Upon which two zebras...

embarked upon a trip around Montana.

So what do you do when you are two, youthful-in-your-mind-but-actually-50-something, women and you decide exploring Montana is just the thing to do? And one of the places you want to visit right off warns about bears?

You buy bear spray and bear bells to fend them off. 

Or, in my case, you just plan on being the 'fastest zebra'.

As part of my final year in Montana, my goal is to see as much of the state as possible. Fun day trips on the back roads. And I have the perfect companion, one who doesn't mind driving while I take 300 plus pictures! (You can find them on my Facebook page under Albums.)

On Tuesday, we packed our picnic lunch (zebras need feeding!) and headed off into the sunny, but cool, Montana backroads. Our plan was to visit Freezeout Lake and see the tail end of the bird migration (my 3rd or 4th trip, Orange Zebra's 1st) and then Catarac Falls (easy hike, but possible bears).

By the way, I'm Purple Zebra.

Anyway, Orange Zebra knew most of the roads, having traveled them going between the branch libraries at one time. So, lunch packed and stowed, off we went!

This little guy greeted us as we entered Freezeout Lake. (We saw bluebirds later in the day, but they wouldn't hold still and I have pictures of blue blurs.)

It is the end of the spring migration and there were a few trumpet swans, a few ducks and a couple of large groups of snow geese still on the water.

A sight like this made the nippy breeze and few birds worth it. Trumpet swans flying in, with the mountains and blue sky framing them.

While we were walking down by the lake to observe the birds, we met up with a woman photographer who clued us in on a real treat. 

A nesting Great Horned Owl in a tree, just up the road a bit. And a convenient place it was too! So we  weren't tramping through brush and creating all kinds of commotion. We simply pulled up and got out of the car and there she was!

See her 'horns' sticking up over the edge of the nest? Orange Zebra did 'hoot' at her and she made a nasty 'hoot' back. Apparently, she wasn't impressed with Zebras.

But she isn't a single mom.

A few minutes later, driving by the other end of the lake, we found daddy out hunting for lunch nearby. (By the way, that line of white on the lake - snow geese.) We sat and watched him dip and soar, looking for little four legged critters to take home to munch on.

Having been given the 'bird', the two zebras headed on down the road to find a waterfall.

It was terrible, having to drive through scenery like this! 

We never made it all the way down the road to the falls. First off, we didn't go down far enough. Secondly, it was still a bit muddy and the creek which we would have to cross was running a bit high. So while we didn't see the falls, we will be back!

The Two Zebras have plans for many more day trips over the next year. Some will include dragging people along as tour guides (we found a friend who knows the falls and took note of her day off!) Lady K and Texter will ride along this summer on the Two Zebra adventures too.

And while we didn't see a bear...

it was a 'deer' trip!

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