A winter wonderland –Yellowstone NP

We could go all the way to Montana and not go to Yellowstone when we were literally just 40 minutes from the park entrance.  (To be honest I hadn't realised how close we were until we arrived at Big Sky and there were lots of brochures about the park!)
Again we used the local bus to get us to the park and we booked a tour with lone of the local companies all Alpen Tours (I know like the cereal!).  I didn't know who to go with but I looked the like of the vehicles they used to take you in the park.  In winter you have to go with a tour company because all the roads are covered in snow.  Only a tiny percentage of people who visit the park actually do so in winter because of this restricted access which means it felt empty (well I don’t really know but based on what the tour guide said about queues of traffic every time there is a bison or another bit of wildlife wandering around.
We could only book the Old Faithful tour but that still sounded great.  And what I didn't realise was the park was closing two days after are visit until all the snow melted in a month or so – so we were really lucky!  It was an all day trip and it couldn't have been better weather – blue skis and very crispy in the morning.

	our transport!  A bombardier with caterpillar tracks.  It was small inside but had a sun roof, actually two.  We were a group of eight and one person got to ride in the front with the guide.
	Elk in the river eating the ‘river weed’.  2 minutes into the park.
	Bison (or some people call them buffalo – but they're not!).  He was using the road as it was easier walking that through the deep snow either side
	more bison – the scenery was fantastic rivers, mountains and all white I cant even include enough to show you all of it
	Nice falls.  As you can see Stuart the true Scotsman is standing in a T-shirt – none of the rest of us were!!

We then went on to see the first of the hot springs.  You start to see a steaming landscape with bison normally collected near the steam grazing on the exposed bits of grass due the hot ground that melts the snow around vents.  The dead trees are petrified in place as they have been overcome by the geothermal activity and silica has replaced their trucks.

	Stuart standing next to the bubbling mud pool – bubble, bubble, burp, ploop!
	grazing bison

Our lunch stop was pretty cool at Old Faithful.  The tour company sorted us out a packed lunch for just $10 rather than paying for over priced restaurant food at Old Faithful and we ate it in one of their public yurt heated with a pellet stove.  Then we went out and wait for Old Faithful to do her thing.  There are boardwalks all the way around her for viewing and when we first arrived the bison were grazing on the inside of the boardwalks, but just before she was about to blow they all disappeared – I guess they have an internal clock as well?!  We were only there with a handful of others watching – however I can imaging in the summer it is hard to get a good viewing point.  Lucky for us this happened to be one of Old Faithful’s big blows and it was approximately 4 minutes long and she shot water in the air some 170ft.  I managed to capture her as she got more and more impressive.

	Happy campers After Old Faithful we took a quick walk around the rest of the hot springs – smaller but impressive all the same.
	This was an amazing blue colour and you could see bison bones in the bottom where one or two had unfortunately fallen in.

It was quite a day and our bones felt well rattled having sat in the bombardier for so many hours! The bus came and picked us up to go back to Bucks T4 and it was getting dark as we wound our way through the valley.  Then all of a sudden our bus drives pulls over in a lay-by and says he has gone engine trouble!   Where we were there was no mobile phone coverage so he said he was going to have to thumb a lift and get some phone coverage for us to be picked up.  So he left us with a movie playing but no heating.  It was fine to begin with sort of exciting and scary being left with about 5 others in a bus that was getting colder and colder!  Eventually an hour or so later the bus driver returns with a mini bus and we get taken away.  Finally we make it back and treat ourselves to elk and bison steaks – well we had seen some many of them through the day!

Big Sky Montana

In March Stuart and I went skiing in Big Sky Montana having seen a commercial for it the previous year while we were in Breckenridge – ‘the biggest ski area in America’!  It is a bit of a hop to get there going via Denver into Bozeman and from there the public bus to our accommodation at the bottom of the mountain, just about an hour from the airport.
We decided to stay at Bucks T4 mainly because they offered a really good deal on lift passes and they had a bar with the best food in the area, and since we didn't have any transport booze and food were a great attraction for après ski  fun (plus there was also the outside hot tubs!)
We took the first free shuttle bus up the mountain every morning to be first in line when the lifts opened.  However, there was never any lines – what a difference from the bun fight at Tignes first thing in the morning!  

	First morning outside Bucks T4 waiting for the shuttle bus up the mountain.  Although Stuart was happy standing without his jacket – it was pretty chilly I was wearing all my thermals!
	First glimpse of Big Sky from the shuttle bus. The top of Big Sky is at about 14,000ft. The flat ground in the foreground is a golf course in the summer – I think you would need more than orange balls to play it at this time of year!
	Carving the white stuff with not a sole around that is what I call skiing – and look at the sunshine.

The only time in honesty we did have to wait for a lift was taking the gondola up to the peak.  We had gone from sea level to 14,000ft in a couple of hours and I had my first experience of altitude sickness.  When we got to the top it was very cold and windy and I started to feel short tempered and sick.  Stuart wanted to take photos but all I wanted to do was get down.  As we were going down I had a real urge to just lie down and go to sleep – but I knew if i could just lose some more altitude I would be alright.  I said to Stuart I would see him further down and almost immediately when I skied back to the tree line I started to feel better.  We never made back up there due to high winds that closed the gondola so I was glad we did when we did.
After a hard days skiing you need the après ski including a soak in the to rest those tired muscles.  Since we were staying a week and it appeared most people were only there for few days we quickly became the regulars and would get greeted by the bar staff get served our usual drinks – you know just like your local would!  Anyway we also managed to talk to other people at the bar and listen in to other peoples conversations!

	Hmm hot tube with beer and wine – very civilized! Just don't expose any part of your body above the waterline otherwise you will freeze!
	Bucks T4 make some of their own liquors – maybe some ideas for Demijohn!  There was bacon bourbon, apple cinnamon vodka and pineapple vanilla bean tequila!  We tried them all – the bacon one was a little strange but tasted ok!
	Then we made friends with a couple from Canada and we got talked in to doing a shot-ski!!  Yes, an old wooden ski with holes cut out for the shot glasses.  The trick is to all tip and drink at the same time
	otherwise you will be wearing your drink. Note set up and execution!
	all good – we are all smiling at the end!  I think I remember we did it twice!!

After a wonderful week of brilliant snow, empty runs and lots of great food it was hard to leave.  If you are thinking of a place to ski I would tell you to go here but then again I don’t want anyone else discovering it!

Bozeman Airport – security is grizzly!!