Bugs, Blossoms, and Bears

The view from our "suite"

FRIDAY!!! Time to go outside and play! We loaded up the machines and the camping gear and made haste for the Pryors. Before we were even unloaded, I was noticing the blooms on the cacti. They were everywhere! Because we got off to a late start, it was afternoon by the time we got our campsite picked out and set up. So we made dinner and then set out on an evening drive.

Surveying the surroundings

The plan was to check out the road to the west side of the mountains and see if the snow had melted yet. It had, so we continued. BUT... melting snow becomes water, and water turns solid ground into mud! Dan was partway through a major mud-hole when the machine bottomed out in knee-deep muck. Despite his best efforts, he was stuck! He managed to jump off of the machine to mostly-solid ground and linked a chain between us. I pulled him free and we went out around the bog and out of the mosquito family reunion. Shortly thereafter, we came to a Y in the road. We decided to save the western side for morning and loop back up over the top and back down to camp. We made the short-but-steep ascent to the upper meadow, and that was when Dan saw the black bear sow and two (maybe even three) cubs. I, however, had stopped to shift out of low gear and did not see them. Realizing that Dan had the camera out, I hurried to catch up. We cautiously gave chase, but Mama Bear was not hanging around for introductions. So we went back to the machines and returned to camp. It was too windy for a fire, so we sat in our camp chairs and watched the lightning in a storm off to the east. 

The tiny black dots on the rock are bears. Trust me. 

I awoke early on Saturday morning (the air mattress definitely has a leak), so by 8 am, we were packed up and back on the trail. We made it uneventfully through the bog and continued west through pine forests and meadows full of purple and yellow flowers. There was not a cloud in the sky, and we could see Bridger 20 miles away in the valley below and the Beartooth/Absaroka mountain range even further away to the west. We sat and soaked up the sun and the view while we ate our lunch. We then descended to the valley floor and back to the truck. We debated taking one more ride, but I was very glad later that we did not, as a major thunderstorm hit Laurel not long after we got home. Oh well, it washed some of the mud off of the machines. Until next time, anyway...

Coolest puffball ever!

These huge bugs were starting to freak me out a little bit until this one landed on my leg
while we were eating supper. It just sat and stared at me like a tiny puppy begging for a treat.