Pulling out from Little Sandy Camp, we headed southeast with our next destination NEAT COULEE at the Eagle Creek camp site. In the distant, you can see some white walls along the river edge.
The river is full of many different birds, including these cute pelicans!
We also saw blue heron, golden eagles, osprey, swooping birds, swallows, red wing black birds, sage grouse, and our national bird. Below on the left dead branch of this cottonwood is an adult bald eagle. On the top right side, you see a young eagle sitting in its nest. What a treat this was to see!
The scenery went from grassy hilly shores to rock!Soon, there were white walls on both sides on the river and it was quite the site!
Close up, you can see how these walls provide a safe home for the mud daubers!
Other rock sites looked like a different world! Millions of years ago, lava bubbled out over and capped the sandstone. Through time, water and wind wears the sandstone, but the igneous rock remains intact making formations known as "toadstools". This section of the riverbed is lined with it!
After a couple of hours, we landed at Eagle Creek for an interesting hike up to some of these walls.Below, you can see how tiny our raft of stuff is compared to the river and the white walls!
We hiked up "Neat Coulee" which is up Eagle Creek... a dry gulch (except for spring runoff) and eventually made it to this really spectacular slot canyon. It was nice and cool and shady and such a reprieve from the hot sun on the water!
Along the walls you see these holes formed from iron nodules protruding, bulging through and falling out.
Gus enjoyed the shade too...
and after a swim in the water, he relaxed in the grass as we ate lunch, 
and headed to our next destination...
Here is a sneak preview...
Loading our stuff and getting to camp:The State of Montana declared a section of the Upper Missouri River a National Monument in 2001 in the celebration of the Lewis and Clark 200 year anniversary. It is a beautiful stretch of the river, about 100 miles or so. Most is owned by BLM, some by State and some by private landowners. This part of the river has some beautiful geological sites, lots of assorted birdies and the slow wide river is incredibly calming. Many people canoe or kayak this stretch. There are a handful of camp sites with fire rings and outhouses, some with just fire rings. You can camp anywhere on public land but you have to have your own bathroom. You can camp anywhere up to the high water marks on private land. The banks are incredibly muddy, but you just deal with it. We floated about 42 miles total.We've been looking forward to this float for a year! I've never done a multi-day raft trip so the whole experience was so new and fun! Everything but the cold cooler was packed Thursday night, so Friday we got things loaded.
We drove about 5 hours to reach our TAKE-OUT destination. Here we dropped of the motorcycle...so when we arrive on the raft, Scott will have transportation to get back to the pickup and raft trailor ( which is over an hour of dirt road). So under that big tree is the honda, covered by the tarp so no one will steal it! lol
Then off to a little town called Big Sandy, and then to the Coal Bank camp site and ramp. Here is the master organizer, trying to figure out how to get all our "stuff" on!
As you can see, lots of sunshine so I made sure to have my umbrella, sun hat and lots of sun screen (I get terrible allergic reactions if i have too much sun). Anyway, it all fit!
Here we go!
Here's the view!
So relaxing!
Some of us snoozed!
We floated until we reached Little Sandy pull-out and camp ground. We were the only ones there. What a nice spot! We set up camp, here's Scott setting up the kitchen.
We had chili stew with corn and it was yum yum!
And we set up the tent, door facing the east...and we snoozed well that night!
Next up: Day 2...Coulees, slot canyon, hole in the wall and so forth!
I can't believe how much this handsome little man has grown! Of course, he LOVED the popcorn popper vacuum thing the most! 
And he figured out how to flip open the top on the jack-in-the-box right off the bat and LOVED that, too!
And when it was all said and done playing with his old school toys, he grabbed the Christmas bear that still sits on the tv! lol Laura LOVED his hat and the bag. It was as special to her as I had hoped it would be :o)
Alright, done with the toys, LET"S GO PLAY!
Megs LOVED the swing when she was little. However, little Theo LOVES the slide!
Again and again and again and again...
and he figured out if he leans on his side, he will go faster!
Then UP UP UP the steps! He was real careful the first couple of times (this was the first). After the 3rd time, he just ZIPPED right up there! 
And the very first time...he actually liked the swing. Now when Megs was little, she would yell DING DING so you would push her really REALLY high and hard. Theo likes gentle, but it was really sweet that we enjoyed his first swing experience. Isn't he so cute? And so is my Megs...
And after an hour or so at the park, we came back to get a drink of water and relax a bit. Theo decided my garden hose handle was his microphone. He kept on singing into it.
He loves running up and down ramps...so of course he found Scott's trailor...and we played RUN THE RAMP for I don't know how long. After a while he finally started pooping out...
He was ready to drift off shortly thereafter. We had such a wonderful time playing with his old school stuff, ate a nice dinner together, played hard at the park with lots of good visits in...so he tipped his hat saying, "That's all, folks!" 
I can't wait to see him again!
Today is a very busy day! 1) Finish packing for our 4-day Missouri River float trip...leaving early tomorrow morning...2) Clean house!3) Prepare a delicious, home-cooked meal for Theo and Laura, my daughters, hubby and me.-pork sirloin roast in the slow cooker-potatoes, quartered and cooked with onions, carrots, peppers with a dab of olive oil and season salt-green salad, jello salad,
homemade pear sauce-chocolate or pistachio (haven't decided yet) pudding jelly roll ---what's your vote?4) Eat dinner, play with the new old fashioned STUFF in Theo's bag then we all go to the park and play!Could it get any better?
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I got started at 7am and now it is 3:15 and I just finished! It all included going to the store to get eggs for the jelly roll that ended up ripping apart, going to the school to pick out the carpet for my classroom, finish packing food and stuff for the float trip and completely cleaning the house! now it's time for the shower and get ready to see Theo and Laura...they'll be here in 45 minutes!
We also saw blue heron, golden eagles, osprey, swooping birds, swallows, red wing black birds, sage grouse, and our national bird. Below on the left dead branch of this cottonwood is an adult bald eagle. On the top right side, you see a young eagle sitting in its nest. What a treat this was to see!
The scenery went from grassy hilly shores to rock!
After a couple of hours, we landed at Eagle Creek for an interesting hike up to some of these walls.
We hiked up "Neat Coulee" which is up Eagle Creek... a dry gulch (except for spring runoff) and eventually made it to this really spectacular slot canyon. It was nice and cool and shady and such a reprieve from the hot sun on the water!
Along the walls you see these holes formed from iron nodules protruding, bulging through and falling out.
Gus enjoyed the shade too...
and headed to our next destination...
Here is a sneak preview...
