Environmental and animal rights groups are seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court in Montana to stop the hunts. Judge Donald Molloy is seeing the case, and it’s uncertain how and when he will rule. Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold sought an an “injunction to stall hunting in both Idaho and Montana as part of a lawsuit seeking to restore protection of the wolves under the Endangered Species Act.”

“Although the gray wolf has rebounded from virtual extinction in the region a mere twenty years ago, wolf populations in the northern Rockies are not yet stable enough to lose these critical protections” according to the Sierra Club.  “The management of the animals now falls to individual states to implement as they see fit, including hunting and aggressive agency management.”

“The population of gray wolves in the northern Rockies consists of three relatively isolated sub-populations, rather than one genetically connected group.  There are approximately 1,600 individuals and 100 breeding pairs in the region.  Many scientists maintain that this number is not high enough to ensure long-term population viability.” The Sierra Club Website continues,   “Instead, to have a sustainable population, wolves need to number between 2,000 and 5,000 individuals in the northern Rockies.  The state management plans tend to slide backwards, rather than allowing wolf populations to grow naturally.  Idaho, for example, plans to allow the number to be reduced to around 100 individuals, down from approximately 900.”

“In Idaho, the limit is 220 wolves, and in Montana, it would be 75. Members of the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho can kill up to 35 wolves” according to CNN.

Though from a different part of our country, and with an outdated script, here is a quick, timeless video, shot by videographer Michael Mauro, highlighting the Wolves of Alaska.

My first visit was back in August of 2008 as described in an earlier blog post – It’s not about the destination but the surprises along the way .

Makoshika State Park is Montana’s largest state park with over 11,500 acres of pure adventure. Pronounced (Ma-KO’-shi-ka) after a Lakota term meaning “bad lands”, it is one of the most amazingly beautiful hikes I experienced in all of 2008. Little wonder really that Makoshika is a focal point for the sciences of Paleontology, Anthropology and Geology.

According to the park info sheet, “Makoshika badlands expose older rock layers than those in the badlands of the Dakotas. The Yellowstone River and its tributaries cut into this rock, which illustrate a fascinating time in history; the transition from dinosaurs to the Age of Mammals .” In fact, nearly a dozen species of dinosaurs have been unearthed here.

Thankfully, I was able to catch up with Park Manager Ryan Sokoloski for a tour of the visitor center. A wealth of both knowledge and passion, we talked history, dinosaurs and adventure. He suggested the following two sites.

www.Makoshika.org
www. fwp.mt.gov/parks

At the 6-month mark with 28,000 miles logged on the Mobile Base Camp, it’s rearview mirror time. As I look back, I’ve learned a ton from some amazing people and fantastic places and situations.  One of the most etched in my mind is a place called Makoshika State Park.

It was late in the day with the sun setting. The Garmin GPS unit highlighted a “green space” on the map just ahead and a pretty decent size thunderstorm heading in the same direction.

In one of my favorite poems, Robert Frost ends the Road Less Traveled with “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Makoshika State Park was a magnificent road less traveled and a huge surprise. Tucked away in eastern Montana (the fourth largest state in our country), just outside the town of Glendive, it holds the title of the largest State Park in Montana. With names like Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks to compete with, these “Bad Lands” (nicknamed by the Lakota people) seemed to fall just under the radar. Blown away by the terrain, natural beauty and the wild history of this area, the icing on the proverbial cake was the fossilized dinosaur bones. It wasn’t difficult at all to picture a tyrannosaurus rex or a triceratops roaming these lands. Hiking the better part of two days, every climb, twist and turn of this magnificent terrain was eye-catching and jaw dropping.

Though I could type pages about the natural beauty and history of this amazing place, the link to the website at the end of this entry will do a much better job. I wanted to share a realization about the “road less traveled” and the true meaning of the word adventure which the unplanned exploration of Makoshika reminded me.

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, the word “adventure” has its root meaning in the Latin “adventurus” which meant something ‘about to happen.’ Where expeditions are planned in advance, adventure is something that happens to us along the way, unrehearsed and unforeseen. Adventure and exploration are impromptu by their very nature. Impromptu, itself from the Latin ‘In-promptu’ or ‘in readiness’ suggests that adventure and exploration happen in the moment we find ourselves in. That being in the state of ‘in readiness’ while we explore the wild at hand, this is the true meaning of adventure.

As the Tour moves on from this point, it will be with this reminder front and center in my mind. That adventure is the name given to the surprises we accumulate along our exploration of any wild places. I’ve often heard the nickname or state motto of Montana as “Big Sky Country.” With a bit of research in Google, I found that it actually is called the “Treasure State.” Makes perfect sense to me.

For more detailed information on Makoshika State Park please click here.