Mountain Journal

11/08/2025

We're asking Mountain Journal readers to share their Greater Yellowstone photos and videos, and the submissions have been stellar! Each Friday, we’ll feature our Editor's Pick for Photo of the Week. Sign up for Mountain Journal's free Wednesday newsletter at link in bio to find out early whose photo made the cut. Thanks to Sylvia for this week's selected submission of grizzly bear 981's two cubs in Yellowstone National Park. 981 is the daughter of famous grizzly 980, also known as the Beryl Springs Bear.

In Sylvia's words: "We only caught glimpses of [the cubs and mother] in the spring, always in snow or rain and never close. This photo was one rare, lucky moment ... in the Beryl Springs area of YNP."

Share your photo or video here: https://bit.ly/474vE8m

11/07/2025

The American bison has a six-foot vertical leap, but often finds its wild status tangled in barbed-wire strands of politics and economics.

Our "What is Wild?" series wrestles with how we define the word “wild” in Greater Yellowstone, an ecosystem tangled with prehistoric food webs and artificial boundary lines. Our series concludes Sunday with Part 3, when MoJo contributor Robert Chaney explores America's national mammal, the bison (or buffalo?), and it's European cousin, the zubr.

Read the first two installments here https://bit.ly/480owu2 and subscribe to the Mountain Journal newsletter to get Part 3 in your inbox this Sunday.

Photo by Tom Murphy

11/05/2025

In our ongoing "Faces of Climate" series, Mountain Journal is highlighting good work in Greater Yellowstone. As the climate changes the face of the landscape, these people are changing our approach to it.

This week, Katie O'Reilly profiles Montana native Sierra Harris, Greater Yellowstone Coalition's climate and water conservation manager, who reflects on the art of collaboration to mitigate impacts of a warming planet. Hint: she sometimes recommends acting like a beaver.

Story link in comments.

11/04/2025

In the final installment in our series on geothermal energy, its availability in the West and the implications in Greater Yellowstone, Madison Dapcevich looks at the future of geothermal sites in Montana, sparking interest, and marrying the technology. Could geothermal be Montana’s alternative energy?

Story link in comments.

11/03/2025

How should an angler think about the fish on the hook? A recreational pastime? A communion with wild nature? A next meal? And how should the rest of us help manage the fisheries in this wild ecosystem and its waterways?

Our "What is Wild?" series wrestles with how we define the word “wild” in a place tangled with prehistoric food webs and artificial boundary lines. In Part 2, Robert Chaney explores how waters artificially stocked with fish have blurred the lines between wild and native trout.

Read the story here: https://bit.ly/4nAeJzy. And subscribe to our newsletter to get Part 3 in your inbox this Sunday.

10/31/2025

We're asking Mountain Journal readers to share their Greater Yellowstone photos and videos, and the submissions have been stellar! Each Friday, we’ll feature our Editor's Pick for Photo of the Week. Sign up for Mountain Journal's free Wednesday newsletter (https://bit.ly/4qrlgPF) to find out early whose photo made the cut. Thanks to Janay for this shot of a great gray owl in Yellowstone National Park.

In Janay's words: "I have never seen a great gray before and was hoping to spot one while venturing in Yellowstone. The cluster of vehicles and long lenses gave the owl away. She was originally napping and all the photographers were quiet and respectful of her peace. She was more majestic in person than the photos I have seen and when she turned her head in my direction all I felt was awe. I am grateful for the few minutes I was in her presence."

Share your photo or video here: https://bit.ly/474vE8m

10/31/2025

Toward the end of September, Big Sky Fire Department Chief Dustin Tetrault flagged a discrepancy between tax calculations in Gallatin County and Madison County, both within the Big Sky Fire District. The $8.5 million mistake, due to an apparent Gallatin County spreadsheet error, has led to a $2.3 million reduction in the department's budget.

For a place like Big Sky, which exists squarely in the wildland-urban interface and has a "very high" risk of seeing a wildfire — higher than 96 percent of communities in the U.S. — a $2.3 million reduction in the fire department's budget is not a good thing. Mountain Journal contributor Isabel Hicks has the story here: https://bit.ly/4nBT3mH

10/30/2025

The Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame’s latest class of honorees has a strong thread of Greater Yellowstone connections.

Whether developing bike trails in Livingston or the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness designation in Congress, this year’s award winners left lasting marks on local maps, according to MOHF Board President Bert Lindler.

Greater Yellowstone contingent among those recognized at December 6 celebration in Helena

10/30/2025

We're asking Mountain Journal readers to share their photos and videos. Here is a recent submission. Thanks for sharing, Dawn!

In Dawn's words: "One my my favorite spots along the Yellowstone River, taken at dawn in September 2025. Yellowstone's my favorite place to spend time, particularly in Spring and Fall. The peace and beauty I find there is something I look forward to each year!"

Share your photo or video here: https://bit.ly/474vE8m

10/29/2025

One remarkable component of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is its complete suite of wild North American mammals living much as they did before European explorers arrived. In fact, no other place in the Lower 48 has such a collection of predators and plant-eaters; from lynx to grizzly bears and from beavers to bison.

That puts an onus on us as guardians of such a rare landscape to both maintain its qualities and share its lessons. This series of stories wrestles with how we define the word “wild,” in a place tangled with prehistoric food webs and artificial boundary lines.

Read Part 1 here and subscribe to our newsletter to get Part 2 in your inbox this Sunday: https://bit.ly/3J6pM5u

10/28/2025

We're asking Mountain Journal readers to share their photos and videos. Here is a submission from . Thanks for sharing, Mary!

"This photograph is from the smoky summer of 2021," writes Mary. "This is the Slough Creek. It captures the beauty of Yellowstone right off of the road, making me feel as if I was far from everything."

Want to contribute? Share your photo or video here: https://bit.ly/474vE8m

10/24/2025

What can a Yellowstone grizzly bear teach a Eurasian lynx? Our new series of stories wrestles with how we define the word “wild.”

Tune in exclusively this Sunday to Mountain Journal's free newsletter, a special Sunday Read, for Part 1 of the series, “What Is Wild?" Sign up here and receive the story in your inbox: https://bit.ly/4qrlgPF

Photo by Ben Bluhm