Fly Fishing In Yellowstone National Park: Still There

Monday, April 23, 2018

Still There

RESPLENDENT IN SUN

Color In Streams

ubiquitous bison

WALLPAPER: NATIONAL PARK MOUNTAIN

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.. This year opening weekend for the west entrance of Yellowstone Park was gentle and welcoming.

WELCOMING COMMITTEE

.. The sun was out, the breezes were gentle, the visitation was sparse, the critters were on show and a good time was had by all.
.. Flows on both the Firehole River and the Madison River are up and both rivers are running bank full.
.. With the current warm up and the remaining snow pack we anticipate that they will be over bank within the next 48 hours.

COLORFUL MADISON RIVER

.. Color is moving into the Madison River and is reminiscent of the stain in a wee bairn's nappies.
.. Visibility is about four feet and not as turbid as we anticipated. It would be possible to fish the water with out too much anxiety.
.. The only color in the Firehole River is the slight glacial blue of fine to medium silts. Under the clear sky this produces a tanzanite hue that is striking for this time of year.

Biscuit Basin Opening Weekend

.. This time last year there was no low level snow cover below the Madison Plateau.
.. This year there is still a couple of feet, (give or take,) on the meadows and under the trees.
.. We anticipate that this will enter the runoff very soon with the warm rains invading the neighborhood.

CURRENT SPRING SNOW COVER

.. At the elevation of Old Faithful the snow is over two feet deep in the north corners and shade.
.. The normal rush of neighbors to the west entrance was muted this year == probably due to the snow cover and errant weather forecast.
.. In town there was a slight up tick in feather merchant traffic. The restaurants were easily invaded with no lines and empty tables.
.. There is still a plethora of parking spaces in front of the occasionally open trinket shops.

THE WILY ONE

.. After another winter the park is in the same place that it was last year: we're elated.
.. The maintenance crews have cleared all the dead fall from the roads and posted all the appropriate bear warnings.
.. The bears will linger a little longer in the valleys this year; waiting for the exposure of the dead meat of winter. The ravens, coyotes, and eagles have already dug into the proud flesh of Spring.

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STIMULATOR FLOATING HIGH

.. With our early park-fix out of the way we now have time to dabble in the postage stamp sized bit of dirt that passes for our garden.
.. There is still some snow to be removed and then a bit of digging prior to planting. Perhaps it will happen soon: we'll see.

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