Annual Road Trip to Montana

Each October I try to squeeze in a road trip to visit my sister in Montana. By this time of year, the gardening is all done and most of the fall chores have been tended to, so I feel free to get away for a few days. And the fall colors along the way are often spectacular.

Once of my favorite stops is the Cataldo Mission, which was established in the mid-1800s by the Jesuit priests. It is now a state park and national historic landmark.

The trees on the grounds are old and stately, and very colorful this time of year. I've been here every season except winter, when I tend to stay off the highway as much as possible. Years ago, our entire family attended a Mountain Man Rendezvous here. People were demonstrating old skills like woodworking and blacksmithing. It was an appropriate location to remember times and practices gone by.

The nearby Coeur d'Alene River was very still the day I stopped by to look around. I was standing on a slightly-wobbly dock when I took this picture, so it isn't quite as level as I'd prefer. But you get the idea!

From a distance, I thought these rushes were cattails, but, upon closer inspection, I saw they were not. I don't know what they are called, except very pretty.

While I was in Montana, the first snowfall of the season arrived on the Mission Mountains. They always look rather bare without snow on them, in my opinion.

The western larches had not quite reached their peak of color by the time I headed back toward home, but their needles were beginning to turn color. The larch is a deciduous conifer, which sounds like an oxymoron at first. But the needles turn bright yellow each autumn, then fall into a colorful carpet, and grow back a lovely shade of pale green each spring. In the photo above, some deciduous trees are in the foreground, while the larches are further in the distance.



This photo and the previous one were taken from the summit of Lookout Pass, elevation 4710 feet. You can see snow on the distant mountains.

Several miles further I pulled over to capture this view of pale yellow larches on the nearby hillside. A week later, the larches would have made a very bright yellow splash on the hillside. We have some on our property, so I enjoyed the brightest yellow close to home instead.

All photos taken on my Android phone.