that would change how much fun we had.
Return to Lamoille Canyon Posted On 2008-09-03 , 8:24 PM On August 25, we made our way from Elko to Lamoille Canyon for a short hike. It was a lovely late summer day and the farther out of Elko we got, the temperature became more and more bearable. The drive was still beautiful and breathtaking; however the wildflowers and waterfalls were fewer and farther between than they had been on previous visits. At the trailhead, we had the option of taking a relatively flat two mile trail heading back the way we came, or one longer trail that, if followed all the way through, would lead you on a week long trek through the mountain passes. We wanted to see one lake in particular, Lamoille Lake, which is two miles in on the longer trail. The trail going up the base of the Ruby Mountains at this particular point was surprisingly steep and hard going in places. However, there was an invigorating mountain breeze sweeping by and keeping us cool. As the sunlight filtered through the trees and plant life, it mingled with the shade, making the day even more perfect. Several times, we could hear movement but failed to see any scurrying wildlife. The closer we got to the top of the ridge, the more outstanding the view. At one point we could see where we had parked our car and began and it was amazing to see how far we had come. Just as we were beginning to wonder if we were even getting close, we arrived at the two smaller lakes preceding Lamoille Lake. These two small shimmering lakes, named the Dollar lakes, are really more like large ponds and appear to be perfectly round. As we passed by them, we saw many ducks feeding and playing in the water. I tried to capture their antics with the camera but it didn't turn out as well as I had expected. I have posted the picture which still shows the area even if it is a little blurry. The sun appeared to be ready to set and we still had to hike back down the mountain so we decided to call it a day. We didn’t get to see Lamoille Lake but still got to see some spectacular views. Just as we turned around and headed back, we saw a young deer come out of the brush. She walked toward us a bit and even stopped and studied us before trotting off into the forest. We tried to take pictures quickly but they just didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. Even though there were plenty of sore muscles to go around the next day, we are excited about going back and hiking even further into the mountains (hopefully with a better camera). This will probably have to wait until at least late next spring or early summer. The canyon is only accessible 4-5 months out of the year and time is rapidly running out this year. There have been comments posted about this blog entry. To view, click on the title of this blog entry.
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