Bozeman Montana's Hyalite Canyon

Hyalite Canyon is a popular playground for Montana State University and other Bozeman locals and one visit the Hyalite Canyon will demonstrate why. Hyalite Canyon is exceptional to Montana's recreational areas in its accessibility, enjoyment for all ages and capabilities, and in its glaciated carved valley. The canyon is stunning in its beauty and splendor, a great getaway for all to enjoy.

Hyalite reservoir is the centerpiece and hub for canyon activities and National Forest Campgrounds. Built in the 1940's the reservoir has a hold capacity of 8,000 acre-feet of water. Hyalite Reservoir is used for drinking water for the city of Bozeman and to irrigate the Gallatin Valley. Its waters offer great trout fishing spots and gorgeous vantage points for photographing its majestic mountains.

10,000-foot mountain peaks, creeks, streams, lakes and a plethora of waterfalls, surround the Hyalite Drainage Recreational Area. The hikes to Blackmore Lake, Palisade Falls, Emerald and Heather Lakes the trail to Hyalite Lake all lie in the Hyalite Canyon.

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Repercussions Of A Myopic World

By Daryl L. Hunter

It's a dog eat dog world, and under the thin veneer of civility western society has cultivated during the last few centuries. Our human/animal nature under the surface remains as historically brutal as it has been since the beginning of time. The bold dominate, the meek subordinate, i.e., Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Poll Pot. Those that accept a submissive position are dominated or are vanquished. Those that accept a submissive position reap the rewards of their fear, apathy, and inaction.

The Twentieth Century created a new kind of world power, the United States of America. America fought wars and after winning these wars America rebuilt the vanquished countries (France, Germany, Japan, etc.) and returned colonies to their prewar leaders without taking any conquered land and bootie for itself (i.e. returning Viet Nam to France a big mistake!)

The United States and other advanced nations recognize that countries can create more wealth by trading with other countries than by conquering and crippling their ability to produce trade goods. All over the world we give foreign aid not solely because we are altruistically benevolent, our purposeful benevolence has one foot in empathy and the other in a dynamic capitalism that when we give aid with the appropriate strings attached we lift them out of third world status and turn them into trading partners, a win for both parties.

Today's divisive politics in America has crippled our ability---------------------------------------> Rest of Article

Living a richer life without any money

By Daryl L. Hunter

Since purchasing my first camera, I have been living a visual feast that has cost me a real estate career in a lucrative Southern California market. My scenery seemed to always be just over the next hill somewhere, cityscapes just were not my kind of inspiration, and I soon tired of local beach sunsets.

So it wasn't long before I was traveling farther a field, weekend trips to Big Sur, Lake Arrowhead, Yosemite, and yes, a three-day driving marathon to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. I decided that my weekends just were not long enough. I would just have to take more time off work, and then I could make it to Tahoe, the costal redwoods, and the Oregon coast.

All that driving wore out my car; it must be time to move to a prettier place. Then the moving began. First to the local mountains, Big Bear Lake, that was pretty nice for a while, and then Lake Tahoe sounded like a good idea. While living there I read about Fred Joy, a photographer in Jackson Hole, Wyoming who was making a real good living from a photo gallery he had there, so I decided to go see it. The gallery was excellent, but Jackson Hole was awesome! Not only did it have outstanding mountains and lakes, it had wildlife everywhere, and I'm not talking about The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. 8,000 elk on the National Elk Refuge outside of town, big horn sheep on the mountain tops, moose up the side canyons, deer on the buttes, antelope on the flats, bears hiding in the trees, buffalo wandering from here to there, and more nature photographers than you could shake a stick at. But I moved there anyway.

Being a wander lusting, vagabond photographer wasn't conducive to a real estate career so, out of hunger, I turned to--------------> Rest of Article

Hunting Dubois Wyoming's Absaroka and Wind River Mountains

The Greater Yellowstone region offers some of the best big game hunting anywhere. Outside of Jackson Hole Wyoming is the National Elk Refuge where 6 to 10 thousand Elk spend their winters, south of Dubois WY is the largest herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Moose can be found in most in most river bottom and a few mountain tops and everywhere in between, and there are tens of thousands of Mule Deer throughout the region.

Big Game Animals of the Greater Yellowstone Region More

Love Is In The Air

Elephant Seals enjoy a nice breeding under the California Sun.

Hunting Mule Deer, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming

Mule deer can be found throughout the entire western United States, including the deserts of the American Southwest, Mule deer have large ears that move constantly and independently, as do mules, hence the name, "Mule Deer." This stocky deer has sturdy legs and is 4 to 6-1/2 feet in length and 3 to 3-1/2 feet high at the shoulder. Most Mule deer are brown or gray in color with a small white rump patch and a small, black-tipped tail. Mule deer their fawns have white spots at birth. Buck deer have antlers that start growth in spring and are shed around December, these antlers are high and branch forward and reach a spread up to 4 feet in width bucks are larger than does. The life span of a mule deer in the wild is 10 years, but mule deer have lived for up to 25 years in captivity.

Mule deer can thrive nearly anyplace; their habitats include woodland chaparral, Sonoran desert, semi-desert, shrub woodland, Great Plains grasslands, shrub land forest, sagebrush steppe, and boreal forest. Mule deer are remarkably adaptable, of at least sixty types of habitat west of the 100th meridian in the United States, all but two or three are or once were home to mule Deer.

Mountain mule deer seasonally migrate from the higher elevations of the sub-alpine forests they inhabit during summer to lower elevations of the mountain valleys and desert lowlands. Deer prefer rocky windswept buttes where it is easier for them to find food during the winter and that provide escape from predators as needed. The mule deer of the arid southwest may migrate in response to rainfall patterns and a mule deers large feet have evolved to enable them to dig for water as much as two feet deep. Mule deer tend to confine their daily movements to their home ranges. Most mule deer use the same winter and summer home ranges in consecutive years-------------------------------> more

Hunting Elk of the Yellowstone Region

Elk were named by the early settlers, but some people prefer to call it by the Shawnee name wapiti (WAA-pi-tea) meaning "white rump." The name "elk" is a bit confusing because in Europe, moose are called "elk." and the European "red deer" is the same as the North American elk, which muddies the water even further. Evidently the same naming scheme that called for the American bison to be called a buffalo.

Elk were valued by the early settlers and Native Americans as a valuable food source, hides and fur for clothing, and antlers for utensils and trophies. Today elk are economically valuable for hunting and tourism they bring to the mountains of the west.

At the turn of the century, commercial game hunters, hired riflemen and subsistence hunters had killed off most of the elk in the west. In1910, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that fewer than 1,000 elk remained in Colorado. A 1918 survey of Forest Service lands in Idaho showed only 610 elk remained. Places where elk had been protected, these prolific animals rebounded quickly. The winters of 1897, 1909, 1911 and 1917 all coinciding with the loss of their traditional wintering grounds to cattle ranching were also very tough on them. About 10,000 elk starved in Jackson Hole during the winter of 1897, a decade before Jackson Hole became the home of the National Elk Refuge.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> More