Crazies One More Time

This view is looking west towards the Crazy Mountains from Big Timber, Montana.

I realize that I have blogged a couple times with my pics of the Crazy Mountains but I waited a while for these to come back from the lab and they came out pretty good.

I plan on picking up a large format camera very soon and you guys are gonna love the high resolution imagery that I will produce this new year.  Gonna eventually set up my own darkroom and start to crank out some real nice photographer here in Montana.

...Until then, here is some more waterfalls in the Crazies.

This is the Big Timber Creek and one of the canyons that run the length of the gorge. There was plenty of snow and ice so believe me this was no easy task traversing this area; like walking on round rocks of ice.

This small mountain range is in southwest Montana and is supposed to have more
wolverines per square mile than any place on earth. I always keep my eye out for one of those little furry clawed critters.
Also, there is plenty of cougars, black bears, pronghorns, deer and large elk. Supposedly, there is no grizzlies this side of the highway but some guys I know that live nearby insist that there are the big bad bears up in thar woods.

Downtown Livingston; A Neon Freezer

Downtown Livingston, Montana
...it was 9 degrees when I was out doing this photography.

This hotel restraunt is pretty famous around here...

The local movie theater. Is inexpensive and you can always get a seat but most of the flicks
are aimed at kids or teens as you can see from the Harry Potter Advertisement. 

There is a nightlife here. Lots of glitz just like a big city.

This place has live music.

The little woman was a real sport hiking all the way downtown to help me out
and was rewarded with a picture for the effort.

Elk and Snow Removal

A cow squealling a high pitch sound like a baby's cry

Two feet of snow has come down so far. I keep shuffling it out of the way but it keeps falling.

My car was unable to make it into the garage because of the steep snowy laden hill.

Well actually, I finally made it up the hill and tried to take a fast left turn up the alleyway and went slideways and fished tailed almost into a light post before getting bogged down again.

Finally clears out a spot up front our condo with my new expensive(worth every penny!) shovel and put the car into the clean spot.

Tried to put the chains on the back tires but only one was good so the other is still off my left wheel.

Hope my antifreeze holds up in the 5 degree weather tonight so we can get another set of tire chains in the morning

and then make the attempt into the damn garage again!

At any rate, here is some of the video I shot today of me hard at it and a few images from Mammoth Hot Springs area where I work of the elk herd hanging out.

Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2 of Snow Removal

A pretty cow

This is the bull and some of his cows hanging out in the old fort barracks area
trying to cool off.

Here is a second bull elk with his herd of cows resting just a few houses away from the other herd

And another bull but without a herd. A loser sitting just a dozen yards away from another bull and his herd...a third herd at that.

 A herd

Cemetery in Livingston,Montana and a 180* view of Livingston from atop my hill

180 degrees view looking south into the gap that leads into Paradise Valley and then on to the
Yellowstone National Park.  In the third frame from the left where the mountains break and the clouds
are the heaviest, the snow sits all winter long and is like a wind tunnel....brrrrrrrrrrr!

I spotted this cemetery a few weeks ago and wanted to photograph it as I knew it had lots of cool gravestones. Here is my work on a cold semi wet Sunday.

The names in the middle are a little blur was it a ghost or some rain on my lens?

I love this headstone. For one it is a Japanese American that died fighting and flying fighter jets
in the Korean War. I can imagine this soon after WW2 this fellow was trying very hard
to be recognized as a good American....he died in this cause.

The most potent stones were the ones of the small children and infants like this one of the six month old baby

This one is hard to read but it was for a nine year old girl

Husband and wife

A sheep, horse, snow and mountains....very Montanaish!

   

I really like these two rock gravestones.

I believe that this lady was probably killed in the far East during the Japanese occupation...

Pine Creek Trail, waterfalls and a special shot at the end

This trail was five miles up, up, up and then down, down, down.

This is a really beautiful waterfall about 1 mile into the trail right before you really start to go up.

This was near the top of the trail

This is Pine Creek

This is a very wild area with bears both black and grizzlies, cats of many types and elk, deer and coyote and wolves.

There is lots of waterfalls of all shapes and sizes along the trail

Lots of rocky areas to make side hikes to looking for that mountain lion....ha ha he he

The long view across the big pond of the large waterfall

This is the biggest waterfall on the trail. I think it drops about 400 feet.

 I had to make this photo a series of shots as my distance and angle from  the falls across the large pond at the bottom

This is the view from the top of the pass looking into the Paradise Valley, Montana

Myself and the wife; Lidice

Back to the Crazy Mountains for some fresh air and ice water

The heavy weather was coming in just as I made my break

Big Timber Creek was my goal with the beautiful waterfalls
I knew it had snowed up there....
but I thought it might only be spotty on the trail.
Nope, one to two feet all the way up to the second bridge.

Does that water look cold?

The view looking Eastward and downstream on the Big Timber

Those Crazies! Gotta love em!