Montana to Utah

Every year as fire season come to a close, we are laid off & kicked back out into the world. After 6 months of being told exactly when & where to be nearly every second, it’s like a breath of fresh air. Trust me, I fully enjoy my job & the structure/sense of purpose that comes with it, but being able to dance around the country has also been a passion of mine.

And as October approaches, I get more & more excited for the upcoming off-season. See the thing about fire is that we work incredibly hard for 6 months straight & make a full year’s salary in that time. So we come out with nice chunks of change to survive the winter months comfortably. Some go find another seasonal job to keep them occupied, others travel & go for a more carefree approach. This year, I opted for the latter.

To begin the journey, I headed for Utah.

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Caroline sits high over Lemhi Valley in northern Idaho on her perch.

Look at those gorgeous boxy lines of goodness.

Diamond Peak sits looking down on Lemhi Valley in the Targhee National Forest, Idaho.

Turbines churn as the wind blows near Idaho Falls, ID.

A farmer plows his field beneath a wind turbine near Idaho Falls, ID.

The quintessential southern Idaho in a photo. Tractors, cattle & renewable energy.

A cow stands blocking the road in a remote stretch of Idaho. I opted to take a bone-shattering dirt road that took me through gorgeous countryside. Ironically, passing through the "town" of Bone.

Last day's light catches a ridge just north of the Blackfoot Reservoir.

In the tiny town of Monteplier, ID, I discovered the largest & most illuminated letter on a hill behind the town I'd seen in my whole life. And even caught the full moon!

A view of the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, which totals more than 200,000 acres of land & water.

Highway 44 snakes its way through Sheep Creek bordering the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, northern Utah.

View of Red Canyon in the Ashley National Forest.

Fun little sign about the sheer size & impressive nature of Red Canyon. The views were truly magnificent.

Watch out for the children, folks.

A large prescribed burn taking place above Red Canyon on the Ashley National Forest.

Along the way, I happened across a beautiful grove of Aspens. Almost didn't stop, but I sure am glad I did. The Aspen Nature Trail in the Ashley NF treated me well!

Caroline fits right in among the changing colors featuring an aspen-y shade of off-white.

Aspen leaves changing right at the turn of Autumn.

A lone aspen stands majestic against crisp blue skies.

Aspen leaves litter the ground along the pathway.

The path leads through the aspen grove to a small beaver pond, long since abandoned by the critters.

Stacked & neatly trimmed logs comprise the downhill side of the pond, thanks to the beavers.

The aspen’s majestic white pops nicely against the colors of fall.

Nothing better than aspen in the fall.

This cabin doesn’t look like much but it used to be the home of the badass Josie Morris, who homesteaded here almost her whole life by herself in what’s now Dinosaur National Monument.

An interior view of the Josie Morris cabin.

The entrance to Hog Canyon where Josie Morris kept cattle and, you guessed it, pigs.

Back in the days of old, it was fairly simple to just find a nice canyon with water & plenty of grass, build one fence at the entrance & wulah! instant pasture. Far less effort.

A caterpillar crawls calmly across a branch that found itself draped across a section of the trail.

From a high vista back in Hog Canyon, you can see the river valley below & miles of country beyond.

A pocket in the rock provides a lovely view of Hog Canyon from above.

Found this little rock sculpture in the depths of Hog Canyon, looked like a tiny village chiseled into the rock.

The sun sets behind a rock formation in the national monument.

As the suns rays got softer, the rocks took on a breath-taking orange glow.

After poking around in Dinosaur NM, I high-tailed it to Moab, where friends awaited to rock climb & mountain bike.