Ski resorts in the Rocky Mountain West — even the ones that once felt undiscovered — now seem more crowded than ever. For those of us who moved here to enjoy our winters gliding on the snow and carving turns in fresh powder, the experience...
Jennifer Wicks places two bars of chocolate in front of me and my 14-year-old daughter Tessa. “These are each made with the same recipe of 72 percent cacao and 28 percent sugar,” she tells us. “See if you can tell the difference.” [caption id="attachment_19593" align="aligncenter" width="500"]...
Arguably one of the most memorable and iconic winter experiences of my life thus far was zipping through the Montana wilderness on the back of a wooden sled. Quietly being pulled over ice and snow by an enthusiastic and joyful team of dogs — with...
Like most people, I’d only visited Yellowstone National Park in the summer — when the viewing area and boardwalks that weave around Old Faithful are so crowded that it’s nearly impossible to photograph the marvel of nature without also capturing the hordes of tourists. However,...
Long George Francis was becoming more frustrated by the minute as the narrow tires of his 1914 Hupmobile slid uncontrollably in the mix of icy clay gumbo and snow. The steering wheel turned effortlessly in his big hands with little effect on the car’s direction...
I take SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America… I spell it large because it comes large here. —Charles Olson, Call Me Ishmael: A Study Of Melville I know of no hunting venue that reinforces the sense of companionship between hunter and...
It’s a long journey from Chicago to rural Montana. Most would say it’s an even longer one from an office job to ranch work. But when Matt and Sarah Skoglund embarked on that particular journey, they ended up at a destination they’d never imagined. While...
When people imagine a rustic log cabin in the Rocky Mountain West, they most likely envision a trophy deer mounted on the wall or above a fireplace. A memento from the surrounding wilderness, the animal’s antlers reach toward the ceiling, and its round, glassy eyes...
It’s well past high-noon on a late-summer afternoon, and chef Melissa Harrison is standing in a field at Hardscrabble Ranch, east of Bozeman, Montana. Holding her hand on her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun, she looks out toward the horizon, checking the...
I’d been running and hiking in complete darkness for a couple hours when I disturbed whatever it was in the trees on the ridge between Sheep Mountain and Mount Jumbo, the peaks around Missoula, Montana. Actually, I’d been moving along the trail by myself for...