Fourth generation Montanan and fly fishing guide, Robert Hawkins, is finally realizing his lifelong dream to float the entire Yellowstone River.
To make the trip a reality, Hawkins teamed up with friend and independent film director, Hunter Weeks. “Where the Yellowstone Goes” will be the fourth documentary Weeks’ has produced and directed. He owns a production company, Red Popsicle, based out of Seattle, WA.
Their journey began on August 23 in Gardiner, near the river’s headwaters in Yellowstone Lake. Their mission: to make it to North Dakota where the Yellowstone flows into the Missouri River within 30 days, while taking the time to truly show “Where The Yellowstone Goes.”
“It’s really the crown jewel of the rivers left in the U.S.,” Hawkins points out. “It’s the longest, free flowing in the lower 48.”
“And that’s significant,” Weeks adds. “We’ve dammed up most of our rivers all over the United States and that’s changing a lot of ecosystems out there and it’s changing our country. It’s creating less natural habitats.”
Hawkins is happy to see the Yellowstone River hasn’t changed much since his childhood days of fishing the river with his father, and he wants to keep it that way.
“It’s just kind of an example of what a river was like 100 years ago,” he says. “People can come here and see this river and go, ‘Wow! This is almost what it used to look like.'”
Throughout the next month, the cast of four, plus their crew of five, will highlight life and the people they encounter along the Yellowstone. All 680 miles of it.
Continue reading at KTVQ.