Ennis, Montana

We weren't sad to continue our journey south through Montana out of Helena. We are getting used to Montana's local news that includes an update on the wildfires, then a map with poor air quality ratings, and another map with red fire alerts. It literally takes half the local news time to cover the subjects surrounding the fires. As we drove south, we were excited to watch as the gray smoky skies turned to blue cloudy skies. By the time we drove the two hours to our new home at Ennis RV Village, we were welcomed by the prettiest skies we have seen in a while. It even looks like we could get some rain here, something Montana hasn't seen in a couple months. This is our view from our RV Park near the tiny town of Ennis, Montana. We are looking east across the grassy pasture at the Madison Range of the Rocky Mountains.

Ennis is in a unique position. We have the Tobacco Root Range to the north, the Gravelly Range to our south, and the Madison Range to our east. It is fun to see clear mountain faces around us, rather than the smoky silhouettes of mountains we have seen lately.

We spent some time exploring our new home town. Just a mile from our campground runs the Madison River. We didn't know until we arrived, but this is one of the best places in the country to fly fish for river trout. The sign says there about eleven million trout around here.

Our neighbors at the RV village have traveled from all over the United States and paid big fees for a guide to take them on a premiere opportunity to fly fish. In fact, Ennis also hosted a Fly Fishing Festival while we were in town. The vendors at the festival were selling all the latest equipment for trout fishing. The only picture we took was at the local hospital's booth. They obviously see quite a few fishermen in the emergency room, with fishing hooks imbedded in various parts of their bodies. The local doctor had a framed collection of fishing lures he had removed from fishermen.

We're just hoping to find the best place to kayak on this rippling clear river. Our original idea was rowing up-river and then floating back to our original launch site. But we threw out that idea when we saw how swiftly the Madison River was flowing.

We are also amazed at the wildlife around us. We saw this pair of sandhill cranes close to the river. These birds are about the same height as Denisa, so they would be hard to miss.

But the hardest to miss would be the prong horn antelopes. They are everywhere! On a drive a few miles from town we saw hundreds of antelope grazing on the prairies. We took a picture of this group just because they showed up so well in the middle of this green alfalfa field--better than all those antelope in the middle of the tall golden grass.

We found out that archery season opens soon for antelope, so perhaps they will go into hiding. But until then, they are enjoying free range of the pastures and fields around Ennis.

Close to the large number of antelope, is the large number of flying raptors. A drive around Ennis Lake was slow because of all the times we had to pull over to check out the hawks,

or eagles,

or osprey nests that we saw along the way.

A close-up of the osprey nest shows us why these birds are so good at seeing those fish in the water while they fly overhead. These bug-eyed birds have really good vision!

It was also fun to see two eagles on two different branches of the same tree. It's a great time to brush up on the physical changes that happen between a juvenile and adult eagle. The top bird has the white tail and head, but dark brown feathers everywhere else. He has yellow feet and beak, and light eyes. While the young bird still has brown feet, eyes, and beak, and mottled brown feathers everywhere. It takes five years for an eagle to make the physical changes to become the bald eagle that most of us recognize.

The fishermen we talked to mentioned that there was quite a competition on the river for the fish. With all the eagles and osprey fishing along the water with them, it was hard to convince a trout to be hooked on a fishing line. In other words, we have heard that fishing isn't great right now on the famed Madison River.

On our orientation loop around Ennis, we also saw some white-tailed deer crossing the road in front of us. We have seen lots of mule deer recently, but this group was obviously flashing the white tails that give them their name.

The sun was lowering in the sky as we made our loop around Lake Ennis.

We had a pink evening sky silhouetting the Madison Range before we made it home. You can see a single osprey on her nest high above the ground. We love exploring a new part of Montana, and the wonders hidden here! I think we're going to like it in Ennis.