Sibley Lake - Take (2)

I originally titled this "Take (2)" because it's our second time at Sibley Lake Campground. Little did I know that I would go to "post" this and it would disappear! Thank goodness I didn't call it Take 3 or Take 4, huh! Anyhow, from Rapid City, SD we headed back to the Big Horn Mountains and returned to Sibley Lake. It's so much cooler here, it's amazing and it's not that far...only about 5 hours by motorhome! We rejoined our friends, Glenda & Ray here at Sibley because this campground has electric hook-ups at some of the sites. There is water near-by so it's very easy to be here! After "dry" camping at Tie Flume for so long, it's almost a luxury to have electric! Even though this is only the middle of August, fall is well on it's way. The weather is changing...it's nice in the afternoon, once the sun goes down it can get pretty cool and overnight the temps get downright cold! We've had ice on the tables and roofs several mornings! The hummingbirds have all gone to warmer locales, the animals that we see are beginning to get heavier coats and the foliage is beginning to change colors!

Last night the four of us went to Bear Mountain Lodge for dinner. On the way home, we stopped at the "fishing area" (Glenda and I have all of our moose sighting areas names) to see if we could spot a moose. On the left hand side we saw about 10-20 elk. Ray pulled up and we were going to turn around to better see the elk when we spotted several HUNDRED elk! It was an awesome sight! My pictures look like little more than spots, but through the binoculars and even with our own eyes it was spectacular! A ranger stopped to look and ended up talking to us for quite some time. He told us that the elk don't like the cows that are grazing on the other side and that's why there were so many in one area. I don't remember if I've mentioned the cows or not, but they are literally grazing all over the area. It's not unusual to have to stop because they are on or crossing the road! By the way, while we were talking to the ranger, he spotted a moose so we did get to see a moose at the fishing area after all!

Today didn't start out too well. We stopped by Tie Flume Campground to see our friend, Tom, the camp host there. We really liked Tom when we were staying there. Unfortunately, just a few hours before we arrived, a 10-year old boy, riding an ATV went around a corner too fast, flipped the ATV and it ended up killing him. Although this is the major road into the campground, it was some time before anyone came upon the accident and he was already gone. Since there is no phone service on the mountain, the people came to Tom to see if he had a radio to contact the nearest ranger. It was an unfortunate accident that didn't have to happen. Apparently, Tom had told this boy several times to slow down while riding through the campground. We ended up visiting with Tom for a short while. When we left we were once again looking in certain areas for moose when we came upon a fawn in the middle of the road that had been hit. Don saw that it was still alive and we were talking about what we wished we could do for it. At about the same time, we spotted a moose and pulled over to get a closer look. By the time we all got out of the truck, the fawn was gone! The car that was involved with the fawn came up to us. Apparently the fawn hit the car, so hopefully he was just stunned and not hurt too badly. Of course, the people in the car were a little shook up. Luckily their car didn't really have any damage. We watched the moose for a little while and then headed back home.

We were enjoying some appetizers and looking at maps, planning our strategy once we leave here next Friday when we heard some yelling. Tess started barking and guess what walked right through our campsite? A bull moose! I ran to get my camera but by the time I had gotten back, he was gone! Glenda and I got in the car and headed toward the lake. We didn't see him so we headed back. We stopped at a parking area and saw the willow moving. About the same time, Glenda saw someone with a camera on the other side of the creek that runs from the lake. We saw several flashes so we turned around and drove back to the parking area. We parked, walked across the bridge and there he was! It was awesome! I tried taking some pictures, but my camera is being repaired once again, so I was using Don's. I didn't have a lot of luck, but I also had my film camera so hopefully once I get those developed I'll have some great pictures! Even though I have seen quite a few moose, I still get as excited as I did the first time! I have really been spoiled by these close encounters! It's just awesome! I almost forgot to mention the deer that have been in our "yard" almost every evening! Tonight there were 4 of them, just munching the grass that's here! Of course, they were driving Tess wild! We see so many deer that we tend to take them for granted but it's still neat to see them as well!