Summer 2003

As a mother of three nature-loving boys, one of my house rules is "Only one snake living with us at a time." They caught their snake enthusiasm outside, tracking and holding hundreds of garter snakes before we ever bought a…

Twenty-eight road miles (22 miles as a GPS-equipped crow would fly) southwest of the Bozeman city limits, one arrives at the Spanish Creek Guard Station, a major trailhead for the Spanish Peaks Unit of the Lee Metcalf…

Scuba diving the Firehole.On any hot summer day when I was a teenager, all it took was a phone call:"Hello?""Firehole."Click.Within the hour, 15 or 20 of us would be on the road to Yellowstone Park. Our caravan of cars and…

When bears attack. We all know the danger is out there, but the reality of it actually happening is usually far from our thoughts. Fact is, grizzly bears do attack. They attack anyone or anything they feel threatened by.…

Rock climbing is one of the greatest ways to get out and enjoy Montana's splendors in the summer. Plus, it's an absolute blast. The thrill of surmounting a sheer cliff that just moments before you swore was unclimbable is…

Last summer, an elementary schoolteacher in southern California happened upon a copy of Outside Bozeman. For a writing exercise, she read an essay about fishing on the Gallatin River to her students, and told them to…

Rivers largely define Montana's history, culture, economy, character, and natural environment. So what happens when a river gets re-defined by pollution and irresponsible management? Health problems. Degraded beauty.…

Picture, if you will, groups of spandex-clad bicyclists racing out Springhill Road. Or a string of cyclists cruising up and down Paradise Valley. Or a rodeo clown giving talks on bike safety at the fairgrounds. Sound…

In a small industrial park west of Bozeman and a long fly-cast north of I-90 sit a remarkably modest office and factory that are the home of Yellowstone Drifter Boat Company. The roots for this small, locally owned company…

History isn't always pretty. It was a bright, warm day in the summer of 1846 when the Morgan family decided to take a break from their wagon travels. Crossing the vast eastern plains of Montana on their way to resettle in…

It was just before dark, and the small but feisty native cutthroats were finally starting to feed. They were in a run near the far bank, underneath alders that grew almost horizontally out from the riverside. The required…

Wolverines of southwest Montana.The mountains of southwest Montana are a special place for the charismatic carnivores of the American West. Wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, and mountain lions all haunt this high country…

Until relatively recently, �GPS� was an acronym familiar only to gearheads and a few fatcats who were able to access the U.S. Government�s Global Positioning Satellite system to steer their BMWs to the nearest Taco…

“Specialization,” the famous science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein once wrote, “is for insects.” If Heinlein were alive today and looking to buy a personal watercraft, chances are he’d choose a Kodiak kickboat from Water…

Few things trigger a sense of adventure like a good backcountry map. Poring over the terrain with an adopted bird's-eye view, you see a whole new world of possibilities—distant peaks, secluded canyons, and remote lakes…

Set in the prairies of eastern Montana from 1916 to 1946, In Open Spaces is about the lives of the Arbuckle brothers. First we meet George, a man on the brink of baseball stardom, whose life ends unexpectedly under…

For a thorough, entertaining guide to the trout-filled rivers, streams, and lakes of the Treasure State, one could hardly find a better resource than Flyfisher’s Guide to Montana by Greg Thomas. In addition to maps, photos…

The Bozeman Cutthroats are not a new sub-species of trout, as the name might suggest. They are, in fact, Bozeman’s own rugby team. The Cutthroats have been around since 1993, playing the rough-and-tumble football for which…

There�s a lot to learn when you�re a kid: how to blow bubbles with your gum, how to tie your shoes, how to do cartwheels� but probably the biggest challenge of childhood is learning how to ride a bike. From parents…

Like the title indicates, Kalispell’s Ben Long presents a collection of bear stories from across Montana. With grizzly bear and black bear accounts going back as far as 1830, Great Montana Bear Stories is not as graphic as…

In Mark of the Grizzly, Livingston resident and environmental authority Scott McMillion explores the conflict between society’s admiration for bears and its actions related to bear habitat and control. The book is a…

In the small town of Willow Creek (not far from Three Forks, Montana), as basketball season begins and ends, Stanley West takes us through the lives of those participating on and off the court in the Blind Your Ponies.…

There are a few places on earth where fishermen’s dreams are forged within a framework of grandeur and natural beauty—an elegant overlay in which fish are a single element among many. Montana is just such a place: a vibrant…

When hiking the mountains and meadows of summertime Montana, it's always good to watch your step'lest you encounter the occasional bison or moose patty or one of the rodents, snakes, lizards, or other creepy-crawlies that…

The art of fly-tying has evolved in a similar fashion to that of the painted canvas. Paints and mediums change as represented by the newest digital art endeavors. A similar evolution happened within fly-tying, and Rainy’s…

We love to look at them, we love to know they’re out there doing their natural thing, but we hate to think about them bothering us. From big to small, here’s a potpourri of tips on how to deal with Montana’s critters.…

An impressive array of atmospheric events is played out every summer in Montana’s skies.While cloud-gazing in Big Sky Country, consider the origins of the names of three common cloud types: cirrus, stratus, and cumulus.In…