My Summer Home

Red Rock RV Park, Island Park, Idaho - my summer home.

One of the advantages of traveling around the world in an RV is that you get to choose your favorite places. I’d like to share some of my favorite places in this blog. Today I’d like to tell you about my summer home in Idaho. Maybe you’ll come see me if I let you know how good it is. Bring your humans too; they might like it.

We stay in Island Park, Idaho, in an RV Park called RedRock RV Park. It’s pretty neat because I’m kinda the head dog here. I’ve been coming here for five years now, and I know the place like the back of my paw. Needless to say, I’ve got it well marked as my territory now.

I saw this Grizzly Bear on our last trip. Yikes he's big!

Dad likes it because it’s so close to Yellowstone National Park and Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. I don’t like Yellowstone so much because I can’t wander around free, but it is fun to see all the big Bison and Elk and sometimes the big Grisly Bear out the Jeep window. If I’m having a good day, I bark at them and tell them to stay away from our car. It seems to help. No bison or bears have attacked us yet.

My favorite friend is Casey. She's really pretty and smart too!

I guess my favorite thing about the RV Park is all the other dogs I get to meet. I spend a lot of the day under a spruce tree outside our RV inspecting the other dogs that walk by all day long. Many stop to visit. Some are not so friendly, but most are. Casey is my favorite friend here. She lives in Mesa Arizona in the winter but visits us here in summer. She’s a beautiful Beagle and I think she likes me. Also, this summer we’ve had a lot of Golden Retrievers like me. Randy is one of my favorites. Otis lives here too, but he’s a bit young for me now (he’s so obnoxious at times!). We’re good friends, though.

One of the cats that I like at the RV Park.

There are also 6 cats that live here. I get to visit them through their screen door. Several of them put their paw out under the screen to try to touch me. They are gentle and I like them.

Here I am walking on the dog walk at RedRock RV Park.

The RV park has a really nice long path just for us canine customers. It's fenced in and lighted at night, and right now it has the most beautiful wildflowers surrounding it. I like to walk there because I smell so many of my friends, even the ones that have left the park.

Here I am with a friend from years past, Elana! I miss her!

My next favorite thing is all the humans that like me. They all say nice things about me. I turn red when they do, but you can’t tell. Gordon and Karen are the owners here and they really like me. Gordon whistles loud and that gets me excited. People come from all over the world to visit me, and Yellowstone…, but I think it’s mainly me. Many have seen me on my web page, so they already know me. It’s kinda fun to be famous.

Dad's photographing wildflowers again, Sigh!

Every morning Dad takes me for a walk. We walk about three miles. Usually Dad is photographing wildflowers or something else. I wait for him and he rewards me with a treat for my patience. I like sniffing where other dogs have been, too.

Here I am with the RV park and Red Rock Road on our Morning walk.

A lot of them walk along Red Rock Road. The road has a big forest and large mountains on the one side and a large ranch and Henry’s Lake on the other side. Usually not many cars come along the road, but when they do, I sit and wait for them to pass. Dad usually gives me a treat after they leave.

We walk into the Forest across from the RV Park. It's full of flowers in Spring.

Across from the RV Park is a path that goes into the large forest. It’s full of wildflowers, aspens, pines, and large Douglas firs. I smell lots of animals, though I don’t usually see them. Dad says they are deer, moose, and bear. Yikes! Bear! I don’t know what’d I do if I saw one. I’d probably protect Dad and Mom from it if I could. We often walk far into the forest down to a creek that I can drink from. It’s quiet, and in the summer, its so cool to be out of the sun!

There are lots of cows at the ranch next door. They follow me down the road (along the fence), but I mostly ignore them. Cows are boring most of the time. I do like to roll around in their poop, though. It gives that certain air about me! I always get a bath when I do that.

Henry's Lake is only a mile away. I like the cool water.

A really cool walk is going to Henry’s Lake, about a mile from the RV Park down the dirt road. Once we get there (it can take a long time when the wildflowers are fresh), I get to run after the ground squirrels and jump into the water. I can swim along with the big trout. I try to catch them but they are too fast for me. There are mountains surrounding us and birds flying over our heads. It’s a pretty neat place for a dog (and Dad says its good for fishermen, too).

There's Henry's Lake behind me. It's 10'000 feet up here and cold!

Dad likes to drive over the Continental Divide into Montana and out to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. There are so few people there, but there are many animals, birds, butterflies, wildflowers, mountains, streams and lakes. Sometimes we spend an hour driving the 12 miles to the entrance because Dad likes to go slow and stop to take photographs, and while he’s doing that, I lean my head out the window, smelling the animals and looking for squirrels. When we get there, Dad stops and let’s me run around a lot.

We found this baby Pronghorn in the grass at Red Rock Wildlife Refuge.

Last month, I accidentally scared a baby Pronghorn (sometimes mistakenly called antelope) and ran after it. Dad reminded me that it wasn’t harmful, so I stopped chasing it. We stay several hours, and Dad comes home with lots of photos.

Mesa Falls is a neat place near the RV park to visit.

Another fun place for me is Mesa Falls. I like it because it’s so cool. The water from the falls splashes in my face and cools me down on a hot summer day. The noise is really loud, but it’s worth it. Dad takes lots of photos because he thinks its one of the most beautiful falls he has ever seen.

Our hike along the Henry's Fork of the Snake River is really fun!

One of our favorite walks is along the Snake River. It’s only a few miles from here. We walk about 4 miles, and there are what Dad calls rapids in the river. They are all white, noisy, splashy, and cool. I can run down to the river at any time (almost) and splash around and get a cool drink of water. It’s really great, and most of the walk is in the forest. I smell bears, moose, and other dogs, but I rarely see them. Once we saw a small snake, but those are rare.

Not too far away is another great hiking place called Mile Creek. It’s in Montana. It’s along a small creek that comes from some high mountains called the Henry’s Lake Mountains. Dad lets me run all over, but I never lose sight of him (he might get lost). There are beautiful mountains all around us, wildflowers, and all the rushing water. Dad really likes it there. The trail is really long up the mountain, but we don’t go the whole distance.

Dad says these are Paintbrush wildflowers.

Of course, we go to Yellowstone from time to time, but that’s another story. There are all sorts of smelly water, nasty bison, and lots of people. Dad thinks it’s beautiful, but not for a dog with all the rules to obey. There are a lot of rivers, lakes and mountains that we visit too, but I’ll tell you about those another time because I see Casey coming down the road and I want to play with her.

Come see me at RedRock RV Park. Look at their web page to learn more about it: http://www.8004RedRock.com. Look at Dad's wildflower page there too. He's spent all summer dragging me around and photographing about 200 different flowers near here.

Hope you have a better understanding of what things are around me here during the summer.

Reggie

Arf