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

Yet Another Snow Sport...XCountry

Today we headed out in bright blue skies to try x-country skiing.  Our first attempt and it went pretty well...only 2 falls for one of us.  No injuries to report and tomorrow we're heading on a snow coach tour of West Yellowstone.  The plan is to take a more adventurous tour on skis through Biscuit Basin to Old Faithful.  We have 2 1/2 hours to make the 2 miles...we shall see how it goes.

Heading up the hill

How much further?

Yeah I like it

Things got hot...

The trail ahead

Beautiful views were everywhere

Making stairs using a 'small' piece of equipment

The Bridger Range

First fall...

Moving along now

More of the Bridgers

Almost done!

Our Powder Day in Pictures

Cindi holding the Go Pro

 

Bill kicking it up

Bill riding down Emil

Cindi traversing Sluice Box

Top of Avalanche Gulch

Top of Bridger Lift

Bill finding more powder

Looking out over Avalanche Gulch

Trying to breath and not panic

Avalanche drop in

Cindi starts her run through Avalanche

Powder Runs and Trees...Oh My

Yesterday we had six inches of fresh snow to ride.  We headed out earlier than normal and actually ate fast food for breakfast so we could try to get ahead of the Bridger Train.  The train is a large number of vehicles heading out to Bridger...our train had almost 30 cars all spaced out evenly for the 15 mile trip out of town.



We weren't the first ones on the mountain, but it is amazing how fast the 'line' moves...four to a chair and suddenly no line.  Since there was so much fresh snow we decided to break our tradition and head to the top of Bridger rather than Powder Park.  New snow in Bridger Bowl seemed too good to pass up...although I was a bit apprehensive.  I have a love/hate relationship with the top of Bridger Lift.  I love the views, but don't like the steepness and riding down the road.  At least I have improved my gliding skills.

Off we headed down the road until we dropped into the bowl  For the first time I was able to drop over the edge without a conversation with myself...which never ends well.  My brain keeps telling my legs that 'no you will not turn down this insanely steep slope...you will die if you do'.  My legs have always listened and I head on down the road.  However on this day the brain said 'drop in' and the legs listened.  No panic and off we headed down the bowl into lots and lots of powdery snow.  No falls on the steep...cannot say the same for the flats.  Bill had a nice tumble looking back over his shoulder.

After our little warmup in the Bowl we headed to Avalanche Gulch.  Wow, amazing powder in the Gulch, but it isn't as easy to get back to the proper lift...need to take a rope tow back up to get on the Bridger lift, ride back up in order to do the run again.  Since there was fresh snow we decided to save some time and head over to PK (Pierre's Knob) for a few runs through the trees and down a few chutes until lunch...if our legs would hold up.



Avalanche Gulch was the run of the day...numerous times until our legs said enough.  Our
day started out with snow falling and ended with bright blue skies and sunshine.  Stunning!  Tomorrow we are going to try cross country skiing.

Bill Made Me Carry the Big Stick

I was 'forced' to carry the Go Pro camera on the mono-pod...while riding on a snowboard.  I really did not want to carry the pole.  There are times I have trouble getting myself down the mountain much less a camera, a stick and me.  Anyway the video isn't the greatest...it seems I don't hold my arm out straight enough or something along those lines.  In my defense my poor thumbs suffer from arthritis and don't much care for holding on to the 'heavy stick' while wearing mittens.

Enough whining...enjoy the videos.

Wow

Today we headed downtown for a bit of retail shopping and of course coffee.  While I was getting my latte' at Leaf and Bean Bill and Cooper headed over to Chalet Sports.  We had a good time talking with the employees and a few other customers... Coop brings the crowds to us.

Chatting about our time in Bozeman and boarding at Bridger we mentioned the 'white out' yesterday.  One lady asked if we had seen the video from last month's wind when Bridger shut down... nope we hadn't.  We are very glad we had not seen this one while we were on the chairs yesterday.

Take a look... you might want to hold on to something.