June 2025
Scott Parker
I want to say, ‘like a child,’ and let that be the end of it. Think of how a child runs, and think of why. The how is free, fluidly, spontaneously. The why is because, for a child, life is still alive, and what is alive demands to be…
June 2025
Jessica Cairoli
Yellowstone National Park is the definition of the sublime, capable of being beautiful and terrifying all at once. Since its founding as the world’s first national park in 1872, the location’s majestic forests…
May 2025
Jessica Cairoli
As another frigid winter comes to an end, it’s finally time to start enjoying the spring sun in the beautiful Montana outdoors. However, it isn’t always easy to decide what activities to do, where to go, or to carve out the necessary time…
May 2025
A Classic Big Sky Country Icon
Ken Walcheck
It was better than five decades ago when my wife and I stopped at a café in Kalispell, Montana to get a bite to eat. After finishing our meal, I asked if they had any blueberry pie in their pie selections. The waitress lifted her eyebrows, and…
May 2025
Steve McGann
“... Recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain... ”
These inspiring words from the 1964 Wilderness Act are a mantra for those who appreciate…
April 2025
A Most Unique Pincushion Resident With An Unsurpassed Defense Mechanism
Ken Walcheck
When Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed that the United States should, “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” he might have been describing the porcupine. If ever an animal served as an example of how to live in peace by being perpetually…
April 2025
Julia Yanker
Should I tell you the story about the time I got lost in the Badlands, a quarter mile from my car, stayed overnight in December, ending with search and rescue getting me out? Or maybe I should tell you the story about the time I almost died while…
March 2025
Peter Brancaccio
Was it really invented by a U.S. Congressman? During the war? On an island? And then named after the family dog? Yes. No. Yes. And, no.
Not too long ago, one of our neighbors was being pulled along by her two stout bulldogs. One of the dogs is named…
March 2025
Steve McGann
This opinion was contributed after our editorial deadline had passed, we included here in the Recreation section.
The United States of America is being dismantled in plain sight. The new administration has authorized unelected, sometimes even…
February 2025
Jessica Cairoli
Faces pressed as close to the thick plexiglass as dared, longing to be close to the action but safe from its intensity, fans alternate between joyful cheering and quiet focus as the game unfolds before them. As the Bozeman Icedogs hockey team…
