July 2018 Montana Part 1 Helena

I drove to Helena, Montana from Alpine, Wyoming had a great place to stay in a house west of town.  There was plenty to do in Helena, including local hiking trails.  The Mt. Helena city park is one of the largest city parks in the US and I hiked to the summit of that peak that overlooks the town.  There is a wonderful museum for Montana history and I also toured the State Capitol building and played a round of golf just outside of Helena.  I did a boat tour on the Missouri river about 20 miles north of Helena and retraced the steps of the Lewis and Clark expedition as they were heading west through Montana.  Meriwether Lewis named that area of the Missouri River the “Gates of the Mountains” and the name stuck.

Here are some pictures of the areas around Helena. 

Views from the house where I stayed:

Le Grande Common Trail (local hike)

Downtown Helena – State Capitol

Mt. Helena hike (local hike) - all the way to the top

Gates of the Mountains boat tour – Missouri River

Mule deer watching me on walk through neighborhood

I played golf at Fox Ridge Golf course just outside of Helena – good course – very challenging

The next stop on my adventures is Kalispell, Montana and hiking in Glacier National Park.

June 2018 Wyoming Part 3 - Yellowstone

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I also visited Yellowstone National Park while I was in Wyoming.  Yellowstone is enormous and covers the northwestern corner of Wyoming as well as parts of Idaho and Montana near the border of Wyoming.  I did some hiking and saw some wildlife in Yellowstone (several bison).  I also drove through some sections of the park and took pictures at overlooks.  Yellowstone has the most amazing geothermal sights I have ever seen.  It sits on top of a super volcano so there is a lot going on just beneath the surface of the earth there.  Pictures do not do it justice.  It is also a very scenic place with spectacular waterfalls and the Yellowstone Grand Canyon (as you will see below).  It is one of those places you have to see in person to really appreciate.

Here is Old Faithful, I was able to see it spewing into the air, as it came through while I was there.

Here is a preliminary eruption before one of the big ones:

I have video of the big one (about 3 minutes worth but it is too large to upload.  I will add it later if I figure out how to truncate the video.

Here are some other geysers in the area around Old Faithful

Here is a thermal pool video (from the area around Old Faithful):

Here is another one nearby:

I hiked up to an overlook to see the Grand Prismatic geothermal spring and saw this guy

Here he is moving around:

And this guy

Here is the Grand Prismatic Spring (from the overlook)

I then stopped to walk around the boardwalk surrounding the Grand Prismatic Spring

Here is Yellowstone Lake – the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 ft. elevation in North America

Yellowstone’s Lower Falls

Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon

Mammoth Hot Springs (north end of Yellowstone)

That is all from Yellowstone.  I am off to Montana for my next post.  I will be in Montana for 2 weeks.