A Year Out West

A little more than a year ago, I packed my stuff and headed out from Georgia to Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park. Since then, I’ve been to Big Sky, Montana, and now settled in West Yellowstone, Montana. To the surprise of most, I survived the seemingly overhyped winter of the west. Sure it snowed nearly every single day, and often 8-10″ over night, but it was nothing dreadful. Many mornings I would wake up to fresh snow and ski my way to work instead of driving. The winter cold of nearly 40 below some days took a little toll on my car, but nothing major.

Now it’s spring, and yesterday was 75 degrees. Even though it’s been raining daily (we need it), the fishing and weather has been great for the most part. In the first couple of weeks of the opening season of fishing in Yellowstone National Park, I’ve caught several fish on the world famous streams, including the Firehole and Madison Rivers, as well as Nez Perce Creek. The crowds are here, and are starting to pushing me in to exploring the more secluded locations for some backcountry fishing.

Madison River in Yellowstone National Park

Although the weather has been nice for the most part, we had a couple of snow storms earlier in May that brought cold temperatures and a few inches of snow for a day or so.

Lodging inside Yellowstone, and outside of the park in West Yellowstone is pretty much sold out for June, July, and much of August and September. People are planning their trips out here a year in advance in some cases. It’s been pretty busy where I work at The Faithful Street Inn.

Over a year, I’ve learned quite a few things about Montana and the west in general. I’ve compiled a list of several of these below.

  1. McDonald’s and Chick-Fil-A are virtually the only places that offer real sweet tea. McDonald’s is decent, but Chick-Fil-A is better, even though it’s 2 hours away.
  2. When you live an hour and a half away from the nearest Wal-Mart, you know you’re in the middle of nowhere.
  3. The western states get their fair share of severe weather, minus the tornadoes. We get pea size hail with almost every big storm, and small hail even with a passing shower. The wind yesterday knocked out power in much of Grand Teton National Park, closed several roads, and caused wrecks here in Yellowstone.
  4. It’s extremely dry out here. Even on a cloudy, rainy day, the humidity may be only 50%. It’s never muggy. During the summer, a lot of rain never even reaches the ground.
  5. For the most part, people leave you alone here, and want to be left alone. They are still very friendly!
  6. People vacationing seem to leave their common sense at home (if they had any in the first place). You may have seen a couple of these instances on the news lately.
  7. If you live here, you better know how to drive. People like to get where they need to be as fast as possible. Another reason is the weather changes constantly. A quick hail storm can turn the road completely white in a minute. Snow can make the road very dangerous very quickly. I still have my snow tires on in June.
A storm over the Madison River

If you’re interested in visiting, feel free to contact me! I will be presenting my photography and giving a seminar on fly fishing photography at the Ennis on the Madison Fly Fishing Festival on September 4th and 5th, put on by the Madison River Foundation.

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