Montana today

[Al Agnew]

The most snow we've ever experienced in Montana...18 inches. Temps have been a few degrees below zero at night.

[Bass Yakker]

I'm very jealous.  Enjoy it and thanks for sharing!

[Mitch f]

Beautiful scenery Al!

[Al Agnew]

Minus 7, 10:45 AM. No fishing today!

[fshndoug]

absolutely beautiful.I can look at winter landscapes all day long.

[Al Agnew]

In the second picture of my latest post, looking south out our living room window, the river is barely visible but throwing off enough steam that it looked like there were hot springs.  We're fortunate to have our place be just downstream from Livingston, which is downstream from two big spring creeks, a lot of fast water, and a small hot spring.  So our stretch of river never quite freezes over solid, and is an attraction for eagles in the winter.  There were three eagles perched in the trees on the other side of the river in that photo.  The mountains are the northwest end of the Absaroka range.  The first picture is looking east, with Sheep Mountain the big butte in the background.

[Phil Lilley]

Thanks for sharing, Al.

[Al Agnew]

This is the iconic Paradise Valley view today at Mallard's Rest.  this is about 12 miles upstream from Livingston, in a slower, winding section of the river.  There is an ice dam somewhere downstream, and it has backed up this huge ice flow.  If you can see closely in the bottomland on the right, and in the trees on the left, there is water flowing in both places.  So the water level underneath the ice is probably a good 6 or 7 feet above normal, backed up from the ice dam.  The ice is up into the trees and rubbing the trunks...in the summer, you'll see trees along the edge of the river that have much of the bark chewed off the trunks from this happening in the winter.  Upstream a few miles, the river is flowing, though between ice shelves, and is at the normal level.  Downstream a few miles where we saw the river today, it's flowing well with slushy ice.  Down at our house below Livingston, it's flowing normally between ice shelves, with all the side channels frozen over.  It was a little warmer today, up close to 20 degrees, after being below zero overnight.

[Basfis]

Beautiful!

I was given a John Coulter book at Christmas. Amazed to connect some of the places you mention to the book. The pics sure show the attraction. 

Thanks!