953 June 11, 2023 Salmon River

I went for my walk on the dirt road. I had told Tim that I was going to stay in view of the RV because of our remote location. I got out there and felt good and decided to keep walking to the end of the road at the organized campground. The campground was empty and I began to do loops. I soon heard a car. It was Tim who had seen me walk into the woods thirty minutes before. He had been waiting for me to emerge and when I didn’t, he came to find me. I won’t do that again!! I did take a whistle…thank you Vicki!

It took us a little while to manuever the RV out of our site. There was a pretty decent dip at the entrance and Tim had to drive thoughtfully and gently to get us out!

Soon, we were on our way. As we drove through the valley, we saw lots of pronghorns. We even saw a mama with a tiny newborn. The baby was only about a foot tall and was walking on weak and wobbly legs…too cute!!

We also saw ground squirrels scampering across the road and pairs of sandhill cranes.

Our ride today took us along the Salmon River. This river actualy begins in the valley where we spent the night. The river is mostly snowmelt. The force of the moving water was incredible and as we traveled it gained breadth and speed. The scenery was dramatic. This river sits in the deepest gorge in the United States; even deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Sockeye salmon do come here to spawn. It is hard to imagine the that the fish are able to come this far inland. They make a 900 mile journey from the Pacific Ocean at the Columbia River in Oregon. They continue to the Snake River and then return here to the place of their birth to perpetuate the species.

We stopped to watch skilled kayakers negotiating the swiftly moving current.

More pretty pictures!

This afternoon we had lots of clouds and then some rain. It was nice to finally settle at the Sula Country Store and Resort in Sula, Montana. We will make our way further north tomorrow.

Today’s drive was spectacular!