Spring Full Moon Campout: Hell's Canyon, Jefferson River

Happy Skywatch Friday! Hope you enjoy some of these views from southwest Montana in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

My friend Dave & I usually do our spring campout in the lower Big Hole River country around Notchbottom. This year, we moved down the valley a bit to Hell's Canyon of the Jefferson River (the Big Hole is a major tributary to the Jeff). The area is south of our home in Butte, Montana, on the other side of the Highland Mountains that also mark the Continental Divide. From Butte, we see Table Mountain as a lower peak behind the more prominent (looking from the north) Red Mountain. But Table Mtn is actually the tallest peak in the Highlands, and here's a view from our campsite:

The area is dotted with outcrops of the Boulder Batholith. Here's a view of a couple of boulders framing Table Mtn:

Look closely and the granite is studded with feldspar phenocrysts. They are harder than the granite matrix, which weathers away leaving a nice non-slip surface for hiking and climbing:

It's high sagebrush desert without the snow blanketing the hills around Butte and with an abundance of prickly pear cactus:

Here's a view of an outcrop on a ridge above camp as we settled in for the evening:

And waited for the moon to rise above that same ridge:

The wind blew hard up the canyon but we found a somewhat protected place to build a hot fire fed with mountain mahogany ( Cercocarpus ledifolius)--an excellent fuel that made nice coals over which to grill two big moose steaks. Here's Dave enjoying the fire:

As it grew dark, flocks of geese honked and barked overhead, migrating by moonlight. The wind blew and it grew cold, and sometime toward dawn some passing clouds dropped a skiff of snow:

I was glad I'd pitched my tent on the lee side of a boulder that blocked the icy wind:

After breakfast, we dropped into a wash, and crossed the canyon. We found out why it has that name--near the creek, the canyon walls are steep and choked with brush as this view from the bottom shows:

We saw the usual herds of mule deer and elk, though none close enough for a good photo. A pair of golden eagles must be nesting in the area, and several times they passed by, riding the thermals from  ridges on either side of the canyon:

The dogs amused themselves with an array of found objects along the way. MollyTheDog says of this deer skull, "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well:"

While JackTheDog says, "He ain't got a leg to stand on:"

Not surprisingly, a spring blizzard swept through Butte as we arrived back in town. Oh well, the cross country skiing at The Moulton will be good for another week or so.