New York Steak and Berry Pie?

Our lives are somewhat centered around food here. Not necessarily for us, but for our guests. Here's a steak ready to go along with broccoli and rice pilaf. Craig grills hundreds of pounds it seems of the most delicious steaks! New York, filet, rib...then there's the halibut, salmon and shrimp. Good stuff!






"Summer Delight" pie~ strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, marionberries, a few huckleberries, and spritz of lime juice and a pinch of zest. Lerrina had made some awesome tasting berry sauce a few days before which I was copying. The addition of strawberries to a typical blue, black,and raspberry blend softened it and added such yumminess. People like this one! I took a picture of the inside, but as the picture looks reminds me of what you'd see if you had a successful hunt and were gutting out your game, I thought a picture of the top would be adequate!

Hiking, Fishing...No Reading, and Dusty Roads

Have you ever had a day that just wasn't coming together? Tuesday was like that for me. I was supposed to go to Dillon to get my MT driver's license, but that wasn't working out for one reason and another. I didn't know what to do.
I ended up hiking in places I'd never been, getting some new flower pics, and revisiting some old places. I've never descended over the left side of the rocky point, nor have I taken pictures of glacier lilies, nor stepped into the waters of Henry's Lake. There's always something new to do here! It's big country.




A small picture, I know, but this is the top of a little hogback ridge that swoops upward to it's end which is a pile of big boulders baking in the sun. It's great!




Descending from the point~ Thankfully there was trail at the bottom in a green little valley.









Contented cows by the north end of the lake. See the greens here!














Knee-deep in green grass with the water of Red Rock Creek sliding by, willows shading the curving banks, a good book in my hand.





A few hours later I was wading in the just-right waters of Henry's Lake, and riding the dusty old roads of the Centennial Valley. This is a not a bad place to have a day off.

Montana's Jewelry

Elk Lake is beautiful as you scan miles of country at a single glance. The soft dips, rocky ledges, trees like soft green lumps on a light soft green carpet of grass are the things that you see from the hillsides and trails. But looking closer is a whole new world yet. This place is made up of so many different textures. By that I mean, the things you see when you look closer. When you lay down with your eyes inches away from the ground or run your hand along the rough and smooth bark of an aspen or sink down to the eye level of a flower. All of these little things make up the big picture and I love them just as much as the peaceful, broad vistas they create. Here are some of Montana's little jewels...



Indian paintbrush and wild chives















Bitterroot, state flower of Montana




Arrowleaf balsam root







unknown as of now =) If you know, let me know!





Rose pussytoes (anntenaria)

Lewis and Clark

The trip to Dillon proved to be fun for many reasons, but one of them was that unexpectedly I came across some real Lewis and Clark sites. Now I say 'real' because I've always been almost where they were or close to where they were but never actually there. I was driving along totally enjoying the cows and hay fields when a historic site sign flew past my window. I pulled in and there I learned that the big rock beside the road was Beaver Head Rock. Apparently Clark had rushed to get there in time to purchase horses from the Shoshone for crossing the Rockies. The rock is an obvious landmark and was used by the Indians for that reason.


Once in Dillon I turned off onto old Hwy 91 for no reason other than the car in front of me did, and found a spot called Clark's Lookout State Park. It sits right under several homes. A road, called Lover's Leap taking off from the one I came in on, runs under it on the bluff side. The bluff isn't that tall. A little higher than the rock we jump off of down by the bridge. In other words, it's not a 'big deal'. It just sits there, perfectly accessible and hardly differentiated from the rest of the landscape. I loved it. Clark stood up there on the 14th, so 6 days after they're meeting with the Shoshone at Beaver Head Rock I took pictures of past Twin Bridges.

Trip to Dillon

Yesterday beging my day off, I decided on a trip to Dillon. So, packing my backpack full of stuff and throughing a cooler in the back for groceries, I took off on the somewhat wet road. Actually in three places the water is running across the road and has actually cut some fairly deep channels. At least they seem fairly deep when I'm about to go through them with my little car. But the old Honda did fine...of course!




I took off up Hwy 278 through Ennis (stopped for another Maydak illustrated book), Virginia City (this picture), Nevada City (Star Bakery stop), Alder (no stops), Sheridan (museum stop-LOVED it and a fabulous little art and frame shop with tons of WW2 paintings), Twin Bridges (stopped outside of at a Lewis and Clark sight), then finally Dillon. Dillon was fun! I stopped in at the Chamber of Commerce where I found out enough to keep me busy for the afternoon.

First I went to Sweetwater Coffee. That was a super experience...nice staff, beautiful interior, very cozy. They food was great! FYI, the don't take visa. After a lunch of turkey cranberry sandwich and peach iced tea, I meandered across the street to Wildwood Floral. It's beautiful in there, and I got some painting ideas. She's got many cute gifts and flowers. Her husband hunts in the Centennial, and that was a fun topic to talk about. I always like to find someone else who enjoys this place! She recommended a place called Roxie's Nursery for bedding plants so off I went.


The rain began POURING down. I was talking on the phone and had to get off because I couldn't hear! Anyway, I finally found the nursery. It's a bit like Garland in Corvallis but smaller. The staff were all huddled in this tiny shack talking about having to use an umbrella once! The matriarch was describing using an umbrella to the grinning audience. No other nut cases were out shopping for flowers except me and the grinning group thought I was crazy, but I explained I live a long ways away, and I had to get flowers rain or no rain, now or not at all! They laughed and sent me off with my discounted verbena.



My only other noteworthy stop on the way home was the candy shop in Virginia City. This is another 'must stop' place! Loved it!

Bike Ride

I took a bike ride yesterday out to the mailbox to mail a postcard and letter. If your name is Laura or Grandma, you'll recieve one! Anyway, during the five-mile ride out I saw some of the prettiest sights! It's always pretty out here and I never cease to enjoy the beauty of it. The clouds were blowing in with the whipping wind which was also making the flowers bow up and down along the white road. I hit this sandy part in the road and it almost unseated me. It grabs you and pushes your tires around so that the tire tracks behind you look like a drunken sailor came careening through. The mail safely placed in the mailbox, I took off down Red Rock Road toward the refuge. There's some old buildings and corrals along the road down there. There I sat underneath the aging cattle shoot, marveling at the peacefulness of it all. As I turned around to leave, I saw a fox almost float across the road. I've never seen one before! They sure move quickly! I road home to the squeaking reproach of the little sage rats who felt indignation at my presence. They're everywhere!

A Splendid Day

The day before yesterday Bo and I went on the biggest solo hike yet. We left around 1 or 2 and got back after 7. We ended up at Brimstone which will mean absolutely nothing to you unless you've been here. We walked up fencerows where I could see the mountains across the valley, sage under my feet, and land swooping out before my in all directions. The curving draws are the easiest to walk in, but I soon learned they're mesquito infested places of slow torture and before long we left the soft, grassy trail in favor of the scratchy sage 30 yards up to get away from them. The 1st picture shows where we came up out of the valley. There is a wide, wide, curving, high table with trees in the draw on the left, and then a draw on the right. We were on initially on top of the flat spot (where you can see it begins far off in the distance). Then we dropped down into the right draw where the mesquitoes took their bloody toll.



The 2nd picture shows the cabin in the little draw at the beginnings of Horse Creek. Hours down the creek the draw opens into the lake area. We 'found' and old cabin in a grassy swale at the beginning of Horse Creek. It was swarming with mesquitoes! Anyone living there would've been driven out of their mind! By the time we began the steep ascent up out of there my shoes were in my pack to relieve a growing blister.




The 3rd picture shows the gateway at the bottom of Horse Creek. Just the sight of that little valley curving its way into the hills has always made me want see it...just like a candybar wrapper makes me want to eat what's inside. That picture I took last night...storm light, isn't it cool! I didn't know there was a cabin up in there!


The hike was a great experience. I'd love to communicate it so that you could share the same joy, but the power of my pen isn't quite up to par. Just think soaring vistas of backlit buttery yellow flowers, green meadows, shimmering water miles below, a grassy old road bed curving around a hill high above a creek, and land that requires good lungs and strong muscles to see!

My fun little trip into Ennis last week saw me one book richer. It's called Salmon Stream and is illustrated by Michael Maydak; an artist who lives, at least for the summer, in Ennis. The pictures are richly colored and accurate while the writing is great too and avoids prejudiced wording. It's kept the attention of a young, energetic boy! Of course, he's so excited about reading right now that his interest isn't the best measure of the book, but I think I'll be shopping for more of these!

So...in addition to new porches, siding, additions, etc., there has been landscape projecting here at Elk Lake Resort. Oh, it's been great fun. We began with an old stone patio and piled up, grown-in rocks and weeds. Lerrina, Craig, and Tolly laid paving stones while Hannah and I worked on forming a flowerbed.

It's the Fourth!

Happy 4th of July! I was here last 4th of July too. It is becoming tradition. Our group is here and will be until Wednesday, so Lerrina and I made lots of food this morning: cheesecake; strawberry bread; mushroom, sausage, and egg strata; cornbread; and corn casserole. We served red, white and blueberry french toast with blueberry sauce and as well as Hashbrown Heaven.