Less than a week ago, I was tucked in a sleeping bag next to the Yellowstone River. Today, that campsite is underwater, as is the bridge that stood next to it.
Paradise Valley is a living Montana iconography. On the east side of the valley, the Absaroka Range leans tall and jagged against the skies.
Crest east over their ridges and you’ll find yourself in one of the most pristine wildernesses in the world: the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. It’s 944,000 acres chock full of wild kingdoms, impossibly aquamarine glacial lakes, grizzly bears bumbling through, and bighorn sheep snugged into high rocky outcroppings.
Come back west and you’ll see a valley carved, fed, and tendered by the Yellowstone River — or the Elk River as the Indigenous people of the valley called it.
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Drive Highway 89 south toward Gardiner in the crepuscular hours and you’ll understand why.
The open faces of the valley contain herds of thousands of elk that fold into the landscape effortlessly. They bed on hillsides, walk the open agricultural fields, and even nap on the lawns of the homes that edge the river.
It’s not just elk. Bighorns, mule deer, whitetails, moose, black bears, and grizzlies inhabit this place in very visible ways. Birds of all sorts and plant life abound. It’s a place for wildlife to flourish, flora and fauna alike.
And, along the western edge of the Valley, the Gallatin Range finishes the job of tucking the valley in. Electric Peak stands high and mighty over Gardiner, leaving a lasting impression on the visitors of Yellowstone National Park as they come and go. For now, it still holds snow.
This is not a historically uncivilized place; the valley and surrounding landscapes have been continually occupied by humans for more than 11,000 years. Water, game, safe spaces to live, and travel corridors abound. This is an ancient ecosystem, fed by water and tended by humans.
The river is a constant here. It’s the deity that rules the Earth at its banks. Lately, we’ve worried more about its waning than waxing.
On Monday, June 13, it reminded us of its power and it waxed supreme.
Summer 2021: Charred by Flame
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Spring 2022: From Fire to Flood
Yellowstone River: June 14, 2022
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The Week Prior in Yellowstone National Park
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Lamar, the Beartooths, and Spring Babies Aplenty
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The Past Few Days
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An Aftermath to Come
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What Happens Now?
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