Disclaimer: Montana And Beyond covers a lot of territory! –The Warrens Our last minute decision to avoid Alaska meant that, except for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in October, we had no idea what we were going to do or where we would do it. I had to scramble. I managed to find a spot at Logan State Park in Kalispell, Montana for 4 days. But the big find was a 3 week spot on Flathead Lake! It involved, yup, Shiny Luck. I’ll tell you all about that in a bit. I would have loved to spend time in some of Idaho’s eye opening State Parks. I started to book a site at one Idaho State Pa ..read more

When I was a young boy my mom suffered from terrible migraines. She would shut herself in her bedroom with all the shades down and wait it out, sometimes for hours. If you lived in Wolfeboro, NH back in the 70’s, you almost certainly remember Rocky Batchelder. Rocky owned the Deep Six in Wolfeboro, which sold lobsters, steamers, fish and produce. He also had a Chiropractic office that was part of his home on Mirror Laker. My mom would go to Rocky for treatment to try to get some relief from her pain. While she was getting treatment, Rocky’s daughter, Debbie, and I would go play and swim on Roc ..read more

Hello Friends and Family! This episode takes us back to July of 2022 when Larry and I were making our way slowly through the Pacific Northwest. The word ‘slowly’ is not really accurate because if we really had been going slowly, we would still be there. It is such a beautiful and varied part of the world. I feel richer for having visited there. Our first stop on the way was at a Harvest Host location called Azebrasis Ranch II in Montesano, Washington. We spent three nights here, under a shady tree, waiting out the crowds of the fourth of July weekend. Our hosts had a great variety of vegetabl ..read more

Hi Everybody! Looks like we took a little snooze on our Blog writing. And it was an 11 month snooze at that! I guess we kind of lost our oomph. I have to admit that I have been distracted as well. After much prompting from friends, I have finally started to publish a quarterly magazine called Three Mirrors. You can learn more about it at Three-Mirrors.com. The magazine profiles my photography and prose. So, let’s see. In our last exciting episode last May, we were leaving Northern California and heading to Oregon. I’ve always wanted to go to the Pacific Northwest and it sure exceeded my expec ..read more

We left Crater Lake for Grants Pass and then south on Highway 199 into California, the northern tip of the so called Redwood Highway. We came here to see more of Mother Nature’s magic, the majestic redwood trees. I’ve always wanted to see these bad boys. Our home for 5 days was Panther Flat Campground, just north of a concentration of redwoods near Crescent City, California. It is a Forest Service campground located in Six Rivers National Forest. This shady, secluded, first come first serve campground with the Smith River running through it was spectacular. We had no trouble finding a nice sit ..read more

A quote attributed to Frank Zappa comes to mind when I think back to that trip down Hart Mountain. There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. One would think that after the dusty trip over the back roads of South Dakota in 2020 we would have learned some sort of a lesson. Apparently not. Once again we drove a good number of miles on a dusty dirt road with one of the overhead vents in Shiny opened just a crack. A Layer Of Dust Everywhere When we arrived at Harney County Fairgrounds and opened the door to Shiny we both nearly went to tears. A layer of ..read more

Virgin Valley To get to Virgin Valley, we had to go on route 140 for a long way. It’s such a remote area that Larry bought two gas cans to store in the back of the pick up in case we couldn’t get to a gas station in time. So, when I say this place is remote, I really mean it! There are not a lot of towns around. We headed to Virgin Valley Campground in Denio, Nevada in mid May of 2022. Virgin Valley is a part of the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge which is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Serivce. The refuge was founded in 1931 with the allocation of 572,896 acres of wildlife habitat in t ..read more

“I’ve Got a Pocket Full of Money and 14 Days“ Exclaimed a vacationing Californian in the site next to us here at Lower Lehman Creek Campground in Great Basin National Park when I asked him where he was headed. I loved his carefree attitude. It’s the same way we feel. The hell with the rising cost of travel, lets go see things. Which brings to mind another interaction with a Californian I had which was quite the opposite. We were at a private campground doing the usual, laundry, tanks, water, etc. There was a feller next to us in a giant bus having trouble with his inline water filter. I had a ..read more

In an earlier post, we were leaving Eastpoint, Florida and heading west to Arizona. On this trip we stayed at a variety of places from State Parks, to Harvest Hosts, to near a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Super Saturated Our first stop was a quick, overnight stay at Meaher State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama. After we set up camp, the thickest fog we have ever seen rolled in. The park is along the Mobile-Tensaw Delta which consists of approximately 20,323 acres of water and is the second largest delta in the contiguous US. You can see by the fog in the photo above how much water is a part of th ..read more

Parowan Gap Petroglyphs & BLM You may not know this about me, but I am really quite laissez-faire about our travel plans. I find this quite ironic because in many ways, I am pretty much a goal driven control nut. Larry is the brains and the heart behind most of our destinations. And, he knows I love petroglyphs. So, he really hit a home run in selecting these two locations. Parowan Gap Located in Iron County, Utah, Parowan Gap is a wind gap, an unusual geological landform marking where an ancient river has cut a 600-foot-deep notch through the Red Hills. The walls of the gap are covered wi ..read more