Poof

Bill seldom falls so when he does it is a good one...




Now Cindi on the other hand does fall...usually a heel kick out and she lands on her bum.  Not this time...

One Last Yellowstone Visit

Our stay in Bozeman is winding down so we headed out to Yellowstone for one last winter visit.  Temperatures were in the low teens with what we like to call 'magic snow'...snow that appears out of basically nothing.  Sun was shining and it was snowing, but since it was so dry the snow moved like smoke across the road and shimmered in the air.  Beautiful day.

There seemed to be large number of buffalo and elk quite a few miles outside of the Park.  Along the road we encountered two big groups of elk...especially close to the small Gardnier Airport.  Which made us wonder how often do the elk and buffalo wander onto the landing strip?  Seeing either one of those on the runway cannot end well for either the small plane or the animal.

As we drove past the arch into the Park right along the road were several large groups of Prong Horn.  These are one of our favorite animals to watch, but really hard to get a clear photo.  Their fur plays havoc with the camera which then creates a fuzzy blurry image.

We had not ever seen this many Prong Horn so close to the roadway. 

A few miles further we could see some critters on top of a huge mountain of rock and dirt.  Usually the area has Desert Big Horn Sheep, but the debate raged on between Elk and Big Horn until the photo...Desert Big Horn.  At least we got the shot...blurry as it may be it proved Cindi was correct.

Funny thing we didn't see nearly as many buffalo as our last trip as we made our way to Lamar Valley.  It seemed as if most of the herd was hanging out in Gardnier Valley rather than inside the Park.

We did see something we have rarely seen...2 dead buffalo pretty darn close to the road.  Last week there had been a report of 3 dead buffalo that had been illegally shot.  We wondered what had happened to these two, but they certainly provided much needed food to quite a few others.  No bears or wolves were hanging around...at least none out in the open.  Yes, we did take pictures of the kill site...amazing to see how little is left from such a huge animal.  No we did not get too close...the Park Rangers had closed the area behind a sign to humans due to 'Spring Bear Activity'.  But boy did we want to get closer to see what animal tracks we could find.

Driving back the Bozeman we passed elk, buffalo and even 3 Rocky Mountain Big Horn all standing either on the highway or right beside it.  None seemed too concerned about the traffic whizzing by at 70 MPH.

Frozen Palisade's

Palisade Falls

Today we headed out to Hyalite Canyon for what may be the last time this winter...depends on if they shut the road down early due to the thawing and melting roadbed.  The road starts out as paved (and plowed) all the way to Hyalite Reservoir where it then makes the switch to dirt...or at the moment a rutted combination of mud and snow. 

This section gets shut down to motorized travel once the temperatures rise above freezing to help preserve the road bed.

Rutted mess

We can see why it is not advisable...the ruts have already gotten pretty darn big.  We ended up stopping before we got to the trailhead for Grotto Falls due to some concern that the CRV did not have enough ground clearance to make our way back out since the temperature was already above freezing and the ruts were getting pretty deep.

A tow truck passed by while we were there...it headed down the road past us and we were left wondering if a Subi had gotten stuck along the roadside.

Wait for me!!!

We parked and hiked up towards the Palisade Falls trailhead which was only a mile up the packed snow path.  The temperature was well above 40 degrees and we figured that the waterfall may not be frozen, but it was a beautiful morning for a hike anyway.  As it turned out we were lucky...the 80 foot falls was still frozen to the top..  Although you could see and hear the water running inside the ice.  No one was ice climbing today unless they were crazy.  Well crazier than normal.

Cooper was his usual happy self...spent way more energy and traveled twice as far just to keep track of us. 

I'm coming as fast as I can!

 You would think he'd figure out just to hang back, but he runs ahead until he's out of sight, turns and doesn't see us at which point he RUNS back...checks in and off he goes again.  Rinse and repeat for our entire 4 mile hike. 

He is one whipped pooch...slept through our stop for a late lunch at Harvest Bread and has been sleeping since we got back.

Palisade Falls...frozen to the top

Cooper helping take pictures

Could it be?

I think I hear...ground squirrels!!

Views from the trail

Bright Blue Skies

Today we headed back to Bridger for a bright blue skies and still lots of snow

Almost buried...

There she is, but where is the board

Can you see Cindi?

Heading down Emil

View from Emil toward the Crazy Mts

View from High Traverse

More of High Traverse

Yes it is STEEP

Really STEEP

Heading down Avalanche Gulch

The beginning of the High Traverse

We Still Love Snow...23 inches!

Yesterday morning it rained...a lot.  After dropping Cooper at his second most favorite place in Bozeman we headed out to the slopes.  It had started to snow at higher elevations outside of town, but for most of Bridger Bowl it was raining.  We love to play in snow...we hate rain.  It just isn't fun to be that wet.  The weather called for the rain to make the switch over to all snow just not quite quick enough.

Good thing Bozeman is only 15 miles away...an even better thing a new coffee shop I had not stopped at before.  The scones were the best and Bill's cinnamon bun wasn't too shabby either.  A shame we couldn't work it off on the slopes, but we made up for that today.  Almost 2 feet of new snow fell on Bridger Bowl overnight...wow!

After waking up early and dropping Coop off we discovered that Bridger was under a 1 hour delayed open...too much snow.  We thought that was pretty funny.  The morning start line had formed before 9:00 AM.  Since we are not the youngun's we headed indoors and waited until the lifts started running at 10:00 AM.  Our plan was to head to our favorite run, Avalanche Gulch until we saw that Bridger Lift was not running and the line was huge.  OK change of plan...Alpine and Powder Park had a few inches less, but still well over a foot and best of all no line!  

Enjoy....
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Around noon we finally made a few runs down Avalanche's more than two feet of snow...which was amazing.  Hopefully we will be able to move in the morning and do it again.

The Most Epic Fall...Ever!

Another run down into a huge open meadow...ends with the most epic fall to date.  It tops ALL my others by a huge margin.  No it did not hurt...with that much snow it feels like you're actually falling into nothing.  The snow poofs up around you and I usually start laughing which makes it hard to get up quickly.  Enjoy the video...Bill loves the end.

Alpine Powder Run

On Friday one of the lifts at Bridger finally reopened.  Alpine had been down most of the week so the terrain covered by this lift had not been touched.  That meant almost 20 inches of untouched snow...so much fun.

The first run we didn't use the camera...then Bill had to wait so long for me that he broke out the Go Pro.  It was a gorgeous day...starting with a morning of snow falling and eventually leading to some sunshine.

The second run down we headed toward one of our favorite runs...



Second half of our Alpine run...

Powder Runs

Last week's Avalanche Gulch powder runs....




Language warning on this one:





Bill falls...

Beehive and Old Faithful

While on our visit we did manage a couple of videos of the geysers...Beehive and Old Faithful. 

Beehive



Old Faithful

Our Tour by Bombardier of Yellowstone

Joe and our ride...the Griz

Thursday we set up a snow coach tour of West Yellowstone's geyser area.  We really prefer to do our own thing, but it is the only way to get into the area in winter.   Southwest Montana has been getting nailed with snow the last several days...especially West Yellowstone so we thought it might be a good time to book the tour.  Our guide, Joe worked for Yellowstone Alpen Guides.  He was terrific...a great sense of humor and very informative with lots of trivia about Yellowstone.  

Our coach was one of the first of its type used in Yellowstone by the NPS.  The Bombardier was named Griz and had been built in 1956.  According to Joe it is the quietest coach in the Park...at least from the outside..the inside was definitely a bit loud.  Not as fancy or as comfortable as the newer ones, but by far more enjoyable.  Our group consisted of another couple, Debbie and Marty from Virginia...Stuarts Draft of all places.  Another older couple from Idaho along with their grown daughter from Alaska completed out little group.  It was a fun time.

Buffalo along the Firehole River

Buffalo

Of course we saw the usual buffalo...along the river, on an island and laying in the road.  We actually saw a single coyote which is rare in the Park during the winter.  They tend to leave the area due to the deep snow.

A few elk and a couple of rare Trumpeter Swan rounded out our day in the Park.  Our lunch was spent at Old Faithful waiting for it to blow.   Lucky for us we also got to watch Beehive Geyser blow just before Old Faithful...lucky us since this one only goes off 2 times a day.

Elk

Coyote

Breaking the road block...can you see the snowmobiles?

As we returned to West Yellowstone we ran into a small herd of buffalo laying spread out along the roadside.  A group of 10 on snowmobiles were off to the side watching the group.  Our guide offered to run interference for them.  The bison were less than impressed and slowly got up and moved only slightly down the road.  We are not sure we'd care to be on a snowmobile driving close to these big guys.

Road block

On the way back to Bozeman for the first time we discovered moose along the roadside...four moose spread out over several miles.  We turned around when the first one was spotted...almost too little light to get decent photos though.  Thankfully the storm that was called to hit the area held off until after we got back to Bozeman. 

Moose

As for Cooper he enjoyed his day too.  Ms Sarah dropped by super early so we could get a jump on the drive to West Yellowstone.  The road is beautiful and a nightmare all at the same time winding through a narrow gorge

along the Gallatin River.  Cooper survived his day of having Sarah take charge of him and we survived our tour of West Yellowstone.

Lots of fresh snow to ride tomorrow up at Bridger Bowl!

Blue Grouse

Yellowstone winter

He can sleep anywhere, anytime!

Size discrepancy...ours and theirs

Firehole Falls

Trumpeter Swan

**click any picture to enlarge