Big Sky Blue Waters: Hyalite Reservoir

What happens when you have a birthday and an anniversary on the same day? Your husband gives you free reign on your choice of events for the weekend. My choice was Hyalite Reservoir near my home town Bozeman, MT. It is a beautiful area where no motor boats are allowed. There is a large reservoir, fishing, hiking, camping, and waterfalls. We had it all planned out but we did not have reservations. We took our chances. We got the camper packed up and got out on the highway pretty late.

Our first night we camped just outside of Swan Lake. A great campground with double wide pads for the campers. It allows for 2 campers to share one space. How smart is that? The campground was pretty empty on a Thursday night and we were tired. We awoke Friday morning after sleeping in and headed off towards Helena to buy my fishing license. Mark had given me my birthday gifts. I got a new spin reel for my rod and a FitBit. Two awesome things. The reel turned into something more though. Once I got to the sporting goods store I decided that if I am going to have a fancy new reel then I better have some new fishing gear to go with it. I bought a new pink Breast cancer tackle bag and boxes, 6 Panther Martin lures, needle nose pliers, hooks, sinkers, Power Bait, a stringer, fishing requirements and laws and more. I also included my fishing license. This girl is set!

We headed off again to Hyalite. Once we got there it was beautiful. It took me back to many fond moments and some of those included when Mark and I first started dating. I fished with him for the first time there. I told him I have fished my whole life but when I cast my rod I looked like an idiot and couldn't figure it out. Ugh. I am sure he thought it was my first time and I had just bought the pole. So not true. But for some reason whenever I put something aside for a while I totally forget how to do something. All is true for fishing, hunting, sailing and so many other things. If anyone knows why that is, please let me know. I would love an explanation for my forgetfulness. LOL!

We got up to Hyalite and there wasn't a single space available to camp. I was so sad and Mark was none to happy for driving 6 hours and not having a space to call home for the weekend. We decided to drive up to Palisade Falls trailhead, park and hike to the Falls. It was gorgeous and I got lots of great shots. This was a first time visit for Mark. The last time we were here there was too much snow on the road to get up there.

Once we got back from our hike we realized that where we were parked would be a great place to camp for the night. It didn't say anything about not camping overnight. It had a picnic table and a fire ring. It ended up being our spot for the weekend. Beautiful.

Happy Anniversary Mark!

Grotto Falls

We took a hike. We were trying to make it to the peak. Hyalite Lake is up there and we packed our poles. We hiked up about 4 miles and came to snow. We passed someone who had been to the top. He said the trail starts getting so steep you are on all fours and there is a lot of snow and the lake is still frozen. We decided that we had gone far enough.