Walk to the River

We live six blocks away from this -- the Bitterroot River, still wearing its fall colors.

Or, as a Montana gardening friend of mine says, "Colors have lasted for weeks longer than I ever remember.  It is glorious!" We walk to the river and, indeed, fall this year is glorious.

We look northwest from the river trail. More beauty.

A pair of sunlit cottonwoods highlight the far bank.

As we get closer to town, the river trail becomes more citified -- still beautiful.

We take a seat and look at Blodgett in the distance. It's our favorite craggy granite peak.

And Alex, who spent childhood summers climbing around Blodgett, snaps a picture. It is ready for its close-up.

Not Holland Lake!

We set off northward to camp one last time this year. Our destination was the much-anticipated Holland Lake, about 50 miles northeast of Missoula, with mountain views and a vintage '40s lodge serving family-style food. The Website said they were open through October.

They weren't. We camped at the lake, above, instead. It is not Holland Lake...

Here's Holland Lake! Just seeing it was a thrill, with stunning, snow-capped views of the Mission Mountains...

...and even a long driveway that gave us peeks at the peaks!

We stopped at a boarded-up/winterized lodge and walked around, moping a bit at our bad luck. We should've called! I did call, after the fact (to what turned out to be a California number), to ask about the Website's mis-information -- plus the roadside sign's "Open through October" -- and got a rather terse "I'm not going to answer that." But there was an entirely different, very warm response from a concessionaire for the adjacent Holland Lake campgrounds. She apologized for any vagueness on reserveamerica.com. "It was snowing when we pulled out of here," she said.  If the Indian summer that appeared a week later had been well forecast, she added, she might have stayed open. We'll be sure to book a campsite with her next spring!

We drove a few miles south toward Missoula and found Lindbergh Lake and a U.S. Forest Service campground. No one was there. But it was open. We took up two parking spaces in order to have a van-side view of a fire and the lake.

 

 

The beginnings of our fire.

Lindbergh Lake, to the front of us...

...And a beautiful fall view, behind. Not too shabby for last-minute accommodations in Montana!