Ricky and Tami Kesel ©Bert Gildart: Janie and I missed the International Airstream Rally, held late June of this year in Bozeman, Montana. It’s our home state, but I had obligated myself long ago to attend the OWAA Convention , which I have been covering in my blog postings these past few weeks. But we didn’t miss [...]

"Lonely" Bull Bison ©Bert Gildart: From across the campground the man with Minnesota tags who had just pulled into his site called out with a statement, then a question. “Hey,” he said, apparently referring to the pink liquid in our glasses. “They don’t allow this is Minnesota. Watch it now!” Flabbergasted, we simply remained silent, which apparently didn’t [...]

Enos Poor Bear ©Bert Gildart: According to Enos Poor Bear, the South Unit of Badlands National Park has always belonged to the Lakota [Sioux] People. “That land is ours,” said Poor Bear, “because of the Treaty [1868] of Fort Laramie. Congress removed the South Unit from the Reservation so they could use it as a bombing range. [...]

©Bert Gildart: Here are a few more images from the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site with a few explanations. Earth Lodge Though the park does not contain any more original earth lodges, it does contain an excellent reproduction. Because this was a matriarchal society, lodges were owned by the women. “Skeletal” system of the [...]

Sunset over the Knife River park ©Bert Gildart: Last night while hiking back from the Knife River along a park service trail, the wind of the past few days subsided and the sun began to assume a beautiful red glow, so often the case after a series of storms. To dramatize the sun, I attached a 400mm [...]

Four Bears Winter Count & John with bison bladder ©Bert Gildart: Yesterday we pulled our Airstream 60 miles north to the small settlement of Stanton, North Dakota, which is contiguous with a national-park administered area so unique that some believe it should be designated a World Heritage Site. Walking onto a field where a village [...]

Evaluating embryo development ©Bert Gildart: Ten thousand years ago huge glaciers covered an area now known as the Coteau Hills. At the time these sheets of ice towered 300-feet high, and had anyone been present in the area, they must have been an impressive sight to behold. But now, several thousands years after they’ve receded, what is [...]

Kayak demonstration ©Bert Gildart: The 81st annual convention of the Outdoor Writer’s Association of America is over for another year and once again people whom I’ve come to admire have returned to all points of the compass. Some such as Chris Madson and Tom Huggler return with coveted honors for their contributions to our organization and [...]

Fort Abraham Lincoln & "California Joe" ©Bert Gildart: This is now the third day of the conference for the Outdoor Writer’s Association of America, held this year in Bismarck, North Dakota, and from my perspective, it has been extraordinarily successful. The gathering has featured some of the very best speakers from across the nation and has [...]

Beauty of the Badlands ©Bert Gildart: I remember well one of the overwhelming longings of my earlier years. Scurrying across the nation in marathon drives, bound for seasonal employment in Glacier and Yellowstone parks during the late Sixties, a group of college chums and I invariably detoured off Interstate 94 on the western edge of North [...]

Snake In-the-Grass ©Bert Gildart: Erick Hanson is generally a reticent man, but yesterday at Montana’s Little Bighorn Battlefield, he hollered out loudly. “Watch it;” he hollered. “Snake!” Erick was yelling at Dave Vedder and there was a real reason. We were hiking along a trail to the Reno-Benteen hold out, when Erick heard a rattlesnake. Dave [...]

Departing the Flathead ©Bert Gildart: And so we departed yesterday from our home along what I call “The Last Country Road,” because it is so suggestive of our vanishing rural life. We’re heading to North Dakota, rendezvousing this evening in Missoula with other members of the Outdoor Writers Association of America where we’ll then caravan to [...]

Alpine Complex, Prudhoe Bay ©Bert Gildart: Today, we are off for what may seem an activity that contradicts with my passion for preserving some of the nation’s last remaining wilderness area, specifically the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Today we’re rendezvousing with a number of other RVers, all members of the Outdoor Writer’s Association of America. We’re caravanning [...]

©Bert Gildart: It is no exaggeration to say that we here in the Gildart home are in mourning. Tim Russert, our most favorite of all newscasters, passed away yesterday, June 13, 2008; and I would like to add our humble voices from here in Bigfork, Montana, and say that his passing will profoundly affect [...]

Approaching Camp Muir ©Bert Gildart: Because of the tragic death this week on Mount Rainier my climb last year of this 14,410-foot high volcanic peak has been much in my thoughts. I’m reminded of just how much preparation was necessary for our climb , and why it is so important–no matter the duration of [...]

©Bert Gildart: Though the weather man has been consistently predicting inclement weather for the past few days, even saying that Glacier National Park would receive between two to three feet of snow today, just 30 miles away, the view this morning from our back porch was anything but threatening. Fog was spiraling upward, the sun [...]

Choke Cherry ©Bert Gildart: Small town politics invariably make for interesting gatherings, but sometimes they’re not always so pleasant. Last night was a case in point. Subject of the meeting concerned our Lower Riverside community, which is essentially a farming community, and whether or not it should be zoned. Janie and I missed the meeting that prompted [...]

Pasque flower Bert Gildart: Few places are more lovely in spring than Montana’s Glacier National Park. At this time, I’m particularly drawn to the park’s east side and this is the area to which Janie and I gravitated about 10 days ago. Several of my favorite flowers were beginning to bloom and the park’s water falls [...]

Red Crossbill ©Bert Gildart: Here are two new species of birds that have recently started showing up at our feeder in Creston, Montana. They provide a continuation of the posting I made last year, entitled “By Their Beaks Shall You Know Them .” That posting was made from Florida’s Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge [...]

Return of the cranes ©Bert Gildart: When Janie comes running into the house yelling for me to grab my camera bag, I know she’s seen something unusual, so I don’t question her until we’re in the car. But I should have known what was causing all the excitement. Each year at this time, a pair of [...]