Everyone is familiar with ghost towns. They’re places where people used to live but left for some reason, usually financial reasons. What are left are the buildings. Sometimes they’re well preserved, other times they are fragile shells falling apart on each other. In the case of Cinnabar, Montana, there’s nothing left. Were you to go visit the site, which is …

[Friday July 19, 2008] As shoe dropping goes, the Rocky Mountain wolf story has more footwear than Imelda Marcos. On Friday, July 18, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction restoring the gray wolf in the northern Rocky Mountains to the endangered species list. The western wolf was delisted by the federal government (Fish and Wildlife Service) in …

Last week’s news about a seemingly random attack on a camper by a grizzly bear in a campground near the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park should serve as your regular reminder about the need for preparedness at all times when visiting the region — even in the case of what appeared to have been a random attack. Steven Bartley, …

[Thursday July 24, 2008]  Now that we’re in the middle of summer, it may be hard to visualize what the fuss is about in keeping Sylvan Pass and the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park open in winter. However, in Yellowstone winter snows are never too far away; in fact, the Sylvan Pass was closed for a time in June because …

[Monday June 16, 2008] Winter in Yellowstone did indeed end last Friday (Friday the 13th of June). After three major snow storms since just before Memorial Day weekend – with all the attendant road closings; the Greater Yellowstone Area is finally enjoying a string of real spring days. Day temperatures are firmly fixed in the 60’s (15C) and nights flirt …

Every year about this time (mid-June to the end of July), cutthroat trout of Yellowstone Park begin the search for the waters of their birth. It’s time to spawn – to lay and fertilize eggs in the gravel of streams and rivers so that the cycle of life continues. But it isn’t easy. Two locations make a good example of …

[Friday June 27, 2008]  Somebody shouts, “Don’t do that!” But they do it anyway. The big bull bison is sitting placidly, probably ruminating. Nothing about it suggests irritation, agility, and speed. The family lines up for a picture, a foot or two in front of the bison – a picture never to be forgotten. Quicker than a flash the bison …

Picture a family of four on a trip through Yellowstone National Park. There's Mom, Dad, Jack and Jill. Jack and Jill are twins; both ten, and both notoriously impatient. They don't have time to sit around and wait for Grand Geyser or Daisy Geyser to erupt -- they need quick and easy stimuli. Mom and Dad are scared. 

By Sean Reichard When someone mentions Idaho, what is the first thing that comes to mind? If you’re like me, it’s potatoes. Mountains and mountains of potatoes, piled so high they block out the sun. Is that what you think when you hear the word Idaho? Well, stop it. There are more things in Idaho than potatoes. Idaho Falls is …

Even before the city was founded, the Billings area already had a history of people nearby, as it was used and settled by Native Americans for land and hunting grounds. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through Billings (the area at least), and is a scant 30 miles away from Pompey’s Pillar, a 200-foot-high rock formation considered a landmark by …