Parks Reece - Portrait of an Artist

Shoot for the Moon

While it may come as no revelation to the native residents of Montana, those of us who only visit the Treasure State for it's trout fishing might be surprised by the diversity and vitality of the art scene that exists there. I first became aware of the paintings & lithographs of Parks Reece back in the mid 90's after after a week long backpacking/fishing trip in the Absaroka Mountains.

Montana Watering Hole

I had stumbled out of that trout filled wilderness tired, mosquito bitten and sunburnt and headed straight for the Murray Hotel in downtown Livingston, MT. to immerse myself in some well earned creature comforts, not the least of which was their roof top hot tub. Back then the second floor of the main lobby in the Murray was the home gallery of this truly extraordinary artist. Sort of an artist in residence at the newly renovated historical hotel. The very first painting I spied was his "Montana Watering Hole" and I was drawn to it like a grizzly bear to a month old bison carcass.

Trout Town

Often referred to as a modern mythical surrealist, Parks work invokes the wide open imagery of Russell Chatham while being infused with the rich color palettes of the famous cowboy artist Charley Russell and the eclectic humor of Richard Brautigan. A native of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, he worked for a spell as a ranch hand in Bighorn, Wyoming, painted a few murals in downtown Sheridan and taught art on the Crow Indian Reservation before eventually finding his way to Gardiner and then Livingston, Montana where he now operates a gallery of his own art.

For an entertaining read, check out the story "Some Trout Town" by well known Bozeman author Greg Keeler.

Reintroducing the Wolf

"His detailed paintings have all the technical facility and design savvy of a trained and serious artist. What makes them special is the wit... fine art becomes fun once again, and God bless him for that." - William Hjortsberg

Lost Fish are Always Bigger

"There's definitely something gloriously wrong with Parks Reece. I mean, just look at his work." - Tim Cahill

Bisontennial

"Right after Parks was made, they broke the mold."

- Russell Chatham

Waiting for a Rainbow

"A truly extraordinary artist."
- Jim Harrison

Debait

"Reece has become something of a legend, and his paintings are collector's items."
- Todd Wilkinson

Rodeo Fly Fishing

"Parks Reece is a painter with a poetic wit who we can never have enough of."
- Peter Fonda

Alien Abduction
"What, we wondered, would a fish tell his friends after being snatched from his world, weighed and prodded, measured and photographed by huge and powerful aliens, creatures that somehow existed in a place where there was nothing at all to breathe?

Would they believe his story? Even if they didn't quite buy it, could they ever look at the sky in the same way again?"

- Scott McMillion after camping with Parks in the Missouri Breaks.

Brought to you by the culture vultures here at Wade River's Wild Tramps.

- Signed, The Management

Comet Holmes Cometh

Some folks may think this comet was named after Larry Holmes, the famous pugilist from Easton, Pa., but it's just not true. On the night of November 6, 1892 amateur astronomer Edwin Holmes was observing the evening sky in his back yard in England when he witnessed something nobody else had ever seen before -an exploding comet. Now, a 115 years later, it's back and it's exploding once again. Why? Ah, the mysteries of science.

A good fishing buddy of mine, Glen Gutgold of Harrisburg, Pa. recently sent me the following linky link from Sky and Telescope Magazine in regards to the recent explosion of Comet Holmes back on October 24th and how easy it is to locate it on a cloudless night. It appears in early evening in our local skies and it's super easy to spot, even with the naked eye in the light polluted southeastern corner of the state, so I thought I would share it here. You'll enjoy the show even more if you have a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope available.

Click here to locate Comet Holmes.

If you have the time to get up to the dark skies of Cherry Springs State Park on a clear night you're in for a real treat.

Comet Holmes from Cherry Springs State Park on 11/3/07

The Milky Way Galaxy from Cherry Springs State Park

Images provided by Tom Bakowski at Tom's Eye on the Sky.

Beartooth Mountain Serenade

Top of the World Store - Elevation, 9,400'

I'm in love with the Beartooth Wilderness of Montana and Wyoming. Each morning when I awake I feel like I'm joined joined heart and hip with these mountains. Even the names such as Froze-to-Death, Silver Run and Hellroaring Plateau's, Grasshopper Glacier, Wounded Man Creek and Breakneck Park all strike a resounding chord. From the sub alpine slopes of Mount Maurice (which you can see right from the Super 8 parking lot in Red Lodge) on the east side of the range to the Slough Creek Divide on the west they are the largest contiguous land mass above 10,000' in the lower 48. And, at least as far as fly fishermen are concerned, they provide a welcome respite from the more crowded rivers down at the lower elevations around the region. Charles Kuralt of CBS news once called the Beartooth Highway the most scenic highway in America and it's hard to argue with that choice. The Top of the World store was originally built in 1923 at Beartooth Lake but was moved to it's present location at the head of Little Bear Creek in the early 1960's.

Miller Creek

The "road" (and it's a real stretch to call it that) to Daisy Pass lies just east of Cooke City and takes you past Miller Creek on it's way up to the Pass. Miller Creek is one of the remote headwater streams of the famous Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park. It's too small to be a viable fishery to most people and it's slightly tainted from past mining activities in the old New World Mining District but I'd be willing to bet the infamous & ubiquitously camo-clad Nale Brothers could derrick a couple of dozen 15-16 inchers out of those small abbreviated pools in very short order. It sure is one pretty little alpine stream though.

Crown Butte

Back in 1997 this area just below Daisy Pass was being proposed for the development of a large scale gold mining operation by the Crown Butte Mining Corporation, a subsidiary of the Noranda Mining conglomerates of Canada. Some estimates indicated that over a billion dollars worth of gold lay beneath nearby Henderson Mountain and the plan was to come in and tear the top off the mountain, extract the gold and store the mine tailings in perpetuity in an enormous alpine impoundment back up by a 90' high dam beneath Miller Mountain. This activity would have threatened three major river drainages; the Lamar, the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone and the Stillwater River. To the relief of many and the consternation of a few, the feds came to the rescue when the Clinton administration stepped in and placed a moratorium on any new mining in the area and proposed a land swap between the US forest Service and Noranda. In effect, the Canadian mining company basically held this national treasure hostage to the tune of $65 million dollars in federal assets.

Miller Mountain Meadows

This sublime alpine meadow was named after Horn Miller, one of the founding fathers of Cooke City, one of his cabins still stands today in the small copse of trees in the left foreground of the above photo.

Slough Creek Country from Daisy Pass - Elevation, 9,712'

That tiny blue speck in the center of the above photo is Lake Abundance (17 acres) whose outlet flows 6 miles down valley to Slough Creek. The lake is fairly fertile and produces nice healthy cutts to about 2.5 pounds. Good luck trying to negotiate the rough jeep trail (it would be foolish to call it a road) in anything other than a ATV. I aborted my attempt in my Subaru Outback rental about 1/2 way down the trail after considering the impact of a sudden afternoon thunderstorm on traction before I climbed back out.

Clay Butte Trail

Lets go for hike: Here we have just left the Clay Butte Trailhead at 9,950' in the Shoshone National Forest and dropped down through some engelmann spruce, whitebark pine and subalpine fir to the junction with the Granite Lake Trail. Here the trail begins to open up with some nice ooh-ahh type views of the Beartooth Plateau off in the distance.

Upper Clark's Fork Valley

Next we begin a traverse of an enormous high altitude meadow that ia about 3 miles in length. In the background is the upper Clark's Fork Valley with Pilot and Index Peaks clearly visible on the horizon. It was near this spot where I was bluff charged by a large bull moose that suddenly came high-steppin' out of a dense stand of englemann spruce while I was on the return leg of this hike. I've always wondered if it was actually possible to shit yourself to death. I came close that day.

Out Standing In My Field

In early-mid July this meadow is carpeted with alpine wildflowers. Here in mid August it was carpeted with a dusting of snow left over from the previous night before the sun melted it all away in the morning.

Shoshone Deadwood

If you look carefully you can still see a trace of snow in the center of this dead Whitebark Pine tree. This was during the 3rd week of August and summer is already slowly on it's way out at this elevation.

Beartooth Butte Pass

Almost there. All we have to do is crest this low pass in the mountains and we'll be staring at our destination lake. Beartooth & Clay Buttes provides a magnificent backdrop all the way to the lake.

Crow Lake

This lake is only about 8-10 acres in size but is one of those few high mountain lakes capable of producing big fish. Limited spawning takes place in the outlet stream and the lake is fertile enough to maintain a healthy population of Yellowstone cutthroats & eastern brook trout; in fact fish of up to four pounds have been taken here. There are plenty of 5-star campsites scattered around the lake that would make an excellent base camp for exploring the other productive lakes in the area. I'm not gonna give away too many secrets here but let's just say that Crow Lake is not the only gem on this part of the plateau. Just grab a good quality topo map and set off exploring on your own. As J.R. Tolkien once said; "Not all of those who wander are lost" As we can see, some serious Beartooth weather is starting to move in. When I first arrived at the lake fish were already rising sporadically to small baetis mayflies but as the cloud cover increased so did the rising activity.

Crow Lake Cutthroat

An atypical example of a Yellowstone cutthroat trout from Crow Lake. This particular lake is fed by springs that originate at the base of Beartooth Butte which is predominately limestone in origin, hence the lakes fertility and ability to produce larger than average fish.

Beartooth Whiteout

Here's a shot of the weather front that eventually moved in and followed me back down the trail. This is why it's so important to be prepared with the proper maps as well as good foul weather gear and extra food & water. If you take this wilderness for granted it will come up and bite you! Between the ornery moose and the weather front it almost bit me twice on one trip. Sometimes you can have four days in a row of beautiful sunshine and bluebird skies but when the weather turns bad it's sublime.

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake is one fine looking lake with scenic qualities befitting it's name. It lies deep in timber country interspersed with alpine grass meadows along the Beartooth High Lakes Trail. These parts of the Beartooths are grizzly country so take the proper precautions if you make the trip.

Sylvan Lake Outlet

Unlike Crow Lake, this one is not generally considered a trophy lake due to it's high density brook trout population. Expect to catch lots of 'em- up to about a foot long. The outlet stream eventually flows into Beartooth lake which sits about four miles downstream and is a popular camping and fishing spot along the Beartooth Highway.

It was once thought that except for their picturesque value -which was as fine as anywhere in the country- the Beartooth Range was worthless and should one day be added to Yellowstone National Park. General Phillip Sheridan had recommended exactly that when he first surveyed the Beartooth Highway back in 1898. He was almost right. Eighty years later, in 1978, the lions share of these mountains became part of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (934,626 acres) in no small measure because they were seen as unsuitable for anything else.