Missoula
Rock Creek
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Jellystone Park, Missoula |
Yum!!! |
Huckleberry Ice cream |
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Lisa won!!! |
Holland Lake |
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Beautiful flowers everywhere! |
Island House |
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Log Homes |
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Mountain goat |
Microburst damage |
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Brown trout |
14 inch Brown Trout |
The trips around Missoula were varied, we fished for trout, took a tour of the mountains with friends we met in Arizona two winters ago and just played in the campground. Missoula was the first large city that we had been in since leaving Texas; it was nice to have shopping access for any product.
Mike and I fished in Rock Creek, just east of Missoula. The name is not fitting since it was much bigger than the Ruby River that we fished in around Alder, MT. It contained mostly Brown Trout, but we did catch a few Rainbow Trout. The river was easy to wade, it just took an 11 mile ride up a gravel road to get to our favorite place.
We took a tour of the area with Frank and Marilyn Rose, friends we met in AZ. They both grew up in Montana and had lots of family heritage to show us during the trip. One of the very popular lodges that is currently used for weddings was built by Marilyn's Aunt in 1931. We visited her son's home up in the mountains that has a most amazing view of the valley that spreads out below his home. They have one son that builds the log homes shown above and another son that works for the Forest Service.
The picture that is labeled 'Microburst' is a shot of the damage made by a weather phenomenom call a microburst. A microburst is when a thunderstorm matures and for some reason dumps all the water and associated winds out of the bottom of the cloud all at one time. This effect was increased by the shape of the mountains where it happened; the picture does not show it clearly, but the shape of the mountain is a bowl and all the winds just rolled down the mountain knocking over all the trees. The winds were estimated at 150 mph. This happened in 1989 and the trees have just begun to regrow.