Wildflower walkin'

Spring is nearly here - officially, that is - which means the blog I write at work is back in season. Stop by WildflowerWalks.com for updates on the bloom and more advice on hiking western Montana. To start things off, take a stroll in search of Rocky Mountain douglasia.

On the run again

After a long interruption last fall, I'm finally back to running on a regular basis.

I never really stopped after completing my first marathon last year, but travel set back my routine several times. Since the holidays, however, I've worked up to running 30 to 35 miles a week again.

Last weekend, I ran my first race of the year, the Snow Joke Half Marathon in Seeley Lake. I finished in 1 hour, 41 minutes and 47 seconds - 78th out of 196 in the "bushman" division (men ages 16 to 39) and about four minutes faster than my previous best at that distance. Not too bad for a race with a record 660-plus runners.

I'm looking forward to another season of races leading up to the Missoula Marathon, which was recently named the best overall marathon by Runner's World magazine readers.

See you on the road and trail!

Snowy Yellowstone

A recent three-day weekend gave us the opportunity to explore Yellowstone National Park more than ever before.

For some reason, we've never really spent any time in Yellowstone. Previously, we drove through a couple of times and took in the roadside sights, but the park wasn't our destination. And we spent a long winter weekend there several years ago, but without the right gear and the cooperation of the weather we didn't get out very far.

This time, though, we packed both snowshoes and cross-country skis, and even saw some sunshine.

Yellowstone's north entrance at Gardiner is just a four-hour drive from Missoula, and we managed to find a cheap hotel room a few blocks from Roosevelt Arch on short notice. From Gardiner, you can drive up to Mammoth, Wyo., and out the park's north road, the only one open to automobiles in winter.

Marked ski and snowshoe trails can be found around Mammoth and Tower Junction, and in the northeast corner of the park. Maps are available at the ski shop in Mammoth and here.



Our first day in the park, we went on a sunny ski up the Blacktail Plateau, then drove out the north road to watch wildlife in the Lamar Valley as the light faded.

On Day 2, our only full day in the park, we took a snowcoach shuttle from Mammoth south to Indian Creek and returned on skis, the morning snow giving way to another afternoon of sun. After getting back to Mammoth, we took a short walk through the travertine terraces.

The third day, we returned to the Lamar Valley for the morning, where we took in the sights and sounds of the park's wolves before driving home.

Check out photos here, as well as this video (headphones help for hearing the wolves near the end):



Blacktail Plateau

From its west end, the Blacktail Plateau Trail climbs a groomed road for six miles, then drops two miles to its eastern terminus, providing sweeping, snowy views along the way. We set out the afternoon we arrived and skied close to half of it under blue sky and sun. At one point, we found several canine tracks along the trail - they appeared to be too big to be coyotes and pets aren't allowed, so we guessed they were wolves.

Distance: Full trail is 8 miles one way; we skied about 6 1/2 miles round trip.

Trailhead: West-end trailheads are eight and nine miles east of Mammoth; east-end trailhead is just under 1 1/2 miles west of Tower Junction.

Sheepeater-Bunsen Peak



This was the highlight of the trip - for $15 plus tax, we took the snowcoach shuttle from the hotel in Mammoth south to Indian Creek and skied back to town. We were the only passengers in the snowcoach and wouldn't see any other skiers the entire day.

From Indian Creek, we went a short distance along the road and connected with the ungroomed Sheepeater Trail across Swan Lake Flats. Along the way, the snow stopped falling and the sky cleared some, and at one point we paused for a small herd of bison to move off the trail. We then connected with the groomed Bunsen Peak Trail and dropped steeply down a canyon to Mammoth, taking in views of frozen Osprey Falls and the mountains around town. A short walk down the road from the trail's end brought us back to our car at the hotel.

Distance: About 7 3/4 miles one way.

Trailhead: From the hotel in Mammoth, take the snowcoach shuttle about 8 1/2 miles south on the snow vehicle road to Indian Creek.

Skiing in the new year

It's been pretty brown in town this winter - the leaves never fully fell, and it seems like there's been more deep freeze than snowfall. Cross-country ski season began last weekend, however, with our annual New Year's outing.

Originally, I wanted to go to the new Como Trails Cross Country Ski Area south of Hamilton, where dogs are allowed. After reading on the Missoula Nordic Ski Club site about having to hike up to snow, though, we settled on a trip up Lolo Pass without the pups.

The day started out with a handful of vehicles in the parking area and the trails shrouded in fog, but after 6 3/4 miles of skiing the sun was out and the lot was packed.

See some photos here.

Distance: Trails from 1.2 to 14 miles are available; some are shared with snowmobiles. We did a 6 3/4-mile loop that incorporated parts of the Glade Creek and Packer Meadows trails.

Trailhead: From Missoula, drive 9 miles south on U.S. Highway 93 to Lolo, then 32 miles west on U.S. Highway 12 to the Lolo Pass Visitor Center, just over the border in Idaho. (Parking costs $5.)

A country and a continent

View Australia in a larger map

Here's one more look at our trip to Australia last month - through a map. Click the markers for blog entries and photos; if you've been following along, you won't find anything new but will be able to pinpoint our travels.

As you can see, Australia is a big place - a continent, as I've noted before. In two weeks, we covered just this small corner of the country. From Melbourne, at the center of the map, our route took us in a clockwise loop.

With so much more to see, we'll have to go back.

Back to the city

After spending the morning at Wilsons Promontory National Park, we made our way back to Melbourne for our last night in Australia. We spent the afternoon taking in a few final sights that we missed when we first arrived.



Queen Victoria Market is a massive covered complex just outside the central business district with numerous food stands and merchants selling trinkets, meats and produce. It would have been great to stock up on some fresh fruits and veggies at the start of our trip, but the market was closed the Monday we were in town.

A week and a half earlier, the Melbourne Cup horse race was the talk of the town. Now, the city was decked out for Christmas. (It was still a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, but Australia doesn't have that holiday, of course.) The big Meyer department store downtown had it's animatronic window display up, decorations were strung high overhead the Bourke Street Mall, and trees and lights could be seen in many shops.



Before dinner, we also walked through the arcades tucked away just off the public mall. We had visited them previously, but all the shops were closed. This time, we were able to look around the stores.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel to pack up and get some sleep before the flight home.

The next morning, we had to hurry out of downtown as a Christmas parade would draw crowds and close streets. Once at the airport, it was only 25 hours to Missoula.

Find photos here.

Going south

From the mountains, we drove downhill to Wilsons Promontory National Park - or "The Prom" - the southernmost point on mainland Australia.

Unfortunately, in planning our trip this stop was mostly an afterthought; we allotted only one night for our visit because we were trying to break up the drive from Alpine National Park to Melbourne before our departure. In hindsight, it would have been better to spend a full day at The Prom and cut our time in the high country by a day. We'll just have to come back.

Here, the rainforest meets the ocean and the trails are numerous, but we only managed a few short walks.

The afternoon we arrived, we set out from the visitor center at Tidal River, hiking around Norman Point to the white-sand beach at Little Oberon Bay. On the way back to our car, we paused on the trail to watch a stand-up paddler surf the waves of Norman Bay with a sweeping backdrop of ocean and islands.



On the way to our cottage outside the park for the night, we took one more quick walk, along the Lilly Pilly Gully track. Orchids were still blooming but past their peak along part of the trail burned by bushfire. And the flowering stalks of grass trees were a unique sight.

With the sun sinking and our stomachs empty, we turned around short. The next morning, we came back to complete the walk through the rainforest, and before leaving we also strolled out to an empty Darby Beach.

From here, it was an easy drive back to Melbourne for one final night in the city.

Pictures from The Prom are here and here.

Norman Point and Little Oberon Bay



This trail wanders through the tea trees to the beach at Norman Bay, then up and around Norman Point, and back down to Little Oberon Bay. About halfway through, a short path detours down to the rocky cliffs on the point. There are plenty of views of surfers and islands.

Distance: 8.2 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: Start at the visitor center in Tidal River, 29 kilometers south of the park entrance.

Lilly Pilly Gully Nature Walk



Walk through a bushfire area to a short boardwalk loop in the rainforest. The orchids and grass trees are beautiful.

Distance: 5.2 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: The Lilly Pilly Gully carpark is about 26 3/4 kilometers south of the park entrance.

Darby Beach

A short, sandy walk to a beach where the Darby River meets the ocean.

Distance: 2.2 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: The Darby River parking area is about 18 kilometers south of the park entrance.

Head for the hills

After a long day of driving east from Halls Gap, we arrived in Bright, our entry point to Alpine National Park.

When you hear "Alpine National Park" or "Australian Alps," your first thoughts are likely of tall, pointy peaks. The mountains here, however, aren't that tall or pointy. The highest is Mount Bogong at 1,986 meters, or about 6,516 feet - slightly taller than Mount Dean Stone on the southeast side of Missoula. And the summits are rounded, like many of the mountains around home. This is, however, a popular area for skiing - in fact, we saw some lingering snow on our walks.

I don't mean to belittle these mountains; they can still be a dangerous place, as evidenced by the rescue of a Victorian minister who fell during a snowy September walk to a peak we visited. The region also has been a bushfire hotspot of late, with big burns in 2003 and 2006.



We spent our only full day in Bright driving to the top of the Great Alpine Road and walking out The Razorback to Mount Feathertop. The hike was pretty simple - a long, grassy ridge - but at 22 kilometers round trip, it was the longest and most uncrowded of our vacation. To cap off the full day out in the sun, we stopped at the Bright Brewery back in town to sip down a cool Razor Witbier.

The next day, we spent the morning walking to a couple of waterfalls in nearby Mount Buffalo National Park and the afternoon driving over the Great Alpine Road to Omeo, on the south side of the mountains.



From Omeo, we drove the Bogong High Plains Road - fully paved only a year earlier - up to Falls Creek for a day. Near here, we went on a couple of hikes, including along a short section of the 650-kilometer Australian Alps Walking Track.

After three days in the high country, we next headed for the coast again and Wilsons Promontory National Park, the southernmost part of mainland Australia.

Find all of our pictures here, here and here.

The Razorback to Mount Feathertop



From just below the top of the Great Alpine Road, this trail follows a grassy ridge 11 kilometers out to the top of Mount Feathertop. The majority of the trees along this route were burned in bushfires, and as a result it was a very sunny and hot walk.

Distance: 22 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: Follow the Great Alpine Road about 49 3/4 kilometers south and east to the pullout for the Diamantina Hut, 2 1/2 kilometers before reaching Mount Hotham. The trail begins across the road from the hut.

Ladies Bath Falls and Eurobin Falls



A short trail leads to a couple of picturesque waterfalls. The pool below Ladies Bath Falls is clear, cool and inviting, though we didn't take the time to dip our feet.

Distance: 1.5 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Bright, take the Great Alpine Road 6 1/3 kilometers northwest to Porepunkah, then Mount Buffalo Road 6 kilometers to the Mount Buffalo National Park entrance. Continue about 2 2/3 kilometers to the pullout.

Rollasons Falls



This trail drops down to an upper and lower falls on Buffalo Creek. View the lower falls from the pool below and the upper falls from the drop-off above.

Distance: 2 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Bright, take the Great Alpine Road 6 1/3 kilometers northwest to Porepunkah, then Mount Buffalo Road 6 kilometers to the Mount Buffalo National Park entrance. Continue about 8 3/4 kilometers to the pullout.

Mount Cope



This trail leads up from the grassy plains, through trees to a rocky lookout.

Distance: 3 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Omeo, drive 38 3/4 kilometers northwest on the Omeo Highway. Turn west on the Bogong High Plains Road and follow it about 22 kilometers to the pullout. The path begins across the road.

Australian Alps Walking Track



The AAWT is a 650-kilometer route across the mountains from Walhalla in Victoria to Tharwa, near Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. We walked a short section of it from the Bogong High Plains Road to the Cope Saddle Hut and back. Numbered posts every 40 meters make it easy to follow the trail and calculate your distance.

Distance: 6.7 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Omeo, drive 38 3/4 kilometers northwest on the Omeo Highway. Turn west on the Bogong High Plains Road and follow it about 24 kilometers to the pullout. Our route began across the road.

Road rules

The most frequent question we've received since our return from Australia has been some variation of, "Is it difficult driving on the left side of the road?"

The answer: Not really. Australia was, in fact, the second time in the past few years we've had to drive on the left side; we rented a car in Scotland a couple of years ago, too.

Sure, you frequently have to remind yourself that you need to be in the left lane when pulling out of a driveway first thing in the morning - and you may occasionally catch yourself trying to get into the right lane. And yes, the gas and brake pedals are backward.

But once you get going, it's not really that difficult. No matter which side of the road you're on, the driver is always in the middle.

The hardest part, for us at least, was signaling turns. The turn signal and windshield wiper levers are also reversed, and for some reason that tripped us up the most. It also was the hardest thing to readjust to when we returned home and started driving our own car.

The best piece of advice I received about driving on the left side was to rent an automatic. Cars with sticks can be cheaper, but with an automatic it's one less thing to worry about.

Fortunately, because we parked the car in Melbourne and walked or took the tram, we never encountered what appeared would be the biggest obstacle to driving in Australia: the "hook turn" in Melbourne. I won't even try to describe it, so here's a description.

Rocks and 'roos

The next leg of our journey through Australia brought us inland to Halls Gap and Grampians National Park, known for its rugged bushwalking, waterfalls and wildflowers. Then there are the kangaroos.

We selected D'Altons Resort as our accommodation in Halls Gap based on the recommendation of Lonely Planet's guide to Australia and the price. Plus, the guidebook mentioned kangaroos and the resort's Web site featured pictures of the animals - both turned out to be accurate.

The evening we arrived, we spotted the first kangaroos of our trip, just off our cottage's front porch on the lawn. The next morning, while sipping coffee and looking out the front window, a line of eight bounced up from our driveway, across the grass and into the trees. Like clockwork, they would return every morning and evening.

(Really, you're likely to see kangaroos anywhere you stay in Halls Gap. And cockatoos. They're everywhere.)

That first morning, we had planned a good day of hiking but decided to try our luck with wildlife on a quick walk near the park's visitor center. Sure enough, we saw kangaroos here and there munching grass in the morning sun, as well as a few red deer. We also encountered something we hadn't expected: cold.

In our first few days in the country - the first few days of the month - the TV news had already said it was the warmest November on record since 1925. And it was quite a change from the early cold spell back in Missoula. We thought we'd never need them, but it was a good thing we packed warm coats and gloves - that walk was a chilly one. It quickly warmed up, though, and we hit the trail on the first real hike of our holiday.



A few hundred meters up the road from our cottage, we set out on the Wonderland Loop. The track follows a creek behind town, then climbs up through rocky mountains before topping out at The Pinnacle, an outcrop above Halls Gap. From there, it descends the face of the mountains back into town. Along the way, we saw plenty of wildflowers remaining from the spring bloom - the result of bushfires throughout the area in 2006. (While there were still plenty of blackened trees, the park appears to be recovering well, with plenty of green growth.)



We spent the next day driving around the Grampians and taking shorter strolls to see waterfalls and scenic overlooks. These included The Balconies, MacKenzie Falls, Lake Wartook, Silverband Falls and Mount William.



After dinner at the cottage that evening, we decided to check out the trail near the park visitor center again to snap a few more wildlife pictures. We hit the jackpot - a field filled with kangaroos big and small, eating and bouncing around. There were probably a couple of hundred or so, and we lingered for a while to watch.

The next morning, we departed early - we had a full day's drive east ahead of us, to Victoria state's high country and Alpine National Park.

See all of our pictures here and here.

Fyans Creek Loop



This short loop walk travels through the bush north along the west side of Fyans Creek, crosses a bridge, then travels south to a field, crosses another bridge and returns to the start. See kangaroos and red deer in the morning and evening.

Distance: 2.5-kilometer loop.

Trailhead: The walk begins and ends at Brambuk - The National Park and Cultural Center, off Grampians Tourist Road on the southern edge of Halls Gap.

Wonderland Loop



This trail was the highlight of our time in the Grampians. From the parking area, it follows Stony Creek behind town and past the Venus Baths - where the water flows though a series of pools and over smooth rocks - then climbs to Splitters Falls and the Wonderland parking area. Here, it ascends through the narrow-walled Grand Canyon, a great place to find some shade, and past Bridal Veil Falls and Silent Street to The Pinnacle, a lookout above Halls Gap. The trail then descends through the forest on the face of the mountains and back to town. (The only downside to this walk is there are many metal railings and steps that look out of place.)

Distance: 9.6-kilometer loop.

Trailhead: The trail begins and ends in the parking area across Grampians Tourist Road from the shops in Halls Gap.

The Balconies



This easy walk travels out a rock outcrop with views north to Lake Wartook, then through the forest to a pair of ledges known as The Balconies.

Distance: 2 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Halls Gap, follow Mount Victory Road 12 1/4 kilometers northwest and turn south on the access road. Drive two-thirds of a kilometer to the parking area.

MacKenzie Falls



A path leads to overlooks and the base of MacKenzie Falls, a large cascade that, I gather, looks much more impressive when there's more water. (At one time a trail continued to the Zumstein picnic area, but the route was closed after bushfires.)

Distance: 2 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Halls Gap, follow Mount Victory Road 17 1/4 kilometers northwest and turn north on the access road. Turn west at the T intersection and drive a short distance to the parking area.

Silverband Falls



This trail travels through a fern forest to Silverband Falls, which cascades down a wall then disappears underground. We had good luck spotting cockatoos here, as well.

Distance: 1.4 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Halls Gap, follow Mount Victory Road about 5 kilometers west and turn south on Silverband Road. Follow the road about 7 kilometers to the parking area.

Mount William



From the parking area, follow the closed road up to the top of 1,167-meter Mount William, the highest point in the Grampians. A lot of wildflowers were in bloom along the road when we visited, and the top provides expansive views west into the park and east out of the park.

Distance: 3.8 kilometers round trip.

Trailhead: From Halls Gap, follow Grampians Tourist Road about 12 1/4 kilometers south, then turn east on Mount William Road and drive about 9 1/2 kilometers east to the parking area.