Just over two weeks from my return from Europe in late February, my old friend Marc Rucinski paid me a mid-March visit for some skiing and more. We could have skied for four consecutive days, but Marc was eager to see more of what Southwest Montana has to offer.  I suggested Yellowstone National Park, which he had surprisingly never been to before.  Of course, Yellowstone in winter has some drawbacks relative to summer.  Most of the roads are closed to vehicular traffic in winter, so most of the park’s main attractions can only be visited on expensive snow coach or snowmobile trips. 

The exception is the road that runs across the northern part of Yellowstone from Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs in the northwest to the northeast entrance at Cooke City, a very remote town in the winter months notable mainly for snowmobiling.  One benefit of winter, however, is that much of the park’s wildlife concentrates in lower elevations in the park’s north side and just outside, especially bison and elk.  As far as wildlife spotting goes, the day didn’t disappoint with pronghorns, elk, mule deer, and bison all coming out for us.   Despite it being relatively warm, both colors are bears are still probably in their dens, but good luck seeing one of them even in summer.  The two prior times I was in the northern part of Yellowstone in winter, there were dozens of people out with powerful scopes to watch wolves across the Lamar Valley. I’m not sure what happened to them, but there did not appear to be any wolf sightings.

We finished the day with a long soak at Chico Hot Springs in the Paradise Valley and then dinner at the Old Saloon in Emigrant.  Marc was eager to try elk, and I was determined to find a place where we could get some.  Elk, however, doesn’t actually appear on all that many menus.  After unsuccessfully searching online menus of restaurants in Livingston and Bozeman, I thought I’d give the Old Saloon a try, even though I suspected it was mostly a burger place rather than a fine dining establishment.  Bingo!  Elk medallions on the menu.  Marc found them delicious enough that he later started looking online for places he could buy elk steaks or other cuts to have delivered to his current home in Los Angeles.