Crow Agency Fair

Looking up inside a teepee

Each year, during the third weekend in August, thousands gather at Crow Agency, MT for a 4 day festival of dance, music, rodeo, and huge reunion.   This year was the third time I have attended.  The first time Lin and I were in our motorhome, traveling in Montana when other RVers told us about the event.  We went, parking on the event grounds thinking we would be there for a day or two.  We stayed until the Monday morning following the event and delighted in being awakened by a sunrise chant, albeit from the speaker of a car driving around the grounds.  We went to sleep to the beat, in the distance, as dance competitions lasted well into the night.

A couple years ago I went with a fellow Yellowstone employee.  We spent one night in the nearby town but were able to watch dance competitions, watch the daily parade, and enjoy the event.

This year, Chris flew into Billings where I met him.  We spent time at the fair, enjoying the pow wow, wandering the grounds filled with teepees, tents, rvs, people in beautiful regalia, horses and people on horseback, kids, elders and everyone in between.  We enjoyed eating, photographing, and talking with folks.  We also made a side-trip to the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Historic Site.  Here are some photos of our couple of days in the area.

 There are over a thousand teepees on the grounds.  Families stay there, in current day tents, and RVs.  Brush covered ramadas provide shady areas for family meals and socializing.  A large, grassed arena with bleacher seating and space for folding chairs on the grass around the dance area is the central gathering place.  According to Wikipedia, this gathering is "currently the largest Northern Native American gathering, attracting 45,000 participants and spectators."

While it is big, it certainly did not feel like 45,000 people.  Since there seemed to be no main entrance station and people came and went all day, no admission fee (although there was a fee to take photos that we paid at the announcers booth), I am not sure how this number is determined.  It was a large multi-generational gathering with a friendly atmosphere is all I can tell you.

Like every gathering these days, cell phones are ubiquitos

 

Each day's festivities begins with an honor guard made up of service members from the Crow Nation.  This year special honor was paid to the women who have served.

     

Horses are an important part of life and important at the Fair.  This young man invited us to get photos of his new horse, the first he has owned.

        

Nearby is the Battle of the Little Big Horn National Monument.  We did a tour with a local guide and then spent some time photographing the site.  As always, the best photos were taken as the light got good, just before the monument closed.  A ranger called to a few stragglers like us, to remind us that the park was closing.

Scenery of the region where Custer and his calvary fought and lost.  

Two Whistles was one of the scouts killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

You can click on the first photo in this blog entry to go thru the photos, larger, as a gallery.  Its an easier way to view the photos, although the captions won't show.

Season's end in Yellowstone

My season ended Sept 30.  It was a cool but clear day, no winds, great for traveling.  Here is a small gallery of photos from the park.  In September when the mornings are down to freezing, we get wonderful steam and mist along the rivers so I have included a few of those.   My goal for this winter is to become more profficient with editing so several of these images will be ones I work on.  But for
now, its a little sampler of scenes from the end of the season.  I realize I like moody, foggy\misty scenes.

Gibbon River

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Firehole River

A little fall color in the foliage and, to the left, Firehole Falls

Along the Gibbon River

Gibbon Falls

This, and the next two are of Great Fountain Geyser.  While it is one of my favorite geysers, it is also magnificient in the evening when it is not erupting.

                                                     

                                                   Same photo as the color view to the left, but converted to B&W

Elk calf with muddy legs, dawn

By fall, the amount of water in the mud pots has receded.  I love photographing the bubbling mud, but dry it looks like a moonscape

Outside the park, this is Mesa Falls in Idaho.  Friend, fellow driver, Jackie Maxwell and I drove down to try some slow motion waterfall photos using our new neutral density filters.

This was a dry and windy summer in Yellowstone, with more fire activity than the park has seen since 1988.  Still, it was a fraction of what happened that year.  This was the Maple Fire as seen from the West Entrance Road.  Biggest of the fires this summer, the interior and northern and eastern areas were allowed to burn.  Firefighters created breaks and closely monitored activity along the south flank to prevent it from crossing the West Entrance Road and the western edge to protect the community of West Yellowstone.

Roots of tree killed when hot waters from geothermal activity flooded it.  

In and around Yellowstone in July

I am having fun with some new photo gear.   Chris gave me a wide angle lens for my birthday and an 11-20 mm lens does great things for the big skies of Wyoming and Montana, is nice and sharp, and makes me look at the bigger picture.  I had become accustomed to an 18-300 zoom and am finding I look at things quite differently with the new lens.  Also new to the camera bag is a 24 mm prime lens from Rod, a fellow photo guide here in Yellowstone.  It is incredible for close ups of flowers.   I also have a new 10 stop neutral density filter, allowing for super slow shots of things like waterfalls.

I've been doing more black and white work.   The next step is mastering more photo editing options.

I spent a night in Cody recently and began my trip back to the park early in the morning.  Afterall, I am accustomed to waking up a bit before 4 a.m. for my tours in the park.  Here are some samples of the new wide angle:

This one and the next are above the Buffalo Bill Cody Reservoir, west of Cody, WY

Ranch along the route between Cody and Yellowstone with small portion of a double rainbow

In the Beartooth Mountains

Along the Chief Joseph Hwy

Upper Geyser Basin (near Old Faithful) in the early morning

Firehole Spring on Firehole Lake Drive in Yellowstone

A few images of Moose Falls in the southern part of the park

I caught my reflection in sideview mirror as I photographed a grizzly by the side of the road

Lewis Monkeyflower is named for Merriweather Lewis.   I photographed this with the 24 mm prime lens after an early morning rain.  Same lens for both photos of the Monkeyflower and for the Inadian Paintbruxh below