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80
winter
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spr ing
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The longest un-dammed river in the lower 48 states, the Yellowstone
flows 692 miles from its headwaters to the Montana-North Dakota border
where it dumps into the Missouri River. At the confluence with the
Missouri, the Yellowstone is the larger river.
Its free-flowing nature makes the Yellowstone one of the greatest
trout streams in the world and it’s partly the fish that drew us here today.
Brown, rainbow and native cutthroat trout tease us as we cast flies with
anticipation.
Fish rise, but don’t bite today, so we stow our rods and concentrate
on canoeing. When we aren’t looking for fish, we notice a pair of
bald eagles perched in a cottonwood. Heron, egrets, killdeer, swans,
pelicans, mergansers, mallards and Canada geese are all common on the
Yellowstone.
It’s not all golden trees and pretty birds, of course. Cows come down
to the river to drink and erode the bank. Noxious weeds, such as thistle
and mullein, crowd out natives in places. Still, the good outweigh the bad.
The Paradise Valley is more than just its river. To the west lies the
Gallatin Range, to the east the Absarokas, to the north the Crazies. Shaggy
snowcapped peaks are fronted by bison-rump foothills; herds of mule deer,
elk and pronghorn stand out as shadows against the rich rolling farmland.
The relative solitude and remoteness of the valley draws artists:
painters, actors, filmmakers, writers, sculptors and photographers.
Religious groups, people who want to get off the grid and nature lovers
flock here, too. Even as more houses crowd the valley, seekers move in for