Reggie at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

I’m still in Idaho at RedRock RV Park. Dad reminded me that this is my 52nd blog here and that means a whole human year of writing these things. I hope you like them. I haven’t heard from many of you. I’d love to hear that SOMEONE is reading these.

I haven’t been able to be outside much lately because it has been raining a LOT and because I have that dreaded Golden Retriever disease: HOT SPOT again. Dad says it’s a skin disease that nobody knows WHY we get it, but it means that the hair over my “SPOT” has to be trimmed and an ugly and bad smelling yellow liquid gets put on it until it heals. Dad doesn’t like me to go outside because I scratch it and it bleeds because of my sharp claws. But, the hot spot is getting better and the weather is improving a bit so I think I’ll be outside again soon.

This weekend we had a sunny day and Dad told me to HOP in the car. I love that word. It means we get to GO in the car. So, I waited patiently in the back of the Jeep for Dad to fill the it with his camera stuff and we were on our way early in the morning. Dad said we were going to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a very big place nearby that lets lots of different animals live there without much interference from humans. Mostly birds live there, but also Elk, Moose, Deer, Antelope, Fox, Coyotes and Bears.

What that means for me is that I get to look for animals. It’s not very far from the RV park and Dad likes to do his photography there (you know, he points that little black box he calls a camera at animals and flowers and presses a button. For what ever reason, I still haven’t figured out.)

The fox ran away from me when he heard my barking. Dad was mad at me.

I hung my head out the window and started to look for animals. I like to look for cows, dogs, coyotes, elk, fox, moose, buffalo, and sometimes even big birds. I bark to let Dad know there’s an animal he can point his camera at. He doesn’t seem to appreciate it though since he tells me to be quiet. Like the other day, we were driving along Red Rock road and I spotted a fox. Dad stopped the car and rolled his window down, grabbing his camera. I wasn’t sure if Dad saw him so I barked again. Well, unfortunately the fox thought I was trying to chase him and it ran away. (I was a lot bigger than him.) Dad pointed at the fox but he was running away. Dad was mad at me for a minute for scaring it away. It wasn’t my fault the fox was so sensitive to my barking.

It was foggy when we left on our trip. You could see the top of Sawtelle Peak (in Idaho).

Well, when we started on our trip, it was very foggy (that’s the white, wet, cold stuff that hangs in the air in the mornings sometimes). We could see outside, but only in a few places, like just the tops of the mountains. However, the fog went away soon (I don’t know where it went though.) and I was able to look for animals. The first one I found for Dad was a big bird. Dad says it was a Red-tailed Hawk. Well, just in case Dad didn’t see it, I barked and guess what… it was as sensitive as the fox and it flew away. Dad pointed at it as it flew. He wasn’t very happy with me. Sigh!

This Red-tailed Hawk didn't like my barking either!

Dad says this is the Wild Blue Flax wildflower. I was sniffing around when he took this.

The road is very bumpy and a little bit muddy due to all the rain we’ve had, so we drove very slowly. I could see a lot of birds and Dad stopped and pointed his camera a few times. Finally, after about an hour we stopped near the Red Rock creek and Dad let me roam around. The smells here are great because I can tell that lots of animals have been here. Dad was on his knees pointing his camera at tiny wildflowers while I ran all around. There are no cars or humans nearby so he lets me run free. It’s lots of fun.

This is Red Rock Creek. It flows to the Missouri River. I like to play here.

The big mountains are called the West Centennials. There's a big field for me to run in here.

We hopped back in the Jeep and drove some more. I didn’t see any big animals though. There were lots of things that Dad pointed out to me (he thinks I like to see them), like the snowy West Centennial Mountains, the wildflowers, the creeks, the lichen and the birds. I pretend to listen to him but I really just look and smell out the window for more animals.

I saw the Antelope (Pronghorn) and he saw me. I ran but Dad called me back.

When we stopped again it was in front of those great big mountains. There was a huge field full of grasses and wildflowers and I ran fast and far away from Dad (I could still see him on his knees looking at the flowers.) The smell of Antelope was heavy in the air so they must be nearby. I would love to chase them but Dad says I’d never catch them because they are one of the very fastest animals. Soon, I saw them at the edge of the forest. We just stared at each other for a moment. I decided to run after them, but Dad asked me (well, he kinda TOLD me) to come back NOW. It was hard to do, but Dad knows best. The Antelope sprang away real fast and I ran to Dad. He had a treat ready for me (I have him trained well.) Boy that was fun though!

My favorite animal to spot, the ground squirrel. Dad wouldn't let me chase him.

We drove on and I continued looking and smelling out the window. Then, suddenly I saw one of my favorite animals, the little ground squirrel. He was sitting on a fence. I immediately let Dad know and he stopped to point his camera. This time the squirrel didn’t run away, but Dad wouldn’t let me out of the Jeep. Darn! I could have had a good run!

Tracey & Jay Petervary are riding the Tour Divide race. Dad talked to them in Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

While we were driving Dad spotted some humans riding what he called a tandem bicycle. It’s a machine that humans use to go fast (they can’t run like I can). We talked to them (well, Dad did, I’m shy around strangers!). They were riding their bike from Banff in Canada to Mexico, almost 2750 human miles along the Continental Divide. They were in a race (without anything to chase by the way). They hoped to ride the whole distance in 15 to 20 days. I guess that’s fast. I hope they stop to eat and sleep! Dad talked to several more humans riding bikes in the same race along Red Rock road. He also pointed his camera at them. They didn’t seem to mind. (I didn’t bark to scare them away.)


We stopped at the Upper Red Rock Lake Campground and walked down to the lake. There were White Pelicans and some ducks playing in the water (Dad says they were fishing for lunch). It was quiet there (except for me sniffing around) and we stayed a while to enjoy the quiet. (Dad sat and enjoyed the quiet, I sniffed around.)

We were on our way again. I saw some more Antelope playing in the fields, but Dad wouldn’t let me out to chase them this time. We stopped at the top of a hill overlooking both the lower Red Rock Lake and the upper Red Rock lake for lunch. Dad gave me a big dog biscuit and I was happy. It was so quiet there except for the birds chirping and a few cows in the fields mooing.

Unfortunately, we had to go home, but we took our time getting back to the RV park as we stopped a few times for Dad to photograph and me to, well, lift my leg and do other dog business, you know. One place we went was on the other side of the lake. It had a lot of sand dunes that were fun to run in. We saw some big hawks and an eagle fly by. But I didn’t see a Moose or a Bear. Maybe I’ll see one next time. I know that I’ll be out here again with Dad soon. I think he likes to take me even though I scare the animals sometimes. I’ll try to be quieter next time. I promise.

So, I hope you liked my trip as much as I did. You can come and see it for yourself. Come say hi to me when you do, please.

Arf,

Reggie