"They're Back!" at Our Western Montana Lodge

The moose have returned to the Centennial Valley. Although year-round residents of the area, these unique animals are most visible in the winter. However, they hadn't been too visible until this latest snow storm followed by the extreme cold snap. In fact, they now seem to be sticking close to what little open water is available in the valley.

On our snowmobile ride out yesterday, I saw 7 moose - 6 within 1 1/2 miles of the lodge. On the return trip today, I saw 10 moose - 8 within 1 1/2 miles of the lodge -and one young bull in the yard! And, based on the fresh droppings and tracks, there are quite a few more hiding in the willows.

Although all the moose I've seen lately have lost their antlers, a couple of weeks ago we saw a large bull who still had a nice set of paddles.

In other 'news', things are finally starting to thaw out (I say that a bit 'tongue in cheek') here at the Resort. However, not before we nearly ran out of supplies (and that with a much lower level of traffic than would be the norm were it not for the bitterly cold temperatures).

The recent weather has definitely played havoc with our normal schedule. First the Sysco truck couldn't deliver our order (on Thursday last) because the roads were closed from Ashton, ID to West Yellowstone, Montana - and north to Ennis, MT. Friday our order was delivered but it stayed well below -10. So, we decided to wait for the promised 'warmer' weather. On Saturday it got a bit warmer (by about 3 degrees) but the snowmobiles refused to start (too many days of too cold of weather?). So Sunday, when it got to -8, we decided to make another try. The snowmobiles started (the 2 strokes) reluctantly, and we headed out. After a night in Island Park (where it ONLY got down to -10 for the LOW - compared to our -30), we returned home.

However, it does look like things are slowly thawing out. We got up to -4 for the high today. Looking back over the last 5 days we've had some pretty impressive temperatures - our lowest 40 below, our highest 4 below. Maybe tomorrow we'll break the 0 mark?

Lady of the Lake