Numbers 6: 24-26

The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

Monday, March 19, 2018

A Beautiful Drive

This trip took us into the park to go snowshoeing, quite a ways out. The drive with some snow still on the roads takes about 1.5 hours if you don't encounter a bison jam.

We started this trip at our own Palmer's Pond. Bob has been itching to walk on the water as the bison and elk have been doing. So here is his one attempt. As he turned to walk out further, the ice made some interesting cracking noises so he retreated quickly. Check another feat off the list!






The only road open during the winter connects Gardiner to Cooke City, MT. We've made part of this drive 5 times now and can't get over the beauty and difference from summertime. One immediate difference is you can spot animals in the snow much easier. You can also find footprints of species we know are around but are rarely seen. For instance, we've seen fox tracks around our cabins but a sighting is very rare.



We've also had a group trying to track and spot cougar. They see the tracks in the range beside us, but none have shown themselves so far.









All this being said, most of these pictures are just of the landscape as we drive by. We occasionally pull over and Bob hops out to take what you are looking at now. I wish I could put them all in, but even I might fall asleep after a while!

We've reached Lamar Valley. Home of where we have spotted the most wolves during our stays.




Here are bison ranging up the hill. There are smalls herds everywhere in the hills and valleys and quite often in the road.









Bob spotted these Big Horn Sheep on one of the crests. We've never seen then out here before.







This is the Lamar River. It was totally snowed over only a week before. The snow melt is bringing shelves of snow into the water and expanding the width daily.








 Another shot of the river.







Here is the entrance to the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, where the bison got their start when reintroduced to the park.









I can't let this go without a comparison picture of the river and valley taken from the Ranch looking across the road. (August)









This looks like something out of a movie. You can see the ice and snow on the road even after it has been plowed. Places are starting to melt and turn to water and dry up with this trip out.









A last shot (for now!) of the valley.



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