Today was all about bears. The plan was to meet up with wildlife photographer and naturalist, Dan Hartman, for a trek to the Beartooth Mountains. As we drove through Lamar Valley, we started off our bear themed day with a grizzly sighting. We ended up seeing four more black bears along the drive before making it to our meet-up with Dan.
Naturalist expert, Dan Hartman, led us on a trek through the Beartooth Mountains. We started with a hike in an area that he referred to as “Hidden Valley”. He has various camera traps set up around the area to observe bear activities. The trail he took us through was well worn from bear travels. We saw their tracks and evidence of recent scat and root foraging. The most exciting part was getting to lay in an actual bear’s bed!
We left our valley hike with Dan Hartman and headed up Beartooth Parkway. This particular road is only open from mid-May to October due to heavy snowfall. We made a quick stop by Beartooth Lake and the surrounding Beartooth Butte. The rocks showed a geological historical record of the different layers of rock (sandstone and limestone). The different layers date the butte to the Cambrian age. At that time, the whole area was underwater and the layers were an ancient river bed. We hopped back in the vans and continued our ascent to over 10,900 feet to the summit. With snow laden peaks flanking us on every side, and snow still on the ground, we scrambled up the granite rocks, facing wind gusts over 25 mph to find and see pika! We enjoyed a picnic lunch by Island Lake and descended back toward Cooke City (population <100) to visit with Dan and Cindy.
Dan and his wife Cindy shared more of their work with us at their gallery. We got to view some of Dan’s film work, and then, we all got autographed books! Next, Cindy took us on a tour of the Cooke City one room school house. Needless to say, we were blown away by the ingenuity of their teacher and students. On our travels back to the cabins that evening, we ended our “beary good day” with several more black bears along the road by Lamar Valley heading back to our rustic cabins at Roosevelt Lodge.