Ennis Lake

11^th August

We set off early for the long 243 miles drive to Ennis.  The I-90 paralleled the Yellowstone River and the direction we followed was along points of the Bozeman Trail.  We drove through the town of Bozeman.  It is a popular winter sports area and looked picturesque with people sitting out having lunch in the summer sunshine.

After Bozeman our route took us into the Madison River valley.  We could see many people floating the river on inflatables and it was clearly not that deep a river.

Once we arrived at our Ennis campsite we took a drive around Ennis Lake.  We followed the road along the Madison River into and along the Canyon and past the dam.  It was a lovely peaceful spot.  Later that evening we had a thunderstorm.

12^th August Virginia City

We drove the 15 miles to the National Historic Landmark of Virginia City.  This town had numerous historic buildings from its original founding in the Gold Mining days in the 1860s.  Many of the buildings were of the original wooden construction which you could look into. 

There was a restored locomotive doing hourly trips to Nevada City just 1½ miles away.  It is a ‘Ghost Town’ now with only 150 residents (or as Paul described it: ‘run down’ but what do you expect of 150 year old wooden buildings).  We chatted to some archaeologists who were in the middle of excavating the foundations of an old building. 

In the afternoon we had a terrific thunderstorm again, and were glad we had done our visit earlier in the day.

13^th August Madison Dam Canyon

We moved camp to a site right on the northern edge of Ennis Lake.  We took the kayak out in the afternoon up the Canyon we had driven on Sunday.  It was so peaceful just gliding along.  There were several kingfisher birds on this section of the water.  There were also a lot of fish in the river jumping up to catch the flies on the surface but they didn’t want anything to do with Pauls fishing line.  No fish for supper tonight.

We spent the evening in the RV as there were thunderstorms circling around us.  One minute coming

 from the south; an hour later the wind changes and comes in from the NW.

 

We sat watching the lightening over the Madison Mountains opposite.

14^th August Ennis Lake

Paul was up and fishing on the lake up 6.30am.  He spent all day on the Lake and caught dinner for tonight and one in the freezer.  However those two fish were nothing compared to the size of the one the osprey caught.  I guess they’re the experts. (Photo shows

the one Paul didn’t get)

At last we had a lovely evening without any thunderstorms.  There are a lot of birds to watch on this lake; Osprey, pelicans, grebe, seagulls, ducks, heron, as well as numerous non-water birds which we have no idea what they are despite referring to our bird book.