Plain Brown Wrapper–Winter at Missouri Headwaters State Park

Winter in Montana. Many things come to mind: snow; sledding; skiing; snowshoeing; cold to frigid temperatures; large animals donning their thick, beautiful winter coats; bright sunshine reflecting off the sparkling white landscape. So far 2015 is living up to only one of those expectations. The poor animals in their beautiful, heavy winter coats thinking of heading to higher elevations to cool down.

fence

Here in the valleys we are wondering what happened to our snow, although I think Massachusetts got it by mistake, and are looking at a landscape far from white or sparkling. What isn’t brown is gray and the sun is filtered through stratus or cirrus clouds. Our cold temps have mellowed into mid-40s during the day and mid-20s at night. It feels more like the spring of April than the winter of February. However, even dull and drab takes on life when we walk along a river, and  the Missouri Headwater State Park is the point of joining (confluence) for three rivers to become the mighty Missouri River.

Continue walking …

Early, Steamy, Surreal–Morning Twilight in Yellowstone

That travel alarm is really annoying with its inescapable bbbzzzzzzzz. Remind me again why it is blaring at 4:30am? Right, I’m staying at the Old Faithful Inn in order to greet dawn’s twilight near the Firehole Lake thermals. Watching as the sun rises issuing a challenge to the  23° temperature. Remember your hat and gloves.

It is the beginning of October with a 6:15am twilight, that first hint of promising warm sunshine. Happily it is October rather than June when twilight is 4:55am. A little perspective gets me moving. We want to be ready, camera in hand, to see the morning mist, the thermal steam, and their interaction as the sky grows light and the sun rises.

Continue our twilight walk