Ficks Travels

or "A Princess Goes Camping"

Big Sky Resort and Red Cliff Campground

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We settled down for a week or so just outside of Big Sky, MT in the Red Cliff campground. This has to be one of the nicest, best kept Forest Service campgrounds we have found. The sites are large and well-spaced. I booked the reservation almost six months in advance and many were already taken.  If you are planning a trip out here, all of the sites next to the river are very large.  The Gallatin River and Big Sky resort were the main draws for this stop. This is a part of Montana that I have not seen in quite a while and was looking forward to rediscovering old haunts. As I mentioned earlier in the last post the first couple of days were spent focused on the truck.  After that all was good.

Gallatin River, Redclift Campground.

There was a concert in the town center at night. Sneaky Pete and the Secret Weapons performed. Our lawn chairs were between two guys from Massachusetts and a very young 81-year-old woman from Fredericksburg, TX.  The music was good, all original with sounds reminding me of the Dead and at times Pink Floyd.  I think my friend Guenter would have approved.  I watched a group of twenty-somethings dancing by the stage.  They looked exactly like I did in 1970 at a fraternity danced I crashed. The Princess was relieved I did not go up there to show them how it was done back in the day.

Free concert in Big Sky

Another evening we attended a rodeo.  Small town rodeos are a lot of fun for us. This advent was mostly attended by people who had never seen a rodeo before along with girlfriends of the participants. The jokes by the rodeo clown were as lame as can be, not politically correct, and fun.

This is a lot of photos of people and horses but I got carried away.

I didn’t spend much time fly fishing. I have found that this is something I do with a friend but I did scare a few fish.  It felt like an obligation to wade a little water since I was camped a few yards from a stream that people from all over the world come to fish.  As with a lot of things, once I got started all was good.

Sherrie was behind the camera for this shot. Not bad is it?

During one of the truck diagnostic days in Bozeman, we took a side trip to the Museum of the Rockies. This museum has the largest collection of dinosaur bones in the country and anything an eleven-year-old boy might want to know about dinosaurs.  I had a great time reading all of the descriptions.  Besides the dino exhibits, there was a traveling exhibit on Vikings. Like OMG!!!! This was several hours of reading every word.  My friend Gina knows how often that happens.

I really was impressed by the exhibits at the Museum of the Rockies

Many years ago, my long-time friend Bob and I drove across Ted Turner’s ranch, The Flying D.  WE trespassed a little to have a picture taken by a “Beware of the Buffalo” sign and camped in solitude at the edge of the Spanish Peaks Wilderness.  We pitched our tent next to a beaver pond a picture of which is still hanging in my office.  This beaver pond is the source of my favorite story that does not need to be exaggerated. Today, I drove to the same spot.  Thinking of a private picnic with the Princess that might lead to “you know what”.  There was a traffic j m of day hikers, horse riders, and big-assed campers. Needless to say, there was no “who knows what” taking place. Nor was there no fishing for Brook Trout in the beaver pond that had filled in with willows. I still have the memory of that long passed day, but sad the world had discovered a beautiful place and ruined it.

We were amazed by the size of this ranch, 113,000 acres.

Back at the campsite, this is the last night here. The river still sounds wonderful.  The pines still perfume the air and I love being here.

Dennis

Wild Rose
Flowers near the campsite

As a side note, I met one of the campground hosts here. She works three days on and three days off living for months in a micro camping trailer. I enjoyed our conversations and was impressed by how dedicated she is to maintain the area. Hope she does well.

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