We got up this morning well ahead of sunrise. Since Potholes State Park has an entry gate, we felt that it would be best to enjoy the park one last time. I have a checklist for the day that will eventually be posted to eBird. I don't think there’s any question that the sexiest species (in terms of appeal for finding) was the unexpected Great Horned Owl.
Our next stop was going to be Spokane Falls. It looked like there was some kind of event going on, and the main entrance was blocked. This helped us justify another waterfall later in the day.
Perhaps our biggest stop of the day was Liberty Lake. We got a nice walk in, and I will have a checklist to post. We did not feel that our scheduling could justify their loop trail. It seems like a nice park, and we are open to revisiting some day on the condition that we spend an entire day at the park.
Our next stop was the makeup waterfall we made a stop at Post Falls. Unfortunately, this waterfall is below a hard-to-ignore dam, and it's nearly impossible to find a good view of the side of the falls that are on the same side of the creek as the viewpoints. There is no question that my best waterfall pictures during this trip will not be of Post Falls.
Our rental car has a thermometer to tell us the temperature outside. While I have mentioned potential issues with the heat, I wanted to share a nice change of pace. We ate lunch at a rest stop while it was 49 degrees, wet, and windy. It actually felt cool outside. I still suspect that I will end up missing that feeling.
We saw some reason for concern for selecting a campground for the night. It's a Friday, so campgrounds might be busier than usual. We thought we had a good target, but we started worrying about the possibility of that campground filling up. If we couldn’t get a site, it was probably over fifty miles until the next suitable campground on our list.
Plan B. We decided to hit an earlier campground. We knew there was a risk, but we tried anyway. The road was paved, but we knew the road would get worse after a ranger station. The pavement ended just before that ranger station, and we did not want to see how bad the road would get.
Part of the reason we were going with Plan B was because we could always resort to Plan C. We backtracked to Quartz Flat. This campground is accessed via a rest stop on I-90. We can hear the traffic from here, but I have heard worse. We are also near railroad tracks, but I have not heard any trains.
There is a trail at this campground, and we did one of our campground walks. This is another walk that will have a corresponding eBird checklist. We actually found it odd how dark it was at 6:30. We knew there were further south, but the timing of sunset should be that different. Then I had my biggest duh moment of this vacation. It wasn’t because of how far south we are. It’s because of how far east we are. In fact, I’m pretty sure Montana is in mountain time. It wasn’t dark at 6:30, it was dark at 7:30.
Everything I have is still showing Pacific time. I don't want to bother changing every single clock I have with me. That’s why I am still using Pacific time with these vacation log entries. Hopefully, I will remember to update the times for my eBird checklists.
There are a couple more things that I have seen but have not made my eBird checklists at this time. That would be a Swift and Turkey Vultures.
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