Salmonflies on the Madison River

Here's the last picture I took in Yellowstone before the camera battery died, a butterfly on a wildflower:







Then I drove through some country I would have taken pictures of. Most notable was a big pretty sparkling blue lake with snowcapped mountains behind it.

I thought the phrase "big sky" referred to Montana in general, but I've learned that it's this part of Montana where I am now. The Madison turns and twists but generally flows north, through a valley that also twists and turns. The highway I drove mostly follows the river through the valley. From anywhere around the town of Ennis, or my campsite or the river, the land close by is flat or rolling low hills covered with grass or desert plants, but you can see mountain peaks in all directions not far away. Many of them have snow on them, and a local told me it's the first time in years the snow has lasted into mid-July. It was a long cold spring, and now everything is a few weeks behind including the salmon fly hatch. It's starting gradually now. Most years it would have been over by now.

The salmon flies are big stoneflies that emerge from the water, mate in the streamside vegetation, and then return to the water to lay eggs. They are clinging to every tree branch now, and even flying into me on the bank.



I tried to photograph one clinging to the bottom of a branch but all the pictures have the sun in them.

Then as I was tieing an imitation stonefly on my tippit, a natural one flew into the back of my neck. So it tried to introduce them on the crown of my hat . . . .


But he beat a hasty retreat (note shadow)

and made good his escape.

This is a very dry area, , except where irrigated, and I think I recognise this plant as prickly pear cactus or something close.

Except I thought it's blooms were red.



This cactus also appears to be a prickly pear, with a different color flower.

The pronghorns are thick in this valley. I see them every time I drive anywhere. I think they are beautiful and I'd like to get a good picture showing markings on body and face, and prongs if it's a male. But while they are perfectly comfortable with vehicles passing close by, if you so much as slow down, they run like the wind.

This is the same picture without the trimming, which is one of the few I have so far that show the scenery nearby. I'll take some more.

I remember two varieties of morning glories, small white ones that grew in yards when I was a kid, and big pink ones that choked out the christmas trees my uncle was trying to grow commercially. These flowers are between those two sizes and a different shade of pink, but they seem to be growing parasitically on other bushes and I think they are some kinda morning glory.

An illustration of usage conflicts and compromise. The water in the foreground is an irrigation ditch, and in the background is the Madison River, blue ribbon trout water. The ranchers would make more money if they could take more water. The fisherfolk and their lobby would like to see minimum flow rules, meaning the irrigators could take less water especially on dry years when they need it most (but so do the fish). The watergate governs how much water goes into the ditch.

The short stretch of canal behind the watergate is deeper and wider then it needs to be for the canal's purposes. There's a boat ramp into it that you can barely see in this picture. This was clearly designed with two purposes. The current is swift and the banks are high and steep, so you need some sort of protection and a less steep approach to launch boats.

The watergate's valve control is secured with a very macho looking chain and padlock. I suspect at some point, either a rancher cut the lock and opened it wider, or else a fisherperson closed it.