We flew up to Montana for work this week, which we have done about fifty times over the past twenty years. Because we go to Montana on such a frequent basis, we tend not to give much thought to the beauty of the area. The area is truly spectacular, not just Yellowstone National Park, but the entire area. It isn’t as though the beauty of nature somehow stops at the border of the park, it is just where protection of the land and wildlife comes to an end. On this particular trip, we decided to take a few photos of the landscape as we flew over northern Wyoming and then into Montana. It might be Spring throughout most of the northern hemisphere, but here in the high-country, winter is still clinging on for another month or so. We are still getting snow occasionally as you can tell from the peaks of the mountains as our plane flew over the Rocky Mountains.

Once we crossed over the mountains and entered the valley where we were to land, the scenery turned from white peaks to lush green farmland. The growing season for plants in this region is very short, so seeing all of the green grass was very refreshing. It also means that there is a reduced chance of fires, a risk that is unfortunately high in our home state of Colorado. We decided not to go into the park this trip, mostly because of the road conditions as it continued to snow in the mountains and on the mountain passes during our entire time in Montana.

We will try not to take the beautiful scenery of Wyoming and Montana for granted during any of our subsequent trips. We live in a gorgeous part of the world and seeing it from an airplane is a wonderful way to truly appreciate how wild and wonderful it really is.