Ok I admit it! I'm not here for the skiing.... although I do love to ski. Nope I'm here for the hiking.... my fix.

Once mother nature turns of her hold on winter I count the days until I can set out to rekindle my love for the backcountry- on foot that it. I call this my re-connection to my senses.

My favorite hikes are located Bozeman and West Yellowstone.. about an 83 mile stretch of land and one that you'll never forget once you discover what lies beyond the highway!

There are a multitude of hiking trails just off highway 191. My favorite lie just beyond the Yellowstone National Park entrance and offer some of the most scenic landscapes you will ever lay witness to. Fawnpass, Beacon Rind, Teepee Creek and Black Butte are just a few trails I take on in mid June. At this time of year all the wildflowers are bursting with their vibrant colors. The yellow glacier lilies and buttercups alongside the blue Lupine and Bluebells accented by the deep red paintbrush all combine to make one beautiful color palette - courtesy of Mother Nature.  

My love for this great vast wild land is heightened by my love for all that is natural in our pristine Yellowstone ecosystem. The clear mountin streams, the crisp clean air, the sound of Western Meadowlark warbling whistle, witnessing the birth of a baby moose and of course the geologic majesty of the mountain peaks that dot the landscape including our own Lone Mountain - This makes me feel alive. 

There is no substitute I've found for my fervent desire to be in the backcountry during Montana's Summer months. I find great inner peace and solitude hiking deeper into the wild. It's life changing for many first timers that have succumbed to the intoxicating splendor of the Gallatin Canyon and find themselves asking not "Why can't I live here" but rather "Why dont I live here?" Maybe its time to make that change.