First Day Off

Monday was my first day off after seven straight days of training. Time to go fishing. The Park’s fishing season doesn’t open for another two weeks, so the destination was the Madison River below Hebgen Lake, about sixty miles away outside the Park’s West Entrance. That section of the river is open now.


The Firehole River at Biscuit Basin

The West Entrance is normally a 1-hour drive (average driving speed inside the Park is only 30-35MPH…two-lane highway, traffic, on alert for animals on the road). My plan was to be standing in the river fishing by late morning.

That was the plan. I was on the road by 7:45 AM, a good start. It’s just that Yellowstone country got in the way. Took me 2 hours just to get to the West Entrance instead of one.



Bison are frequent in the Firehole's meadow sections

I couldn’t take my eyes off the landscape and wildlife. Everything was dazzling in the slant of the clear morning sunlight. The relief of the mountain ridge above the Firehole River; the geyser steam trailing high into the still morning air; the wildlife. Stop-stare-binoculars-camera. That’s the way it was all the way down the Firehole to Madison Junction; then all the way down the Madison to about Riverside Drive, where things finally  begin to look “normal”. Sagebrush takes over as the lodgepole pine falls away.

The Madison River at Big Bend

With binoculars, I spent over 10 minutes just watching a coyote working the meadow at Fountain Flats for its morning meal. The sun over its shoulder, ears tilted forward intently. What it can see-hear-smell that is beyond our comprehension!

The magic morning light lasted for about an hour.  By 9AM, the air’s sharpness was gone. Too bright, the sun’s angle wrong. Now I know what photographers always talk about.

Until you see it for yourself, the Park’s unique landscape is difficult to appreciate. For that thirty mile drive to the Park entrance, there is not a single house, building, settlement, crossroad, fenced pasture, or flood control structure on the rivers. There isn’t now, there never was. This landscape was never settled. The bison roam, the rivers roll on, the mountains tower, the geysers spout. It is profoundly unique.

The Madison River at Riverside Drive

On to the fishing. This will be a short report. The Madison River below Hebgen Lake is one of my favorite places to fish out here (it’s the scene in the masthead photo of this blog). I had high expectations for the day. All dashed by spring runoff from Cabin Creek, a small tributary notorious for this condition as anglers familiar with this area know too well. The river was fishable when I arrived early afternoon.

But, the temperatures soared to the upper 70s, sending Cabin Creek’s snowmelt into overdrive. The water clarity turned from slightly milky, to milk chocolate by 4PM. Fishing was over. Even the resident osprey wasn’t catching fish that day.



The Madison River, off-color with snowmelt

Yet, being there for the fishing gave me a front-row seat for the pecking order of the river birds this time of year. It’s breeding season, and they will do anything to protect their nesting territories. That osprey sent a bald eagle, a much larger bird, packing when it ventured too close to the nest. Two Canadian geese have also laid claim to that corner of the river. Though tolerant of a blue heron, the osprey, and mergansers, they aggressively rose together to chase a raven, a notorious nest-raider, from the neighborhood.

Elk and Bison along the Madison River at Seven-Mile Bridge

I was back into the Park as evening settled along the Madison River. It had been nice to get my Montana fishing season underway, just as it had been nice to run a few errands in West Yellowstone. My first cup of Canyon Coffee this year tasted great, and it felt good to provide a little patronage to Blue Ribbon Fly Shop, a favorite out here.

  

It was even nicer to be back in the Park. Tranquil, unspoiled, majestic. Like no other place I know.

And, we are going to be here all summer.