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I was up and around at first light and drove the couple of miles over to Artist Point. Artist Point is probably one of the most photographed places in the park With the early morning light, the colors of its volcanic beginning are spectacular, the reds and yellows and blues can be astonishing as the light moves around in the canyon which the Snake River flows through.

I spent a couple of hours there, and then headed on to Norris Campground some 19 miles along the southern end of the northern loop of the park. The northern loop is my favorite section in the park. There you seem to find much more wildlife than the southernmost loop, which contains most of the paint pots, geysers, and the Fire River. It is a twisty two-lane road, but you never know what you are going to find, so putting along is the call of the day. I wouldn't be disappointed either. I hadn't gone to far when I stumbled on to some cow elk grazing alongside the road in an old part of the burn from the 1988 forest fire, and not much further along I found some buffalo swimming the river, which was kind of an oddity in itself.

I finally arrived at Norris Campground around noon, set up camp and had a chat with the park ranger, who informed me they had 19 vacancies the night before, which royally pissed me off, since the manager at the Canyon Inn had lied to me about any campground vacancies. I will take that bit of info back to the Canyon Inn when I return. The park ranger also informed me that a coyote den with 8 pups was but afew miles away, so in late afternoon I set out to find them. I waited until near dark, but the pups never appeared so I headed back to camp and called it a day.

Today I woke up with the sun, made a quick cup of coffee and headed back over to the coyote den; hopefully I would get lucky this morning and manage a peak at the little rascals. By 7 A.M. I was back to the den location and had my tripod and camera set up to once again begin the wait. When I arrived there were several other photographers there also waiting for the pups to show themselves, and they informed me that the mother coyote had just left on a hunting trip, so she should return soon to feed the pups.

Moments later the pups came out of the den, I guess they were more worried about getting in a little play time than to be afraid of us photographers set up across the road.

I spent an hour or two watching the pups, and then headed on up the north loop of the park headed toward Gardner and the north gate to check my e-mail, since there was no computer access within the park. I hadn't gone far and there was mother coyote hunting Lemmings for breakfast. Lemmings are a small little rodent that coyotes think are a culinary delicacy and hunt them frequently.

After leaving the coyote family I hadn't driven to far and on the side hill above the road was a black bear, angling across the hill and down toward the creek, after doing a little figuring I took a shot at where I thought he would hit the creek and drove up just past that point and waited. I had barely got my tripod out and set up and the bear appeared, not in the creek but he crossed the creek and the road and headed up a little ridge just afew yards from where I was set up, he paused for a moment then darted over the ridge and was gone.

The balance of the morning came up empty wildlife wise except for watching a condor sitting on a nest across the Snake River high up on a cliff. I took a break there for a bit then proceeded on to the north gate and Gardner to eat lunch and check the mail. I spent most of the afternoon in Gardner, since nothing of consequence was going to happen until evening when the sun begins to set, and the animals begin there evening foraging for food.

I left Gardner about 5 P.M. and headed back up the steep twisty road back into the park. It follows a little stream as it tumbles over bubbling rapids as it makes its way down the mountain to its junction with the Snake River.

As I came around a sharp corner across the stream was a group of mountain goat ewes with new lambs, one of which had a set of triplets, which is extremely rare, and brought some concern to a game warden which I encountered later in the day when I told him about it.

At this point after referencing my map, I had come about halfway around the north loop and if it was like last year a group of bull elk would be not to far away, so as I continued on I kept my eyes open. It was still early so most likely they would be bedded down and waiting for the coolness of the evening to get up and graze on the mountain grasses. I had hardly gone a mile or two, when under a tree I spotted one; he was a little farther up the road than last year, but not by much but finding a place to pull off the road was tough. I had to walk back nearly a quarter mile. As I was taking his picture to my surprise not 50 yards away was another larger bull partially concealed by a large tree. I didn't spend much time there, just long enough to take the pictures before I continued on.

The next hour or so proved to be uneventful and I had come to the conclusion that the rest of the day would prove uneventful, but as I was approaching the top of the pass on the tail end of northern loop there was what appeared to be a traffic jamb. I thought it was a wreck or something, but it wasn't. It was a grizzly bear sow with two cubs just up the hill. Due to the location, and the amount of people and cars it was impossible to stop, so the best I could do was change to a very large lens, roll the window down and snap a couple of shots and hope for the best. I was pleasantly surprised at the result. Although not perfect they come out reasonably good.

The rest of the day did prove uneventful and I returned to camp just as the sun was setting and I was tired, it had been a long day, so after fixing dinner and working on the pictures I had taken I was off to bed. Tomorrow I would leave the park and head on to Livingston Montana.

I never got started until nearly 1 P.M. I retraced part of my northern loop trip and exited the park through the north gate at Gardner on my destination for the day Great Falls Montana.

The road to Great Falls is a winding little two-lane road that leads through Livingston, and winds its way into the Belt and Little Belt Mountains. The countryside starts out as an arid high plateau mostly covered with grasses and Mesquite and is the home to many cattle ranches, hay farms and antelope. Along the way you will see many buildings and barns of years gone by, wildlife, and best of all hardly any traffic.

It was an uneventful day, and I was late getting to Great Falls, so I just camped out at Wal-Mart for the night, and did a little shopping. My radio had croaked so I replaced that with a new one, and restocked the grocery locker.

Today was a visiting day with my friends at the Great Falls fairground. The race meet was not to far off so spring training was underway, and many of the local trainers had been shuttling up to Lethbridge Canada to run, and they were having some success there.

Once upon a time long ago I had been a big fish in that little pond, and over the years my scrapbook had disappeared, so I would spend a little time rebuilding my scrapbook from the Great Falls Tribune Archives. I spent several hours over a couple days going through old microfilm, and was able to find some of it, and I would continue the search every time I come through there until I have it all.

Today again started at the fairgrounds for breakfast, then off to the track to visit a bit more, and take afew pictures. The fairgrounds barn area was now a disaster compared to what I had remembered from the years past. Then it was a shining star on the B. circuit of racing, the purses in the past were first rate, and the competition fierce. Now, with video poker racing in Montana is on its last legs, and is dying an ugly death.

It is such a shame, as Montana was the launching pad and training grounds for many of the nations premier Jockeys over the years. Jerry Lambert of Native Diver fame began there, Don and Larry Pierce, Russell Baze, Gary Stevens, Wendell Matt, and many more learned their trade on this half-miler circuit.

In the afternoon I needed to get the laundry done, so I took care of that chore, recharged the propane tank, and by 4 P.M. I was headed towards Glacier Park and the next leg of my journey. Hwy 2 heads west from just north of Great Falls and will ultimately wind up in Bonners Ferry Idaho, but along the way it skirts the edge of Glacier Park. It's a nice drive but on this day it started raining, and it was cold, so I decided to stop short of West Glacier and found a campsite at Summit Lake, which is about halfway between East and West Glacier. There was hardly anyone there, so with the rain, wind, and the distant howling of wolves it made sleeping a snap, and by 10 P.M. I was making Z's.

I made it to Glacier Park about 9 A.M. , but it was a bust. You could only drive into the park 13 miles, as the Going To The Sun Highway was closed and entry into Canada was not possible, so I would have to go around to Libby then north to Eureka and the crossing there.

Since today was one of those drizzly days again and I kind of had the blaahs, I decided to go exploring some. Hungry Horse Reservoir was nearby, and I had never been there so I headed up to the lake. A gravel road circles the lake, (103 miles) so there was a chance to maybe find some wildlife, and maybe catch a trout or two.

This little journey would prove to be a disaster almost. I had gotten about half way around, and decided I had gone far enough. I ran into a couple of guys that were up there from Missoula fishing, and we kind of hit it off so I just camped for the night, drank afew beers with the guys and once again attempted to get my computer to accept my web page backups. I had some success with that, but not totally. It is driving me up a wall as I can't do anything to the web page until I get the backups in or will loose the last years work.

I awoke early, just at daylight to a sunny day, finally made some coffee, and tore the trailer down to leave, Then I discovered it. I had managed to lock my keys in the car again. I had done this before, and it had required a locksmith to get me going again, but it would not be possible this time. It was Sunday, I was 50 miles from no where, and no cell phone….I was screwed.. I did have this sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach, but I didn't panic. I evaluated the situation, inventoried everything I had with me, tried to remember how they retrieved them before when a brainstorm hit me.

I knew a cloths hanger wouldn't work, as the hanger couldn't get hold of the latch, but I had a 22 cal cleaning rod, and my tackle box. I had some salmon hooks in there so I straightened one out some and duct taped it to the end of two sections of cleaning rod, pried the door open from the top with my trusty splitting axe, inserted the contraption. The hook was sharp enough to bite into the latch and held one little pull and it was open.

I got going almost immediately, scrapped the adventure trip and just turned around and headed back the way I had come, through Kalispell and on to my outfitter friends Lynn Howell between Libby and Kalispell. There I spent some time visiting, and catching up on the years events. I hit the sack late again, and I was to get up and help with the horses the next morning.