Back to current "What I know".....

December 30, 2006  We just had a great week of snow, the snow pole web cam at 4 ft.  The snowmobilers have filled the town this week! Today is the 3rd Annual Shoot Out, a fun time hill climbing on the mountain with a hotdog/soda warming hut hosted by the Pierce Family.  The Snowmobile Club, EMS, S&R are involved too with a fundraising auction this evening at the Miners Saloon.  Thanks to all who come participate and all the business owners who donate their time and money.  A big thank you to Robert (LSB), Cooke City Alpine Motel for all the hard work he has put into this event and also for starting it! We have been keeping things shoveled out, Todd got the roof cleaned off, it was deep! Happy New Year!

December 24, 2006   What a beautiful morning! Several inches of new snow here at the Moose so you know the back country has great powder today.  This will be a busy week, many guests here from Xmas to New Years.  Have a Happy Holiday! It looks like the snow pole is almost at 3 feet here at the cabins..

December 17, 2006  ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOM, the snow season has started.  No longer the sound of car's driving by but the sound of a 2 stroke engine!  The snowmobile season has started with the very eager arriving atThanksgiving time.  We had a good start of snow then but not enough to have a good base and groom but it is great now!!  We got pounded with 2 feet of snow 2 days ago and this weekend was very, very busy!  One of our friends from North Dakota picked up his ski-doo and came to ride it in the new powder but it was also 27 below this morning..burr!

November 17, 2006  I am home for a day or two!  The folks in Minneapolis were great!  The booth was busy and it is always amazing on how many people do not know about Cooke City!  This year the owners of the Alpine offered to go and help with the Community Booth, Robert (LSB) and Gerlie.  Sarah from Cooke City Motorsports came to help too (her 4th year in a row too)!!

Here are a couple photos of our booth! 

November 06, 2006  It is snowing this morning.  The road from Pilot Creek to Cooke City is offically off the plowing agenda for the Park Services for this season.  We are still driving until it gets really bad, hopefully we can drive just for a few more weeks until we really get started on the winter sports season.  It is very, very quiet around here and we have been taking the opportunity to visit friends, travel and Todd Pheasant hunt!!  I am headed to the Snow Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center, so stop by our Cooke City Community Booth!!!

October 24, 2006  The snow is here!  We had a snow storm last week and we have several inches still here. The snowmobilers are calling to get their reservations in for the winter to come!  It is the quiet time here in October and I took the time to go to Mexico and play tourist myself!!  What a great vacation!  I will be at the Minneapolis Snow Show Nov 10, 11, 12th so stop by and say 'hi'! I will be in a Cooke City Booth with other businesses. Ok, so this isn't this last snow storm but it is what we have to look forward to very soon!

September 24, 2006  Wow the summer has gone by too fast!  It has been a very busy season. September started off with a tragedy in our small community.  We lost 2 local men in an accident, both of these men were Cooke City through and through.  They were in a jeep accident on the mountain trying to set up our community with new batteries for our radio tower when they went off the mountain.  It was a Labor day morning we would like to start over.  Their dear families will stay strong but it is a great loss and the community will stay close to get through these tough times. We had snow this last week but today was a clear blue sky with warmth and sunshine.

Here is a great photo taken by guests Joe & Debbie James...moose in the meadow at the Big Moose!

August 8, 2006. I went ATV'ing today with some friends. What beautiful to experience on top of the mountains. The lake photo is Huckleberry looking off the back side of Sheep Mountain.  I thought you might enjoy the old Mining shaft and buildings.  The ATV shot is looking off the Miller Trail.

July 24, 2006  Wow where has the time gone!  It has been a very busy month.  The Fourth of July Fireman's Picnic and Fireworks were a huge success with a great attendance!  Thanks to all the great folks who volunteered their time and potluck dishes for the picnic!  The fireman did a great job with the fireworks show in Silver Gate! The wild flowers are beautiful!  Here are photos of my mom on Daisy Pass amongst the flowers and the view of town from the Daisy Pass switchbacks.  For those of you who watch the webcam and monitored the last snow bank melting, it disappeared totally on July 8th!

June 22, 2006  Summer is underway!  The travelers are out and their experinces range from seeing a moose walk by our moose sign from their cabin porch to the breathtaking views of the Beartooth Mountains.  Now some folks are very overwhelmed by the Beartooth Pass Switchbacks and have been known to look for an alternate route but guess what the only other choice is a Scenic Highway too!! Here are a couple of photos of momma moose & calf and a deer in the meadow next door.

June 12, 2006  Spring is here!  Warm and beautiful. We had a visit from our neighbor with her mini horse and cart.

June 01, 2006  We made it through Graduation and the Grand Opening of the Beartooth All American Road even though the weather was cold, rainy and snow! The wildlife watching is fantastic!  Going over the Chief Joseph Hwy 296 to Cody folks have spotted mountain lions, grizzly and elk!  Some folks in Yellowstone reported seeing 36 bears on their visit to Yellowstone, WOW!!

May 22, 2006  Well folks the snow is shrinking!  Yes check out the sign, you can actually see the ground!  We have been busy working on spring projects and getting ready for the summer season.  Our daughter Chelsie graduates from high school this weekend so we have been busy with those plans!  For those of you who have been guests over the last few years you might remember Todd and I were home schooling for 8th & 9th grade. Chelsie finished her home school degree but went on over to Cody to be with more kids!  Also I have been busy with helping for a Grand Opening Celebration of the Beartooth Highway, it is a special year since we had the mudslides last year and the Highway was closed all season.  This should be a great event, we have teamed up with Friends of the Beartooth All American Road, Red Lodge, Cody and Yellowstone Park for a great day. The event includes the bio-diesel Yellow Buses of Yellowstone touring with special invited guests over the Pass to Red Lodge for lunch and entertainment.  I hope you all have a great Memorial Day!  Check out this special sunset taken by one of our guests, Phillip,from Missouri, an Engineer with the Federal Highway Dept., he has been working on the road construction of Hwy 212.

May 3 , 2006  Check this out, they plowed the road and we can now drive!  We have a pretty good size snow bank

Here is a photo of the guys clearing out the Lulu Trail to get to the gravel pit!

April 29, 2006  The snow is shrinking!!  Monday May1st the plows will start this way, heading east of Cooke City to open the road over the pass that has been closed since November.  I am looking forward to spring.  We have had a big grizzly bear around here for a couple of days. The bears are awake and hungry!  My daughter came home from school Friday evening (she goes to Cody High School) and she took photos with her cell phone of 2 moose, hundreds of elk and 2 bears..

April 16, 2006  Spring is suppose to be in the air but here we are still getting light snow/sleet and rain storms.  The snow is melting from the rain but we haven't seen the clear blue sky for over a week.  I keep trying to quit wearing my snow gear and head out on my four wheeler instead of snowmobile but it is still wet and cold so I continue to wear the winter gear!  I have been busy on many projects and haven't had much for news.  I went to Great Falls to the Governor's Conference on Tourism.  Our Community received an award with Red Lodge and the Friends of the Beartooth All American Road for its "Partnership in Tourism".  We all pulled together last summer with the mudslide on the Beartooth All American Road to keep the visitors informed that they could still come to our communities via The Chief Joseph Scenic Highway.   We still have 5 feet on the snow pole.. Sorry, for the inconvience when the snow on the roof slides and knocks the camera out of line. I appreciate folks letting us know when something seems wrong with the camera setting.  Between the snow and ice it gets jarred easily..

Happy Easter to all!  Sure hoping spring shows up!!

March 19, 2006  It has been a great snowmobiling season with all the great snow we have had. This week usually is the beginning of the quiet time. It is warm and spring everywhere else so folks are starting on their spring activities but their are a few who will not put the sled in storage and continue to come for "spring snowmobiling". Now we have 6 1/2 ft here at the Pass and it is still snowing today. Winter can go on for a few more weeks or several weeks so those of you who still want to ride that sled one more time, come on out!  Here are some photos I took this morning when we had a break of blue sky and sun!

Now remember in the summer I have to stand on my tippy toes to touch add the no to the Vacancy! Here is a photo of a cabin behind the lodge, yes that is the back roof of the lodge, you can walk on the roof!

March 12, 2006 Last night was the Hog Roast & Auction Benefit, a good time was had by all. There were some great items donated by our local busineses and residents. The craftsmanship in our community is amazing!  A town of 90 people has some of the best wood working talent I've ever seen. The benefit raised several thousand dollars for the our local volunteer organizations.

Feb. 27, 2006  We have had 2 very warm days. Last week we had a couple feet of new snow and folks came from everywhere to play, town was very busy over the weekend but it is back to normal today, quiet!  I  have tried to get

some hot tub photos but everyone seems to get in at night.  I did happen to catch this great shot of Bob, Rob & Rob, Jr..  Bob and his group have been coming out for 5 years now and are so happy about the new hot tub addition.

Feb. 18, 2006   It has been a crazy winter.. We went from snow everyday to record low temperatures.  This morning it was -38 at 5:30 am and has warmed up to 10,  I hope the cold snap is over and snow is coming! The sky is blue, blue, blue.   Last night one of my repeat guests from MN and his son were in the hot tub, under the stars at -20 and they said "this is great", only those Midwest folks tolerate that below zero stuff!  This is how we pack our snow down at the Moose, we have a drag behind the Chevy.  Now here is a place you don't want to be, he decided to go ahead and go back rather than off the rock

Here is a great sunset looking North to the Beartooths.

February 5, 2006  We just had some great guests who are passing the friend category and are moving into  being family! They experienced an endless amount of fresh powder daily, average 2-3 ft of the fluffy stuff for 5 days, even better-Untracked fresh powder every day!  They were exhausted.  Our daughter Chelsie played hooky from school to go riding on their last day.  They cooked and shared their special pheasant recipe with us, a good time was had by all! Here is another photo of Chelsie "catching air in untracked snow" . Also a couple photos of the Minnesota Boys covered with snow--every day!!

January 26,2006   Did you like my photos of all the snow?  I was sitting in the hot tub, snowflakes falling, the aroma of the wood burning stove of the lodge coming over the roof, sipping on a glass of wine and thinking "it just couldn't get any better"!  Well I guess it could if I had someone to shovel snow and break ice on the roofs so the snow would slide!  Todd and I shoveled the porch roof on the Lodge yesterday, 10 inches of ice and 3 feet of compacted snow, what a job!  We have had some great guests, as usual.  Some awesome South Dakota guys who have been here before but hit it at the ULTIMATE,  they had more fresh powder than they'd ever experienced and deep too!  It always great to have the Midwest boys come to play, what great people!! Some friends from North Dakota were here for the 2nd time this month, the last time they were here it snowed so much they had to go home for a break and came back to some great snow. Some of the best riding they have ever experienced.  Of course that is what Todd says about their place when he is pheasant hunting in North Dakota!  Tonight there are some guys from Michigan in the Hot Tub "ooh'n and awe'n" as they are soaking away aches with snow falling around them, surrounded by the view of pine trees and mountains. Because we are a small business we only have a few people here at a time which really makes their time in the hot tub enjoyable!  Here is a photo of my Chelsie jumping off a cornice, she loves jumping!

January 20, 2006.  We have had an incredible amount of snow.  The snow pole hit 6 feet. I have a couple of pictures of the cabins and as you can see I am not kidding about how much snow we have here! This is one of the kitchenettes. Yes, it is hard to believe but there are steps and a door.

January 14. 2006.  It has been a very busy couple of weeks. We have had snow 25 out of 27 days. Lots of shoveling. Our web cam snow pole was nearing the 6 ft. mark but as the snow settles it is back down to 5 ft.  We have had some great snowmobilers, repeat customers from North Dakota and Minnesota. It was great they got some awesome snow to ride on during their trip.  We look forward to a great winter season!  

January 3, 2006.  Happy New Year! Man have we gotten some awesome snow! Our webcam snowpole goes to 12 ft., if it keeps this up it might not be tall enough! The Holiday week was super, super busy here in Cooke. There was alot of snow and folks came from everywhere, especially with New Years on a weekend. I haven't taken a photo because it usually has been snowing and a white out, so I guess you'll just have to keep looking at the webcam. Have a great day!  I will just hang out here in this winter wonderland!