" Dry land is not a myth ! "

 Next time I bump into Kevin that's what I'm going to tell him....The Rocking Y here is huge, and I mean huge. Unlike the reality TV that was filmed in Alaska with two camera's, a fake Alaskan and a guy with a deep voice this is the real deal. Alaska paid expenses for these guys and of course that's a long gone benefit, Montana just helps, security , logistics etc...Everywhere we go we see the Rocking Y people.

You can tell they're paying their own way . In Alaska it was the Captain Cook Hotel at the States expense. When we first saw the rented building in Hamilton as me and MPeasy walked and analyzed we thought maybe 50 to a hundred people were at work on Yellowstone, well after bumping into them shooting film at 4 different locations as we drove to the Big Hole area to spend a retreat at Jackson Hot Springs I now would expect the number is three to four hundred people working on the series.

Here's a few pics. The base camp in Darby I clicked at 60 mph. Then you can see the boom equipment set up at a rest area. I didn't want to act like the paparazzi that I'm turning into so we passed up many good shots. We came across one highway pull out where they were filming on dirt that had been hauled in to cover the asphalt but the coolest was down by Wisdom where they had the fanciest stock trucks you could find lined up with cowboys and a super cool blacked out Helicopter....which flew over the hot springs for us about cocktail hour. We all waved at Kevin and he waved back.

MP is a smart girl. She knew I could use a diversion as I was once again thinking too much....way too much. So, she knew just the right place for a retreat. We drive up Lost Trail pass and hang a louie then into the Big Hole Valley and through Wisdom and check into a suite at Jackson Hot Springs which is really the only thing in Jackson....and it's super cool. The rumor is that Lewis and Clark cooked Elk steaks in the hot waters which bubble to the surface everywhere to this day. As we hiked in the morning you could see the steam everywhere and when I felt the ground water it was surprisingly hot....this cow is living good, the creek is 90 degrees .

Here's a couple shots , the building that has it all, hot pool, bar,  restaurant and shuffle board table.. Then you can see how small the town is, no stop signs , no nothing....the hot springs a few houses and a farm equipment repair shop.

The water is 102 degrees year around. The pool is kinda rustic, you can see it had a roof over at one time that rusted out and then  removed with a hot wrench and a crane.  Like most of these places we've found through the years the place had a lot of corrosion that just goes with warm mineral water...it felt great, especially in the morning when we woke up to 38 degrees, Jackson is at an incredible 6400 feet of elevation.

So with hot water , a huge hamburger while we watched the Kansas city football game along with a couple Pacifico's I slept the best in months. The next morning we tried to get our walk in but it was a struggle to get our three miles....the problem was kinda weird, you don't realize how long three miles is until you get somewhere there's no place to go. So we had breakfast at the Hot Springs because if you want breakfast it's the only place and then decided we'd drive through the scenic by way at Polaris and up to Wise River....The place is great and we'll be back to play more Pac-Man...this machine had actual scores on it form 1980 and 1981. Wow, they told me I'd have flashbacks someday and they were finally right ! It was sooooo cool.

As life works out in Jeff's world just 30 miles from our new favorite place we find another Hot Springs tucked away in the woods. I thought the last one was rustic but the Elkhorn Hot Springs wins in that category... I told the folks we'll be back in a couple weeks and bring the guitar.

And a couple pics of the scenery on the By Way....hardly any traffic and the people we met were like us, I like that. The Big Hole River would be a creek in Alaska but it's gorgeous and wild right here in Montana and the winding road through high country Parks , beautiful.

So...feeling a bit better about the Big Sky I searched deep into my song book and found a good Montana story for you....See ya later.