This will be our third winter trip to Yellowstone. We first tried in 1995 when we were living on Long Island. We were locked out when the stupid Republicans shut down the government. It finally worked in 1996. We stayed at Old Faithful, having been poisened by carbon monoxide in the van over from Mammoth Hot Springs. We cross country skied a lot. At one time, Linda tried to run down a bison cow. We met Heike and Wolfgang from Germany and skied with them. Our second winter trip just barely preceded the Corona pandemic. We drove over from our good ol' house in Seattle. While 1996 was pre-wolves, we saw some of them in 2020 along with a lot of other wildlife.
Saturday, February 14th, 2026, Valentine's Day
When we left, poor Asante was sad. But his auntie Barbara will take good care of him. After an uneventful drive, we arrived at Sandi and Brian's home in Spokane. Brian is Linda's cousin. He and Sandi live in the very nice Rockwood Retirement Community. We had long chats with them, reminisced a lot, and dug out old family stories. Happy hour was followed by a yummy barley and mushroom soup cooked by Sandi. We stayed in one of the guest rooms.
The photo of the four of us shows paintings by Benedicto Ixtamer of San
Juan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Linda and I had met him there. Sandi
and Brian are still active with their Guatemalan friends.
Sunday, February 15th, 2026
Our road trip became more serious. It is a long way from Spokane to Butte, Montana. We left around 8:40 and arrived about 3:15 in the afternoon. Linda drove part of the way as on the previous day. The weather was an interesting mix of everything except snow. We saw significant snow at highway level only at Lookout Pass. The weather did not affect the driving much. Montana's speed limit on Interstate 90 is 80 mph for long stretches which makes for good progress.
Butte was once an immensely rich mining town. The wealth is gone, but the huge hole in the ground dug by the miners is not. Downtown still reflects the former wealth. We stayed at the 101 year old Hotel Finlen and had excellent Nepali dinner at the Kathmandu. We always cherish diversity, and we love our immigrants (or most of them).
Unfortunately, our room wasn't as attractive; but it was functional.
Monday, February 16, 2026
We have arrived at Gardiner, MT, just outside of Yellowstone Ntl. Park. The drive from Butte was attractive, interesting and pretty pleasant in sunshine under a big, blue sky of Montana. I90 Goes over repetitive sequences of mountain passes and wide valleys with big mountain ranges all around in the distance. The valleys are prairie land, alas without bison. We only saw a small herd of pronghorn.
The Yellowstone RIver and the Absaroka Range
Pronghorn - Antilocapra americana, our fastest land animal. It evolved to outrun American cheetahs who have long since died out.
This bighorn sheep ram was rubbing his butt on the farmer's fence. I'll post the video when I get a chance.
He was interested in the girls, too.
From the deck in front of our room. The bridge spans the Yellowstone River.
Mammoth Hot Springs
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2026
The forecast snow didn't happen. There is very little snow around Gardiner. We'll head out east toward the Lamar Valley and explore.
We had just about any kind of weather today. There were snow showers. Road conditions likewise varied from bare & dry to icy slick. The lack of snow was pretty dramatic. No "bison jams" on the highway as the bison can go anywhere they like without being impeded by snow. No wolves. This winter must be hard on them and good for the ungulates. We saw lots of bison, some elk, ravens and three coyotes. The landscape is of course grand.
The resident magpie of the Mammoth Lodge
Just east of Mammoth Hot Springs
Bison
Elk in the sagebrush
A large herd of bison at Tower Junction
Lamar Valley
Coyote on the prowl in Lamar Valley.
We had dinner in the Cowboy's Grille. They have enough guns on walls and ceilings to outfit an army battalion. The bison burgers were good.
Belatedly: rubbing the butt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws6ydiyE1-s
Wednesday, February 18, 20206
We are too active; I can't keep up!
It had snowed during the night to Wednesday, it had gotten colder, and the snow continued during the morning. We had to wait almost a half hour at the park entrance but still made it in time for a snow coach tour from Mammoth Hot Springs to the Norris Geyser Basin. The backcountry was a wonderland of new snow, all branches and twigs having snow hats. Our driver was Kurt, knowledgeable and cognizant of less than glorious aspects of the past such as the expulsion of Indians from the newly formed national park. He is an excellent naturalist, too.
There were short periods of sunshine but mostly it was cloudy with mercifully light, occasional snow showers. The winds were also quite modest so that our tour of the fabulous Porcelain Basin was a pleasure.
These photos will have to suffice. There are many more great images hidden in the extensive video footage I took all along.
On the way back to Mammoth the snow fall increased, and the temperature dropped. When we reached Gardiner in our car, a full-blown snow storm was raging.
Thursday, February 19, 2026
We had booked another tour, the "Wake Up to Wildlife" starting at 6:15 a.m. Thankfully, the snow had stopped over night. We got up at 4:45 a.m., and made it in time to Mammoth Hotel.
The tour didn't work out too well for us. We didn't see anything, or heard anything we couldn't have experienced on our own. Our driver/guide Scott (from Virginia) is O.K., but he issued too many lame jokes and talked too much about dead White Men, U.S. presidents included. He isn't the in-depth naturalist needed for a wildlife tour.
Toward the northeast corner of Yellowstone N.P. there are serious mountains.
Please note: Photos are unedited. Color correction etc. to follow later.
We saw bison, bighorn sheep, golden eyes (ducks) and dippers in icy cold Soda Creek, a couple of eagles and not much more.
After the trip we had lunch at Mammoth and hiked to travertine terraces once more. Thereafter, we were pooped.
Deer in headlight...
Townsend's Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi)
On the way back from Mammoth to Gardiner. This capital elk bull was pretty sleepy.
After a rest we had dinner at the Yellowstone Mine: blackened trout, pretty good. - We had dinner at the Cowboy Grille - which we look at - on our second night (bison burger). Pity the vegetarians around here...
Friday, February 20, 2026
Our last day at Yellowstone, alas! We took our time, and then drove eastward toward Lamar Valley and back one more time. The weather was fine, lots of sunshine, but cold, starting out at 12F (-11C) or so and gradually warming up. Along the way we saw lots of bison, many hundreds. The furry highlights of the day were several coyotes, four in a group together. They are not afraid of park visitors but they don't beg along the highway unlike other places. Well, at least we didn't see any coyote do the "I am a poor coyote and don't you feel obligated to feed me" shtick.
It was a lovely day. We went on two short walks through sage plains and woods. The first was "interesting." We merrily (but a bit chilled) set out toward Undine Falls only to soon encounter a bull bison headed our way. Given prior experience with uncomfortably close encounters with bison, we quickly turned around. The bison followed us all the way to the highway, crossed a bridge and began eating. Another car pulled up, and a super-telephotoed jerk got out of it and spooked the poor bison who was just across the highway. At that point, nobody could watch bison anymore.
Our second walk was pleasurable, without problems. It just feels great to drive through the grand, wide open landscape.
Electric Peak in the Gallatin Range, from our window at sunrise
Pretty chill hiker (and well-chilled)
O-oh!!!
The bison encounter happened at magic little Lava Creek.
Lava Creek further upstream.
Tracks in the snow. We believe that it is rabbit.
Wide open land...
This coyote, one of the pack of four, was mousing in the sage.
We turned around in Lamar Valley.
Lamar River
On the way to dinner: deer at our lodge
Absaroka Lodge in Gardiner, MT
The Yellowstone River at Gardiner
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Time to go home and see our little, fat kittie Asante! We left Gardiner around 8:30 in fine, cold weather. The drive all the way to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, was quite pleasant. Mostly light traffic, high speed limits, good weather, and a wide landscape with snowy mountains. We saw one herd of pronghorns. That's a little less than 450 miles, a bit over 700 km.
Yellowstone was as fascinating as ever even though we didn't see wolves this time. But the cold and snow and wind have their problems. We might opt for balmy Hawai`i for February 2027.
Montana: Big Sky!
That's all, folks. Thanks for interest.
