Our Last Day in Montana - with a drive to the Crazy Mountains

Our vacation here in Montana has been a wonderful experience, spending time with Carl and Shannan and enjoying the fabulous beauty of this area. Today we spent our last day driving out to the Crazy Mountain range and Big Timber.  We were treated to some additional wildlife photography and   a fun stop at the county museum. As we drove out to a water fall a Coyote crossed the road and ran up the bank. As the sun began to set and we returned to Livingston on a back road we came across our first Black Bear who lingered and let me photograph him while he chowed down on grass. Thanks for following our blog - We return to Virginia tomorrow.

Grey Partridge in the grass

American Kestrel off in the distance (Photo Carl Arnatt)

The Crazies - Mountain range

Shopping in Bozeman and a Fascination with Aspens

All this wildlife spotting and Julie cries "I want to go shopping in Bozeman". So fair is more than fair  and off we go to downtown Bozeman. As Julie shops I enjoy relaxing on a bench and watching people. This is a friendly town. While sitting outside of one shop the owner comes out and offers me a cup of coffee. He was keenly aware of man's plight.

After lunch we find a country trail road and wandered back to Livingston. It was a beautiful day and we stopped many times to soak in the beautiful sun drenched aspens against the Montana spruce. Following is our collection of "keepers".

Back at our loft, Carl and Shannon came over for beer and pizza and a game of 

"Catchphrase". Try to get your English wife to say "Bases Loaded"...We lost handily.

Leaving Cooke City and Returning to Livingston through Yellowstone

This morning we left our motel in Cooke City and meandered back to Livingston through Yellowstone. Cooke city was an interesting experience for this New York City boy. A town at the end of a long road  known as a snowmobile destination in winter . The town is inhabited by a small group of residents who seem to have chosen their mountain lifestyle as an escape from mainstream America; not unlike other places in the west and Alaska.  Tonight I leave you with a pictorial of the days events as we returned to our very nice apartment above the Katabatic brewery.

Fortunately there was No Vacancy at these cabins for our two night stay

 After a hearty breakfast we headed out through Yellowstone Park

Fire scars throughout the park demonstrate the regenerative nature of the western spruce.

Mammoth hot springs from a distance.

Prong Horn or Antelope

Upon returning to Livingston I left our party and went off to take advantage of the beautiful afternoon light and take pictures along the river. While at the river I was able to capture an Osprey fishing the Yellowstone. He like me in my fly fishing ventures came up empty handed.

Drama in the Lamar Valley and Traveling the Chief Joseph Highway

Over the last ten years the National Park Service has been reintroducing the wolf to Yellowstone park. Wolves have been relocated from western Canadian parks. They now have several breeding packs and they are a sighting sought out by naturalists and tourists. Carl called a friend who works for the park service as a guide and asked where is the best place to see the wolves. The answer was get up before sunrise and find people with viewing scopes at the roadside parking areas. So we arose at 5AM and headed in the dark to the Lamar valley. At sunrise we came upon a roadside stop that had a dozen hard core naturalists all tricked out with their viewing scopes and binoculars. As we joined the line of wolf watchers we saw a fascinating drama unfold. Far off in the distance at about 500+ yards we saw a heard of elk all looking in the same direction and grouped in a tight formation. Out of the formation came the largest buck who ran ahead and faced down a wolf who was approaching the herd with several other wolves and their pubs. It was difficult to see the wolves even with the binoculars. They were very far off in the distance and would lay down in the sage brush. The Wolves left the herd along being content with what may have been ground squirrels. It was exciting to see the pack and join the club of wolf watchers.

Camouflaged off in the distance among the sage brush was the rest of the pack including four gray wolves.

After spending several freezing hours watching the Wolves we headed out to the beautiful Chief Joseph highway. Our destination, Cody Wyoming. 

On our drive we came across this Big horned sheep. I'm becoming quite accomplished at taking pictures of animal's behinds. 

Red Tailed Hawk

Early morning American Bald Eagle

As we crested the ridge on the Chief Joseph we encountered fog and frost covering the mountain top with this beautiful frost on the grasses. 

Carl and Shannan our trusty guides

Downtown Cody Wyoming on a Sunday afternoon - Home of Buffalo Bill

Driving back through Wyoming to our motel in Cooke Montana we came across this young cowboy    

driving his cows back to the range - a perfect end to a beautiful drive through the wilderness of Montana and Wyoming.

Arriving in Yellowstone National Park

We awoke to rain and drove 1 hour to the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Rain continued throughout the day but began to clear as we neared late afternoon.  Carl did the driving allowing me to be at the ready for any wildlife sightings. We began our visit to the hot springs area learning about the ancient caldera and the largest volcano in North America. The volcano is showing signs that it is due to erupt sometime over the next 100 years. When it does it will influence weather patterns over the entire globe for many years.  Maybe we should be moving on to the Lamar Valley to look for Bison.

 Click on this movie clip to hear the hot steam bubbling up from the molten lava underneath

 Lounging Elk welcome you to Gardner North Entrance

The Rut is on

 Coyote at Dusk

Bison of Yellowstone - decendants of the Bison at the Bronx Zoo in New York City that were reintroduced in the late 50's 

We close our post meeting the producer and head photographer from the Smithsonian Channel making a documentary on the Bison of Yellowstone and William T. Hornaday, director of the Bronx Zoo who in 1902 reintroduced the herd with 12 Bison from the Zoo.  - film to air next year.