Beula Lake - What a treat until....

Beula Lake, just a two and a half mile hike from Grassy Lake on the Yellowstone Park border, is a beautiful lake visited by many different animals and birds.

Saturday as I topped the ridge above the aqua colored lake, I was stopped short as I heard loons on the lake being answered by two spike bull elk trying to answer the loons.  It sounded like a bunch of fourth grade students on the first day of band class.

As I got the the edge of the lake, I was greeted by a rain shower creating a faint rainbow in the west.

The fishing was super in the early going, and you can read that report on my other blog, http://billschiessfishing.blogspot.com/.  Soon one of the loons decided to visit me to see if it could help me.

It spooked the fish for a few minutes and I was unsuccessful, but they soon started hitting again.  After enjoying my solitude, a group of friends arrived just as two troops of Boy Scouts also showed up.  Dogs brought were turned loose to run around and it was time for me to leave.  It was time for more hiking and taking pictures of flowers.

Here are a few of the flowers I saw and got pictures of.  Can you name them?

Just another wild day for an old, bald man from Idaho.

Beula Lake in Yellowstone

I spent most of the week working on the "Teaching American History" grant and getting ready for school. My meetings start next Monday and school starts on Wednesday. The Student Body Officers' assembly will be on Wednesday so we will spend part of Monday and Tuesday finalizing it.

With summer coming to an end a fellow teacher, Lucas, and his son, Pax, decided to join me for a hike and a fishing trip. We hiked into Beula Lake in Yellowstone Park for some native cutthroat fishing. Here Pax and Lucas carry their float tubes for two and a half miles in to the lake. I did not take a float tube, but my heavy camera was enough weight.
Here Pax, a ten-year old, catches a nice cutthroat. All fish were released.

He a cutthroat, named after the bright red stripes on the bottom jaw, comes in after being hooked by a Black Rug Yarn fly. They were willing fish as we caught between 80 and 100 in about three hours of fishing.

We weren't the only fishermen on the lake. A pair of Common Loons, a Blue heron and an osprey all tried harvesting fish.

Yours-truely releasing a nice cutthroat. I waded out on a sand bar to where it drops off in deep water. I caught six fish in my first six casts and it did not slow down much.
It was a great way to finish the summer even though I will have a lot more fishing days before winter sets in.