The wildlife is beginning to improve with each snowstorm.  The wildlife in the Northern Range has been including elk, bison, mule deer, whitetail deer, bighorn sheep and some wolf and grizzly bear sightings this week.

The most active spring at Mammoth, Canary Spring, has dried up and will likely rejuvenate in the next few days.  There is still good activity at Palette Terrace, New Palette, Hyman Terrace, Upper Canary, Narrow Gauge, Orange Spring Mound, Angel Terrace, and the backside of New highland continues to throw water about 10 to 15 feet sideways.  Mammoth is always worth a visit.

11/04/07  Lower Loop Tour

The last day of Yellowstone offered a wolf sighting in the Gallatin District, Riverside Geyser at 11:13, Lion Geyser at 11:47, Daisy Geyser at 11:47 ie, and Beehive Geyser at 12:20. A beautiful fall day with a high of 35 to 40 and clear skies.

11/06/07

Today was the first Winter Wildlife Adventure of the year.  With the lack of snow, a lot of the wildlife has not traveled down to their winter range yet.  There were still lots of animals viewed including elk, bison, pronghorn, bighorn sheep and a coyotes.  Canary spring is beginning to refill after drying up last week.  Orange Spring Mound is shooting water out of the side. Palette Terrace has also picked up in activity.  The snowline is about 7000 feet on the north facing slopes and at 9000 feet on the south facing slopes.  As a result of the warm weather, Upper Terrace Drive and the Petrified Tree are still open.

11/13/07

The Winter Wildlife Adventure

There was lots of wind damage in Livingston and the Carbella areas.  Winds on the 12th were in excess of 90 mph.  There was an 18,000 wildfire to the north of Big Timber in the Crazy Mountains.  This fire burned 3 homes and a wooden bridge on U.S. 191 (north of Big Timber).  In addition, the Sweetgrass Volunteer Fire department lost a fire truck, when ember flew into the air filter.  This fire ran 20 miles in less than 3 hours.  Sweetgrass county, Montana has seen some extremely large fires in the past 3 years, dozens of homes have been burned, and over 400,000 acres have been burned.  The Hobble Fire in 2005 burned almost 180,000 acres.  In 2006 the Derby/ Jungle Complex burned over 250,000 acres, and ran 25 miles to I-90 in a single day.   In 2007, the Wicked-Hicks Complex burned in the Boulder River Canyon, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate for weeks.  Now they get the Chi Chi fire in November burns through the town of Melville, north of Big Timber, at a time of year when wildfires should be a distant memory.    
The Sweetgrass Volunteer Fire Department has saved hundreds of homes and thousands of livestock in the past three years and has seen 2 of the country’s largest fires of the past 2 years.  Losing a fire truck is a huge loss.  Donations are appreciated for this fine crew and the countless hours they have sacrificed over the past 3 years. 

There was damage throughout the Yellowstone Ecosystem during Monday’s wind event.  Red Lodge, MT had wind gusts up to 103 mph.  Nye, MT had sustained winds of 90 mph for over 6 hours, with gusts in excess of 130 mph.  Two homes were blown apart.  Anaconda, MT also sustained major damage along with Roscoe, Livingston, and Big Timber, MT.  Clark, WY also had damage and also had a wildfire burn 2 buildings there.  Clark had wind gusts over 105 mph.