The Animals at "Our Lake"

We saw a return to blue skies here in Choteau, Montana, so we took that opportunity to head straight west into the mountains. This area is called, "The Front" because it is the eastern (or front) side of the Rocky Mountains. It is amazing to see the mountains rise straight up out of the flat plains. This is our view from our campground, as we look west to the silhouette of the Rocky Mountains.

It was a 30-mile trip over some bumpy gravel roads to get to the trail head. The drive took over an hour, and we saw only three cars during the entire trip. Then we reached "The Front." Welcome back to the Rockies!

We headed up the trail to "Our Lake." After all the crowds at Glacier National Park, it was almost shocking to arrive in the middle of the morning and still have plenty of parking. It's nice to be in a lesser-known part of the Rockies! The trail ascended through the forest, always heading upward. We finally came out of the forest and into an opening to see that the mountain tops were now within our grasp.

As we walked across the side of the mountain, we couldn't help but notice the brilliant blue sky. It looks like The Front is getting a break from the smoke today.

We love hikes that take us to the top of mountains. We especially like hikes that lead us to beautiful mountain lakes. We found both of those today.

Another perfectly clear lake, we could see the rocks below the cool blue water of Our Lake.

We also love hikes that have some wildlife. We could hear the whistles of pika running through the rocks around the lake. Denisa was determined to get a picture of one of these little guys.

The locals at the lake said the name is pronounced like "Pike-uh." It is a relative of a mouse, but a whole lot cuter. They remind us of wild hamsters.

We have also heard pika pronounced "peek-uh." Denisa caught a picture of this little guy nibbling on seeds and leaves. For those that are familiar with the pokemon characters, this could be a picture of a pikachu.

We thought that might be the only wildlife at the lake. Then we heard the bleat of a young goat, and looked skyward. 

Standing at the top of the mountain was a herd of mountain goats looking down on us.

We wouldn't have spotted them at the top of the mountain without the young goat's call and the falling rocks as they made their way down towards the lake.

More appeared from the mountain summit, and we watched as a sizable herd showed off their rock-climbing skills.

Even this late in the summer season, there was a patch of snow on the mountain. While some goats seemed to prefer the rocks, others took the route across the snow.

Unlike the crowds at Glacier National Park, there were only three other hikers at the lake. We all watched as the herd headed down towards the water and Denisa got this picture of the leader of the pack. We also found that this rock climbing must be hard on knees. Most of the goats had the hair completely worn off their knees.

We had a beautiful spot at the lake for our picnic lunch. We had views of the mountains and the clear water of the lake. Have we also mentioned how much we appreciate the blue-colored skies?

We are also amazed that wildflowers are still blooming this late. We especially thought these unusual blue blooms were nice.

We decided to walk around the lake for views of the other side. That's when we saw that the goats had finally made it to the water. As we got closer, we got some better pictures from a new perspective.

It was interesting to see that some of the goats were slick and white, while others were stubbornly hanging on to last winter's thick and now dirty coats.

It seemed to us that it was about time to start a new winter coat, as it can start snowing in this area in September. After the group of mountain sheep left the shore, we saw that they were losing some of those stubborn clumps of winter wool.

After spending an hour at the lake, it was time to head back down to the car. But we took one last picture at the top with a view of the mountain-tops around us.

As we hiked back down the trail, we noticed that some of the plants along the way are changing into their fall colors.

We also saw evidence of the prolonged drought in this area. The plants are really struggling, and it looks like the smoke in the air is moving them into autumn ahead of the normal schedule.

We continued hiking down the mountain, when the oddest thing happened to us. A squirrel came running down the trail at break-neck speed right toward us. In fact, he almost ran between Mark's legs, and we were a little worried that he must be rabid to come at us with such terror in his eyes. He made a terrified circle around us, then headed into the tall grass of the forest. What a strange thing! But then we saw the reason for his terror--a weasel was running after him.

For a moment the weasel lost sight of the squirrel. He circled up on a dead log momentarily, and Mark pointed the camera and luckily caught his picture. Doing some research, we found this to be a weasel--one of the most cold-blooded hunters of the forest. He ran down the trail, zipped back on the log, and we worried he was headed up our pant legs. Mark pointed the camera again, and got this blur as the black-tailed weasel flew across the trail one more time.

Then he darted into the same tall grass that was hiding the squirrel. It was the oddest thing to listen to the painful squeals that came out of the tall grass. Watching the jerky movements of the grass, we knew there was a desperate fight for life. We couldn't see anything, but finally the squeals stopped and we assumed that the weasel had done what they love to do--hunt down a sizable rodent.

In all the miles we have hiked, we have never witnessed anything like that. It was a long walk back to the car, but the good news is that it was downhill all the way. There were no more goats, no more pikas, and no more life-and-death battles as animals ran around our legs. We really liked our hike to Our Lake! It was a beautiful place on The Front to spend an afternoon, and we logged another 9 miles of hiking.

From the hill above our campground at Choteau Mountain View Campground we could see the Montana sky painting a pink sunset. We'll be leaving here tomorrow, on our way south through this state.