Amazed In 4 Days

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: prairie dog, bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, llama, white tail deer, elk, grizzly, coyote, badger, Uinta ground squirrel, black bear, yellow-bellied marmot, wolf, bullsnake, moose
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: Western meadowlark, magpie, wild turkey, killdeer, osprey, red-naped sapsucker, sandhill crane, bald eagle, mountain bluebird
*National Parks/Monuments visited on 2012 trip so far: 2

As mentioned before, this was Terri’s first visit to Yellowstone. She arrived Thurs. afternoon and left Tues. morning, and we crammed a lot into those 4 days in between. Since we were working Thurs., I manned the office while Russ drove the 1-1/2 hours to Bozeman airport to pick her up. Early evening he drove her up into town so she could get her first glimpse of the elk.

The next day we were up early to begin her preliminary tour of Yellowstone. We drove nearly 150 miles roundtrip in about 7 hours making many stops along the way.





There was the Obsidian Cliff historic roadside exhibit, Roaring Mountain, and the Lower Geyser Basin all on the way to the one place everyone has to go when visiting Yellowstone…Old Faithful. Since we had a little wait until the next eruption, we stopped at the Old Faithful Visitor Center and then the historic Old Faithful Inn. 
Wildlife can be seen pretty much anywhere in the park and that includes near the boardwalks at Old Faithful. It is the visitor’s responsibility to stay at least 25 yards from all wildlife (100 yards from bears and wolves), and obviously the 3 youngsters getting their photo taken by mom are way too close!

We continued our drive over the Continental Divide and on to West Thumb, another active hydrothermal area that overlooks Yellowstone Lake. West Thumb is known as a caldera within a caldera that was created about 180,000 years ago from a powerful volcanic explosion. Though many of the pools seem like they’d be cool and inviting with their brilliant blue color, don’t be fooled…this water is super heated and can scald!

After walking the boardwalks at West Thumb, we drove along the western shore of Yellowstone Lake and on up through Hayden Valley where she got to see lots of bison...some up close and personal!  We passed Mud Volcano


    and the Canyon Village area deciding to save those stops for another day since we still had quite a ways to go. We drove up over Dunraven Pass at 8,859 feet where several cars were parked with people looking through spotting scopes. Turns out there were a black bear and her cubs eating nuts in a tree across the valley, and with Terri’s telephoto lens on her camera she got her first glimpse at black bears. We made several more stops along the way, and she was continually amazed at the beauty that surrounded her.

Sat. morning I took Terri up into Mammoth Hot Springs to see the Terraces, the map room in the hotel, and the Visitor Center. We spent a couple of hours just tooling around including a stop at the General Store looking for souvenirs. That afternoon we headed over to Indian Creek Campground for a potluck celebrating Christmas in August and the National Park Service’s birthday. According to local legend, Christmas in August was created after some visitors
to Yellowstone were stranded at the Old Faithful Inn in a freak snow storm some time in the 1900s, and instead of lamenting about being snowbound, the guests decided to celebrate Christmas complete with decorations, carols, and a festive dinner. At our potluck, the hosts had decorated

    the cabin and golf cart, and there was plenty of food (Donna cooked a whole turkey again this year) plus some special treats. Pat made a 7-layer dip with a national park logo created on top with veggies, and we brought a cake that celebrated both occasions. It had green grass, trees, blue sky, and animals representing the park, red and green piping for Christmas, and we had placed 5 of our Junior Ranger badges on top to celebrate the NPS birthday.

One place we knew we wanted to take Terri during her visit was a drive along the Beartooth Highway. You may remember that we took that drive a couple of years ago, which was dubbed by the late Charles Kuralt (the On the Road TV correspondent) as “the most beautiful drive in America”. 

With its alpine meadows, amazing glaciers, and crystal clear lakes,
we couldn’t agree more. After a late morning breakfast at the Town Café, we loaded Abby in the car for this all day trip planning to go past the summit all the way to the town of Red Lodge since we’d never been there before. The views as we climbed higher
    along the switchbacks were incredible, and we even spotted a couple of guys walking on one of the glaciers! The temperatures definitely drop the higher you go especially at the nearly 11,000 ft. summit.

 

 

Red Lodge was nothing special, just a small tourist town, but they did have one funny piece of "décor" on the main street. Looks like that skiing can be dangerous business! We stopped in Lamar Valley on the way back hoping to see some wolves, and though there were plenty of folks with spotting scopes including Rick from the Wolf Project team, we had no luck that night.

On Terri’s last day, the elk were kind enough to visit our campsite while she was outside drinking her coffee. She got some great photos, but once they got closer and this bull decided to join the group, it was time to view them from inside the safety of the RV.

That afternoon we headed over to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, once again driving over Dunraven Pass. Though we didn’t see any bears this time, we could see the smoke from a couple of the wild fires burning within the park. At the Canyon area, we went to the Visitor Center, viewed the Upper Falls from a distance and from the brink, saw the Lower Falls from several viewpoints, and made the obligatory photo stop at the Glacial Boulder. Instead of heading straight home, our plan was to go the opposite direction to Hayden Valley and hopefully see some

wolves. There was quite a gathering at the Grizzly Overlook with their scopes, and we were just about ready to leave when at precisely 8:05 p.m. from the tree line across the valley emerged the alpha male and female. Terri finally got to see wolves!

We had a great visit, and she was completely bowled over and amazed at all that she had seen.  Though only here 4 full days, she got to see a lot of Yellowstone (though not all) and nearly every critter except a grizzly. Well, there’s always next year!

Yellowstone Tidbits:

*In North America, the American Bison are referred to as bison or more informally as buffalo.

*Old Faithful erupts about every 90 min. expelling 3,700 – 8,400 gallons of water 106 – 180 ft. with a temperature of 203 degrees F lasting 1-1/2 – 5 min.

*Unlike few other mammals, wolf families (packs) are territorial establishing firm boundaries that they defend against other wolves.

*There are more than 300 miles of paved roads in YNP.

Big Doggies & More

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: prairie dog, bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, llama, white tail deer, elk, grizzly, coyote, badger, Uinta ground squirrel, black bear, yellow-bellied marmot, wolf, bullsnake, moose
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: Western meadowlark, magpie, wild turkey, killdeer, osprey, red-naped sapsucker, sandhill crane, bald eagle, mountain bluebird
*National Parks/Monuments visited on 2012 trip so far: 2

Wouldn't you know that once I get caught up on the blog, the computer gods decide to crash my computer to put me behind once again! It completely froze, and when I finally shut down and turned it back on, it was asking for a BIOS password which we've never had to do before. Long story short, I had to get a new laptop. So gradually I'll be getting you all caught up on our adventures from the past few weeks. Oh, and remember, clicking on any of the photos will enlarge them for better viewing.

As you know, we go out a couple nights a week looking for wildlife, specifically wolves, and occasionally we take Abby along for the ride. She isn't allowed out other than to relieve the call of nature, but it gets her out of the RV for awhile and she seems to enjoy sniffing the air and looking at all the critters especially those "big doggies" aka bison. However she didn't seem to notice or care about the pronghorn we spotted on a nearby hill. We look for folks with spotting scopes, and after we confirm they've been spotting wolves, Russ will get our scope out setting it up near the others so we can chat and keep up with where they're being sighted. On this particular night of the photo below right, one was keeping sentinel on top of the ridge and though I took a couple photos of him, the distance was too far for them to come out clearly. Another one occasionally popped out from behind a tree but again too far away to see without the scope, and my camera can't take a shot through the scope lens.

One event that occurred this past week was a potluck Ranger Allan, and his wife, Barbara, threw at their house for all of the campground hosts under his watch. Even though it was a workday for us as well as Pat and Jack from Indian Creek, we were allowed to lock up the offices at 6pm to attend. He grilled chicken and all the food provided by everyone was so yummy! We sat at picnic tables in the backyard though Allan decided to sit at a small patio table between us. LOL He told us this get together was his way to thank us for all of our hard work over the summer, and it was a nice relaxing, informal affair giving us a chance to mingle and get better acquainted. Hard to believe our summer shifts are about over and most of the hosts will soon be leaving.

Next week Russ' sister arrives for a visit, and we're looking forward to showing her the sights. She's never been to Yellowstone, and hopefully she'll get to see lots of critters and the elk will pay a visit to the campground as they often do when the weather is cooler like this little one did a few days ago. Its mama wasn't far away, and I want to believe it (or one of the others who come through) is the one born a couple sites down from us in May.

Our Lucky Charms

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: prairie dog, bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, llama, white tail deer, elk, grizzly, coyote, badger, Uinta ground squirrel, black bear, yellow-bellied marmot, wolf, bullsnake, moose
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: Western meadowlark, magpie, wild turkey, killdeer, osprey, red-naped sapsucker, sandhill crane, bald eagle, mountain bluebird
*National Parks/Monuments visited on 2012 trip so far: 2

We first met Dotty and Gary last year at Capitol Reef National Park. They had been hosts there for the past several years and their assignment was to start about the time we were leaving so we worked together for only a couple of weeks. Though they have no computer, we managed to stay in touch, and they called a few weeks ago to say they were planning a trip to Yellowstone to see us and wanted to explore the northern part of the park. Luckily we were able to get them the site right in front of ours the day of their arrival.

The first day out we decided to head for Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone making stops along the way at Indian Creek Campground, Roaring Mountain, Norris Campground, and the Canyon Village Visitor Education Center. All the campgrounds here are quite different so figured we’d give them a quick riding tour, Roaring Mountain has several fumaroles (steam vents) from the hydrothermal activity worth seeing (sometimes it "roars" more than other times), and the Visitor Center at Canyon is very cool and informative.

From the Visitor Center we continued along the North Rim Drive with spectacular views of the Lower Falls and the canyon from several lookouts. First thing out of Gary’s mouth when he got his first glimpse was “wow!” Near the end of the Drive we had to make a stop at Glacial Boulder. This boulder was deposited here about 80,000 years ago after traveling nearly 40 miles and is the size of a house. Gary stands about 6’4” so we had to get a picture of him next to it, and silly Gary decided he’d just try to move it out of the way! LOL

Our beautiful drive continued up over the 8,859 ft. Dunraven Pass and past Tower Fall though we did not get out to look at this one. We decided to take the little side road to show them the Petrified Tree, and boy were we glad we did! Halfway down this narrow road a number of cars were parked partially blocking traffic and people were out with their cameras. Since this was the area where we had seen our first grizzly 3 years earlier, we assumed that’s what was causing the big commotion. I was the first to get out of the car, and there in the little valley below was the biggest bull moose I’d ever seen! This was especially exciting for us because it was the first moose we’d seen in Yellowstone in the 4 summers we’ve been coming! Moose used to be plentiful in the park, but after the fires of 1988 much of their vegetation was destroyed and most moved south towards Grand Teton. We’d occasionally hear reports of moose in the park but had never seen any. Unfortunately this particular fellow walked into the trees before the others got to where I was standing, but just up the hill a few feet was a cow moose munching on the foliage! The bull had lain down amongst the trees, and I was finally able to get a halfway decent shot of him with my zoom.

The elk made an appearance in the campground while they were here, and in fact a cow calling for her calf right outside their trailer woke Dotty from her sleep the first morning. One afternoon a herd of about 25 came through the campground and headed up the hill to town. We hopped in the car and spent about half an hour watching them and the people anxiously trying to get the perfect shot. We decided since we were “in the neighborhood” we take them into the historic Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and show them the Map Room. This map of the U.S. measures 17’10” x 10’4” and is composed of 2,544 pieces of 15 types of wood from 9 countries. It was shipped in 6 sections from Seattle and assembled in this room in 1937, and is a very impressive sight.

On another evening we took a drive out to Lamar Valley with the hope of showing Dotty and Gary their first wolf. They were both continually amazed at the beauty of Yellowstone, and marveled at all the wildlife. Of course there were plenty of bison and about a dozen pronghorn, the largest grouping that we’d seen in one place thus far. Not long after passing Tower Junction we ran into what we figured was probably a bison jam but then we saw several folks with spotting scopes. We pulled over and discovered that they were watching two wolves on a bison carcass! The high sage covered most of the carcass but with the help of the binoculars and the scope we could at least see the head and horns, and then periodically a wolf head would pop up. Occasionally they would wander off a few feet but then return to the carcass for a few more bites. Gary and Dotty got to see their first wolves and we started calling them our lucky charms…first the moose and now wolves on a carcass! We watched for awhile then traveled a little further into Lamar Valley where we found more people with scopes who were watching a grizzly grazing and lumbering along among the sage. Now Gary and Dotty had seen their first grizz! (Sorry, no pics of the wolves or grizzly...too far away.) The sun began to set and it was getting chilly so time to head home but what a great ride.

We were pacing ourselves and not going somewhere everyday but when a herd of elk came through the campground again early one evening we had to head up to town to see them because this time a bull with a big rack accompanied them. This was the first big bull we’d seen this season which could only mean that the rut was beginning. Keep in mind this isn’t even the biggest of the bulls that will arrive! We couldn’t get out of our car right away because half of the herd was right in front of where we parked while the rest were across the street grazing. Soon one of the calves decided to join the group in front of us and passing right by my side of the car...very cool!











The day before they were scheduled to leave we stopped by the Albright Visitor Center at the top of the hill and took them for a tour of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. These step-like terraces, which are constantly changing shape and color, form as the heated water comes up through the limestone, depositing the dissolved calcium and bicarbonate on the surface which then hardens into travertine. Fresh travertine is bright white in color but changes to gray with time creating a stark landscape that sometimes looks like snowdrifts in the dead of winter. There are microorganisms that actually thrive in this environment and help create the various colors seen throughout the area.

The week passed so quickly. We enjoyed many meals together and getting the chance to know each other better. We shared our knowledge of the area with them experienced countless wildlife encounters together. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and so we bid them a fond farewell until next time.

Yellowstone Tidbits:
*Pronghorn, which exist only in North America, are not true antelope but can sustain sprints of 40-50mph, and newborn fawn can outrun a human within a couple of days.
*Fumaroles are the hottest hydrothermal features in the park.
*Black or grizzly bear? If the hump is bigger than the rump, it’s a grizzly.
*A wolf’s stomach can hold about 20 lbs. of meat.