Last week, for the first time since corona hit, we travelled further than a 100 miles from our house. We took a family trip to Yellowstone National Park and surrounding area. My wife and I have two awesome daughters, 10 and 13 years old at the moment.
For those unfamiliar with the area, Cooke City is a hamlet on the Beatooh Highway, (US 212), at the north east entrance to Yellowstone Park. Because the highway is not plowed in winter, the only way to acces Cooke City is through Yellowstone National Park, from Livingston, MT. Quite the detour if you are coming from the east or south east.
Sunday afternoon we spent in the park, in nice spring temps, walking around Mammoth Hotsprings and seeing many animals.
Mid April is the off-season for Cooke City, so most of the bars and restaurants are closed, although the gasstation remained open. we rented a wonderful cabin in the woods, with a great view of the mountains.
Cooke City occupies a narrow valley, at around 7200' (2150m) elevation, so on Monday morning we drove to Beartooth Powder Guides' office, right at the end of the plowed road, parked our car, and headed out on snow.
We booked AMGA ski guide Nina Hance, because, not only is she a certified ski guide, she is also an avid horse rider/trainer, a fact that I hoped would give my girls (who love horse riding) something to talk to about. This strategy paid off:
Here are my two girls, way out in front with the guide:
The area around Cooke City is great for skiing with a variety of terrain types and aspect. Most days we topped out around 10000' (3000m), though the mountains further back do rise up to over 12000'(3600). For us Minnesotans, this had us sucking plenty of air already, but it is better than Colorado.
Most days we took a snowmobile in to the base of the slopes. The girls riding with Nina on the machine, and my wife and I holding onto ropes behind it. This proved tricker and more tiring than I expected. Snowmobile trails for "whoops" or rollers quickly, especially now they stopped grooming them for the season. Trying to snowplow on the downhill (so as not to ride up to the sled), while absorbing the rollers was not fun. However, it did cut out a few miles of low angle skinning up the road.
You can ski right down to the plowed part of the road at the edge of town:
The skiing was great. varying from a few inches of powder on corn, to perfect corn snow. The 10 year old:
On Tuesday the girls skinned and skied a new record for them: 3 laps of a 1000' (300m) vert each!
The area around Cooke City has the healthiest stands of Whitebark Pine in the lower 48. These gorgeous and threatened, trees make for great skiing, since the have fewer branches down low, creating plenty of space to ski between them, perfect natural glades. They also provide a major source of food for grizzlies in the fall, when they gorge on the pine nuts. This is the first time I have packed bear spray along with shovel and probe!
We skied two days, and then visited Yellowstone Park on Wednesday.
Almost immediately we were treated to the sight of several moose munching willows in the morning light:
As we drove on, we saw many birds, leading to this accidental double shot of two cranes and a bald eagle:
This day the bison calves were out in force too. It seems bison parents have just as much trouble getting their kids to get up as human ones!
We stopped at Slough Creek, hoping to see some wolves. We could hear them howling and yipping from two sides of the valley, but did't spot any for quite a while. Then one ran right below us, and some serious wolf watchers pointed out the rest of the pack in the distance. Once we knew where to look, we could see them pretty well with our binoculars and spotting scope, but way to far off for pictures.
On Thursday, with rested legs, we hiked straight from town,. since the south face was melted out to the point where snowmobile towing would be slow and difficult. earlier in the year, could have made great turns down this slope, called 'Town Hill" all the way to the pavement.
Warm day (first one above freezing) gave us perfect corn snow to ski. The 10 year old tend to rip big GS turns while the rest of us take it a bit slower and tighter turns.
This made for our biggest day yet. Out from 9:00 to 5:00pm, we hiked and skinned up, then skied down, 9 miles (14.5 km), and ascended over 3700' (1100m) of vertical. So proud of these girls! We had to turn around a few hundred feet shy of the ridge on our second climb, due to warming snow creating wet snow avalanche danger. Not a peep from the girls, they were happy and chatting out in front with guide Nina, while us middle aged folk were slogging along in the back.
All these ski days were in the motorized zone, but due to the time of year, it was very quiet. On Monday we saw 4 sled skiers and no one else. Tuesday we didn't see a person all day. Thursday one sled skier zoomed on past us into a distant drainage, and we saw 3 other skiers from a distance (another guide and clients from Beartooth Powder guides).
Friday brought us our last ski day, and took a short snowmobile tow to the edge of the wilderness boundary, parked the sled and skinned along a flat valley bottom. This brought us to the bottom of one of the ski lines on Mt. Republic, our biggest climb yet, at 2000' of vert. As before, the girls were out in front oiwht Nina, and with little snack break halfway up, were soon made to the upper part, where we stashed our skis to hike the final few feet to the ridge.
The first time in our trip the it was truly windy!
This also brought us our first taste of less than perfect snow. a bit icy at the top, was fine, but the middle had some variables;e snow, wet powder and crust. Luckily the bottom was perfect corn snow again.
Mother and daughter in the backcountry together:
And the 13 year old getting after it for a long descent, and the 10 year old in the choke:
After these 4 days of great skiing we had one last drive though Yellowstone, on our way home.
Again, filled with wildlife, a fitting end to a fantastic trip!
For those unfamiliar with the area, Cooke City is a hamlet on the Beatooh Highway, (US 212), at the north east entrance to Yellowstone Park. Because the highway is not plowed in winter, the only way to acces Cooke City is through Yellowstone National Park, from Livingston, MT. Quite the detour if you are coming from the east or south east.
Sunday afternoon we spent in the park, in nice spring temps, walking around Mammoth Hotsprings and seeing many animals.
Mid April is the off-season for Cooke City, so most of the bars and restaurants are closed, although the gasstation remained open. we rented a wonderful cabin in the woods, with a great view of the mountains.
Cooke City occupies a narrow valley, at around 7200' (2150m) elevation, so on Monday morning we drove to Beartooth Powder Guides' office, right at the end of the plowed road, parked our car, and headed out on snow.
We booked AMGA ski guide Nina Hance, because, not only is she a certified ski guide, she is also an avid horse rider/trainer, a fact that I hoped would give my girls (who love horse riding) something to talk to about. This strategy paid off:
Here are my two girls, way out in front with the guide:
The area around Cooke City is great for skiing with a variety of terrain types and aspect. Most days we topped out around 10000' (3000m), though the mountains further back do rise up to over 12000'(3600). For us Minnesotans, this had us sucking plenty of air already, but it is better than Colorado.
Most days we took a snowmobile in to the base of the slopes. The girls riding with Nina on the machine, and my wife and I holding onto ropes behind it. This proved tricker and more tiring than I expected. Snowmobile trails for "whoops" or rollers quickly, especially now they stopped grooming them for the season. Trying to snowplow on the downhill (so as not to ride up to the sled), while absorbing the rollers was not fun. However, it did cut out a few miles of low angle skinning up the road.
You can ski right down to the plowed part of the road at the edge of town:
The skiing was great. varying from a few inches of powder on corn, to perfect corn snow. The 10 year old:
On Tuesday the girls skinned and skied a new record for them: 3 laps of a 1000' (300m) vert each!
The area around Cooke City has the healthiest stands of Whitebark Pine in the lower 48. These gorgeous and threatened, trees make for great skiing, since the have fewer branches down low, creating plenty of space to ski between them, perfect natural glades. They also provide a major source of food for grizzlies in the fall, when they gorge on the pine nuts. This is the first time I have packed bear spray along with shovel and probe!
We skied two days, and then visited Yellowstone Park on Wednesday.
Almost immediately we were treated to the sight of several moose munching willows in the morning light:
As we drove on, we saw many birds, leading to this accidental double shot of two cranes and a bald eagle:
This day the bison calves were out in force too. It seems bison parents have just as much trouble getting their kids to get up as human ones!
We stopped at Slough Creek, hoping to see some wolves. We could hear them howling and yipping from two sides of the valley, but did't spot any for quite a while. Then one ran right below us, and some serious wolf watchers pointed out the rest of the pack in the distance. Once we knew where to look, we could see them pretty well with our binoculars and spotting scope, but way to far off for pictures.
On Thursday, with rested legs, we hiked straight from town,. since the south face was melted out to the point where snowmobile towing would be slow and difficult. earlier in the year, could have made great turns down this slope, called 'Town Hill" all the way to the pavement.
Warm day (first one above freezing) gave us perfect corn snow to ski. The 10 year old tend to rip big GS turns while the rest of us take it a bit slower and tighter turns.
This made for our biggest day yet. Out from 9:00 to 5:00pm, we hiked and skinned up, then skied down, 9 miles (14.5 km), and ascended over 3700' (1100m) of vertical. So proud of these girls! We had to turn around a few hundred feet shy of the ridge on our second climb, due to warming snow creating wet snow avalanche danger. Not a peep from the girls, they were happy and chatting out in front with guide Nina, while us middle aged folk were slogging along in the back.
All these ski days were in the motorized zone, but due to the time of year, it was very quiet. On Monday we saw 4 sled skiers and no one else. Tuesday we didn't see a person all day. Thursday one sled skier zoomed on past us into a distant drainage, and we saw 3 other skiers from a distance (another guide and clients from Beartooth Powder guides).
Friday brought us our last ski day, and took a short snowmobile tow to the edge of the wilderness boundary, parked the sled and skinned along a flat valley bottom. This brought us to the bottom of one of the ski lines on Mt. Republic, our biggest climb yet, at 2000' of vert. As before, the girls were out in front oiwht Nina, and with little snack break halfway up, were soon made to the upper part, where we stashed our skis to hike the final few feet to the ridge.
The first time in our trip the it was truly windy!
This also brought us our first taste of less than perfect snow. a bit icy at the top, was fine, but the middle had some variables;e snow, wet powder and crust. Luckily the bottom was perfect corn snow again.
Mother and daughter in the backcountry together:
And the 13 year old getting after it for a long descent, and the 10 year old in the choke:
After these 4 days of great skiing we had one last drive though Yellowstone, on our way home.
Again, filled with wildlife, a fitting end to a fantastic trip!
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