R-Mountain - North Menan Butte

Last week my wife and I hiked up the "R" Mountain or the North Menan Butte. The Menan Buttes are two of the worlds largest tuff cones that was formed by when hot magma boils up through ground water. These are also the only two tuff cones in the United States that occurred in fresh water.

Now thousands of years later, the North Menan Butte has been declared a National Natural Landmark.

The edge of the cone is decorated with junipers acsenting the skyline surrounded by multi-colored licken covered rocks.

A host of beautiful flowers decorate not only top of the cone but also the large crater in the middle.

Here are just a few of the flowers we encountered on our hike:

Blue Penstemon

Evening primrose

Plains Prickly Pear

Meadow Salsify

Nuttal's sego lily

And the Menan Buttes tower over the Henrys Fork of the Snake River as it meanders past them on its way to join the Snake River, then on to the Columbia River and eventually on to the Pacific Ocean.

Bluegill fishing at Twin Lakes

I am still trying to catch up from last week. Last Thursday I traveled to Preston, Idaho, to try for bluegill for the first time in over 30 years. They did not disappoint me.

In four hours float tubing on Twin Lakes I caught over a hundred bluegill up to 9 1/2 inches and six small largemouth bass. It was great fun. All were caught using a sinking fly line striping a beadhead Mity Mouse (as you can see in the pictures hanging from the mouths of the fish.) I did not have to fight other fishermen as I was the only float tuber and the three other boats fishing went to the other side of the lake.

I fished three other lakes near Preston and two of them skunked me. Winder and Condi Reservoirs did not produce for me and I fished each for about an hour. I could have been fishing wrong, but I was fishing the same way I did at Twin Lakes. Johnson Reservoir treated me a little better as I caught a lot of small bluegill.

I also checked out Glendale and Lamont Reservoirs, but they were very busy with recreation watercraft. Glendale was covered with visitors from Utah and Lamont had all the local teenagers sunbathing and showing off to each other.

I decided to finish the day out at Twin Lakes and met a local fisherman putting his boat in.

Here is his assesment of the lakes:

Twin Lakes - the best around for big perch, bluegill, and bass with some trout and crappie there.

Condi - mostly dead with a few fish early in the spring. (Ruined by the F&G by making it a trophy bass lake and then forgetting about it.)

Treasureton - Same as Condi except for trout instead of bass.

Glendale - taken over by Utah waterskiers.

Lamont - good before the kids get on it.

Foster - forget it.

Johnson - Second best to Twin Lakes, but have to fish it early in the day.

I had a great day but had to battle the wind to get off the lake as a storm rolled in.

Fishing Henrys Lake, again

Last Wednesday I ran up to Henrys Lake to try to see if the fishing had picked up. I started fishing at 5:30 and caught seven by 7. Then I spent the next four hours catching only two. This is typical after the weather warms up and we have afternoon thunderstorms roll through mixing things up.

Seven of the nine fish were brook trout with several in the 18 inch range.

I watched the guru of the lake, Harry Tupper, catch three fish while I did not catch any. He is a master of small flies and light tippets.

I spent some time taking pictures of birds on the way home. The experience of the day was watching a male osprey feeding the female while she sat on the nest. The young should soon hatch and then both parent will be very busy feeding the hungry, growing young birds. I will be exciting to watch that action.

Bringing in the food and then feeding the nest-sitter.

Bobolink

Last Tuesday I had an hour between appointments so I decided to run up to Chester Wetlands to see if I could get an interview for an article. No one was in the office so I ran up along the Henrys Fork to check out the birds.

Eastern and Western Kingbirds were working a heavy caddis hatch along with the tree swallows and the Western Tanagers. Young meadowlarks were perched on the fense and I noticed a black and white bird, but with the white and black in the wrong places to be a magpie - A bobolink. It was a life-time first for me. I was able to get a few pictures before it flew off.

Later I heard the bird had been seen for the last three days.

Another exciting experience was watching Eastern Kingbirds chasing the Western Tanagers around when they got too close.