After staying at the Madison campground (small tourist city) we got up early and head towered middle creek for some fishing for cutthroat and brookies. Middle creek is next to the road along the east entrance and the road is only open from 6:00am to 10:00am and then from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. In years past I could park in the am fish all day and then leave in the pm. As long as you were not on the road during the closed period the rangers didn't mind. This year was different. We arrived at our destination around 9:15am only to find a sign at the parking area that said "your car will be towed if parked here from 10:00am to 6:00pm" yikes 45 minutes to fish! We were quite bummed at this. I was amazed to see how much water was in Middle creek this year. The creek really looked a lot different. So we caught a couple of fish and struck out toward the Lewis River.