Thursday, May 19, 2011

B Bar Ranch

Since late April, I have been working at B Bar Ranch, in Emigrant, Montana (20 miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone Park). The ranch raises draft horses and ancient white park cattle, and has an organic garden where they raise organic produce. It also hosts different environmental groups throughout the summer, and has cross-country skiing in the winter. There are 7 seasonal staff members who work in the garden, the kitchen, do housekeeping work, and general maintenance around the ranch.

It’s been a fun job so far, and I am really enjoying the variety of the work and the small community environment. The ranch is a little over an hour from Bozeman so we have been able to go there to do most shopping, and the go to the park and hike on days off. Overall, it’s a very rural location, in Tom Miner Basin, surrounded by mountains which is, needless to say, absolutely gorgeous.

My view from my window at the bunkhouse on the ranch

Fuzzy Trouper, one of the two steers that the ranch keeps as pets, and a kind of mascot. He is very cute, and was bottle-fed as a calf, but people can't approach him nowadays because he does not know his own strength and will smack you with his horns.

A view from lower down in the valley, with the (still snowy!) mountains in the background. When I got here everything was still covered in snow but most has melted by now. The ranch is 8 miles off the highway, and at 6600 feet (1000 feet higher then the highway). When we go on walks, we'll often drive to the lower elevation because its easier to walk down there, and warmer!

It is still "cold" in Montana, and especially cold at this elevation on the ranch. However, they promise us that summer is coming, and I can't wait for some really nice weather for some really good hikes.


Monday, May 2, 2011

Grand Canyon!




In February, Ashley and I went to the Grand Canyon. This was very exciting for us, because we had wanted to go there very badly for about a year and a half now, and were thrilled to actually be seeing it for the first time. I also had an extra level of excitement, because my roommate (and wonderful friend) in Antarctica, Gracie, had been to the Grand Canyon many times and had told me how wonderful it was.

However, Ashley and I didn't know much about the Grand Canyon, and so thought some really stupid things about it. Like, that we could climb all the way down and back up in one day. However, they have lots of signs around warning you not to do that, so we didn't try. This was disappointing, but really for the best, as we probably wouldn't have made it back up.


However, we took a long hike and got a good way down into the canyon, so we got to see the different layers of rocks

We climbed about 3.5 miles round trip, and were very excited when we made it back to the top. It was certainly a work-out, and our legs felt like jelly for the rest of the day. However, it was totally worth it as we had waited so long to get to go, and we are excited to go back and make it to the very bottom the next time :)