Absaroka TIM Dispatches from the field 11/12 Shoshone River

By Dave Showalter

Winds roared all night in the Bighorn Basin, offering no clue that winter had arrived at higher elevations. I traveled the North Fork of the Shoshone River with Dave Burke, Park County Commissioner, photographer, and all around nice guy. We looked for grizzly bears that hadn’t denned up yet, spotted rutting bighorn sheep in the sage flats, a pair of river otters on the icy river, and a cow moose in the willows. This bald eagle was fishing from a dead pine at river’s edge. The Absaroka-Beartooth Front has some of the most crucial winter range in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.