Considering the situation that each one of us was in at the time, floating through paradise hardly seemed like an apt description of the fishing trip we were on. All 13 of us on the river those two days had come face-to-face with our mortality....
A remarkable fish story is unfolding in Yellowstone Lake, the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park. And situated at 7,733 feet, also the largest high-elevation lake in North America, it’s here that native cutthroat trout are reclaiming their icy cold home waters after...
There are few man-made landmarks in Southwest Montana as recognizable as the statue of swimming trout that’s been perched above Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop in Livingston since 1996. And the large bike that now hangs off to the side signifies a new direction for the...
After a morning hike around Shoshone Falls and the Evel Knievel jump site (where the legendary daredevil crashed due to a parachute malfunction and suffered nothing more than a broken nose) in Twin Falls, Idaho, my family and I were excited to soak in a...
Energized by generous spring rains, the hillsides rising above the stream seemed almost impossibly green, and we really didn’t need the crowing cock pheasant to remind us of the season. Wildlife scattered before us as we waded through the grass: a gravid whitetail doe, churring...
Our anticipation swells like the massive Beartooth Range that stands prominently before us. My traveling companion is my wife, Mary, and we’re heading up Montana Highway 78 from the mouth of Rosebud Creek in the Stillwater River Valley, nearing the quaint town of Absarokee. We...
“April is the cruelest month…” —T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” You can bet that poet T. S. Eliot never spent a winter in Montana. Never mind his dark allusions to death and rebirth — after all the many months of parkas and snowplows, April in Montana...
Last winter, during a family trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we started the day by sitting in front of the fireplace in our hotel lobby and sipping steamy beverages before heading out to explore Grand Teton National Park on our cross-country skis. After a cozy...
Calm air, clear azure skies, and a uniform blanket of white covering the entire landscape, save for the lower branches of the pines; I didn’t need a thermometer to tell me it was a sub-zero day and, because of that, I was pretty sure there...
One fall day when I was 9 years old, my father came home with a brand new snowmobile: a 1979 Yamaha Enticer 340. It was bright red with white stripes and gold lettering on the cowl, and to me, the engine sounded just like a...