Isn't Winter Over Yet?

 I am beginning to think that winter is going to last forever! We have spent way too many weekends recently stuck in the house. But coming into this weekend, I was especially anxious for the weather to be decent. We absolutely HAD to get to Bozeman!

Dan and I both took Thursday off, and as we set out, it appeared that the roads were going to be a challenge all the way. Imagine my surprise when just at the point where I expected the roads to go from bad to worse, they cleared entirely! Reaching Bozeman with daylight to spare, we set out in search of eagles, and boy did we find them ~ goldens, balds, and immature balds. Eventually, we got hungry and headed back into town for dinner. 

We take every opportunity we get to take pics of our flag
and the Montana state flag was a bonus! 

Friday morning, Dan dropped me off in town and set out on his own to chase down more eagles. What? Didn't I mention that that was the plan all along? I was invited to take part in a class with a Master of Photography! What an opportunity! It was well worth the time and money. I learned a lot, despite being way behind the other participants! When Dan picked me up after class, we beat feet to Gardiner. 

When we caught a brief glimpse of this little guy on Thursday afternoon,
I thought it was a beaver.
Dan got to spend a little quality time on Friday though
with what turned out to be a muskrat. 

Saturday was a Yellowstone day. We were really, really hoping to find otters. Unfortunately, the otters remained elusive, but at least the bison, elk, big horn sheep, and coyotes were more cooperative. 

Yes, the hillside WAS that steep!

While I am absolutely sick of the snow,
it did make for a special moment in photography!

By early afternoon, we decided to wrap up our trip and get home before dark. The roads were generally pretty good, but blowing snow in some places made us very glad that we had daylight visibility. I will be so glad when winter finally bids us farewell. 

   Bonus Pictures:

DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a good picture.
This little group of coyotes was a long way off the road,
so we took the picture mostly to make positive identification.
I wish I knew how many of the other viewers went home
and told their friends that they saw wolves!

A Sliver of Blue

I love how just a sliver of blue sky takes us from

"I've got all morning" to "Are you ready yet?"!

All week long, forecasters were calling for snow this weekend, and when we got up Saturday morning, it definitely appeared that they were going to be correct. But once Dan got on the computer and saw that the radar showed that the first wave of snow had gone around us, he began pacing the house. Then a sliver of blue appeared between the cloud layers, and it was all over but the packing! 

Before long, we were on the road headed west. Dan wanted to check on a frozen "waterfall" on the Stillwater River outside of Nye. (If it looks familiar, you may remember it from  Skidding Around the Learning Curve.) It is there every winter and gone every summer, and every year, it is just a little bit different. 

All along the way to Nye, we were on high alert for eagles. Maybe it was the wind, but we arrived at our destination without ever getting an eagle in the viewfinder. We did spot two, but they were a long way off. 

The Stillwater Trail (or as I like to call it ~ the trail to Souix Charley Lake) is a favorite hike of ours. We took the cut-off trail above the gorge so that we could look down on the frozen falls. As Dan was photographing the falls, I noticed the pinecones. I switched to the macro lens and fed my obsession.

A little further down the trail, we came to a patch of melting snow on the rocks beside us. Drops of water were falling from the tips of the icicles and the blades of dead grass along the edges, and I thought once more of the macro lens. Dan waited patiently while I tried with varying degrees of success to catch the drips in pixels. 

When the cut-off trail rejoined the main trail, we decided to head back to the car, especially since we were starting to get hit with hard little pellets of snow. But all in all, we both agreed that we had had a lot more fun than we would have had sitting in the house all day. 

It's not big, but this waterfall is there all the time,
and it might just be my favorite spot on the river.

While these layers of smooth-as-glass ice
are pretty on the water in the river,
they occasionally form all the way across the trail.
THAT makes for interesting hiking.
Not my kind of adrenaline rush!