Enjoying spring

A quick road trip to Indiana and Minnesota allowed my husband and I to enjoy a bit of spring before heading to Alaska. Even though the first morning was snowy through the Swan Valley in Montana, the snow faded away the farther south we went.

Needles of granite in Custer State Park, South Dakota

Sunshine and pleasant sixty degree temperatures in the Black Hills of South Dakota made that portion quite enjoyable along with the scenery and wildlife. The Needles Highway leading into Custer State Park is amazing. The 'needles' are spires of eroded granite. They are similar to the Granite Tors near Fairbanks, Alaska, but are more abundant.

Pronghorn Antelope, Black Hills, South Dakota

Buffalo, pronghorn antelope and prairie dogs were plentiful in Wind Cave National Park. I also spotted a mountain bluebird.

Buffalo, Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

As we neared Indiana, after traveling through Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, the trees started to show a tinge of green and everyone's lawns were green. Daffodils were flowering and birds were singing the whole time and the trees became surprisingly green in four days.

Daffodils blooming near former homestead

I enjoyed identifying a different assortment of birds in Indiana. There were northern cardinals, blue jays, wood thrush, eastern towhees, tufted titmouse, red-bellied woodpeckers, eastern bluebirds and Carolina chickadees, to name a few.

I was introduced to eastern redbuds, a tree with beautiful red blossoms in the spring. A climb up the fire tower at McCormick State Park provided a tree top view of the budding redbud and other trees leafing out. The trees have grown quite a bit since the fire tower was built because you couldn't see over them.

View from fire lookout in Indiana

I enjoyed one sunny 80 degree day in Indiana, which I don't typically get to enjoy until June. But that quickly changed as we headed north to Minnesota, where the warmest temperatures were in the sixties.

The lawns in Minnesota were greening up but the tree buds were only beginning to swell. The snowy winter was evident throughout Minnesota and North Dakota where many fields were flooded and rivers were swollen over their banks.

The snow hasn't melted in north-central Montana. From Shelby to Columbia Falls on Highway 2, there was a lot of snow. Fence posts were still buried under snowdrifts and there was a foot of snow on the road over Marias Pass--which made for some slow driving.

Back in Idaho, the majority of the snow has melted in the valley and only a few well-shaded snow patches remain. The daffodils should be blooming any day and the larch are starting to show green.