June – 2016

Montana is one of those places everyone needs to experience in their lifetime. For me it’s been a destination I’ve wanted to experience for years. I have a good friend who recently moved back out there and I finally took the opportunity to visit my buddy and have him show me around his beloved state.

I visited for 5 days where he took me on multiple hikes to hidden waterfalls, hikes up 12,000 foot mountains, tour through Yellowstone and Bears Tooth Pass.  We even hit up a local favorite “Chico Hot Springs”.

Yellowstone National Park is a nearly 3,500-sq.-mile wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. Mostly in Wyoming, the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho too. Yellowstone National Park features dramatic canyons, alpine rivers, lush forests, hot springs and gushing geysers, including its most famous, Old Faithful. It’s also home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, elk and antelope. Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles, comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges.

Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world’s geothermal features are in Yellowstone. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth’s northern temperate zone.