Montana Trip '08 [yellowstone national park]

two days were planned for snowshoeing and wildlife viewing in the first national park: yellowstone. andrea and i have been to yellowstone before... and hated it. it was during the summer, and everybody and their bother was there. [yellowstone is the second most visited national park, only falling behing the great smokey mountains...that's because gsmnp is free and yellowstone is $25] we left two days early. one day after a michigan woman fell to her death in the grand canyon of yellowstone while taking family photos and the day after we saw parents telling their children to get closer to the grizzly bear for a photo. [notice a pattern here?!]

we were a little hesitant, but had heard nothing but great things about yellowstone in the winter. our opinion of the park has changed. we will return...but only in winter.

wildlife was easy to see. here is one brooke's favorites!
they remind him of his parents dog.

although the park was quite empty, we still saw plenty of
impatient humans pushing the wildlife around in 'their' park.

our first snowshoe hike was 'the lost lake trail.'

a controversial topic in the outer yellowstone area is the
reintroduction of the wolf. they are there. we saw them. and
a lot of prints!

heading back through the 'canyon' into the lost lake region.

little did we know that lost lake would be filled with bison.

just doing what they do best: hangin' out!

it was an eerie feeling snowshoeing on top of three feet
of snow, knowing that there was an undisclosed amount
of water below it.

we thought a hot lunch would hit the spot halfway through our
six mile hike. so we packed our trusty msr whisperlite stove
and some backpacking food.

mmm.

on the way back. guided by dusk.

the whole trip we couldn't get over the sun...
we don't see it a whole lot in seattle.

and the sunsets.

roosevelt arch.
6 second night exposure.
no photoshop.

our second day in yellowstone we snowshoed around the upper geyser basin loop trail.

for my friend mike who loves moss.

winter is the time to see the geothermal features.

i think we only saw about twelve people our entire visit.

after the upper geyser basin loop trail we head out to the tower ranger distric to hike out to tower falls.

we saw this guy on the way. what majestic animals!

calcite springs is streaming on the left.

mid-hike photo-op.

andrea was excited to hike on to tower falls!

tower falls. it's not everyday you see a waterfall
frozen solid.

we saw a pair of coyotes destroy a small animal.
blood. everywhere. :)

towards the end of our hikes we always talk about what
would taste the best. on this occasion we couldn't get
pizza and a pitcher of beer off our minds. lucky we found
K-BAR! the only bar-pizzeria-casino-private dining club
in gardiner, mt!

stay tuned...more to come about this trip!