Animals Abound

*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
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: Western meadowlark, magpie, wild turkey, killdeer, osprey, red-naped sapsucker, sandhill crane
*National Parks/Monuments visited on 2012 trip so far: 2

The last couple of weeks have been rather interesting. Our cat, Jo, developed some sort of infection that had her right eye swollen nearly shut by the time we were able to get her to the nearest vet 60 miles away in Livingston, MT, and over the course of a week and a half we made 3 trips. First they thought she had injured her eye, the next visit the doc was 99% sure it was an abscessed tooth, and at the last visit they decided that she had either gotten a scratch or a bite on her cheek that had become infected. Each visit we weren’t sure if she’d be coming home with us as she had become weaker and weaker but the medicine seemed to help. She has begun to eat a little again and seems to be improving but is still pretty weak. We're not sure how much longer she’ll be with us.
Additionally, our microwave/ convection oven decided to quit. Fortunately it was right after I had taken dinner out of the oven, but it’s been interesting living without the microwave for a couple of weeks after so many years of having one! We do have a gas oven which helps, but still strange not having the microwave. Russ and Richard managed to get it down from under the cabinet and checked the wiring and fuses but to no avail. We’ll have to check into the cost of repair vs. buying a new one.

The third set of hosts arrived which now puts us all on a schedule of working 2 days and off 4. Steve and Holli currently live in southwest MO and have never campground hosted before but have picked things up quickly and are doing a terrific job. We’ve been having a great time getting acquainted with all of our new co-hosts.

And speaking of hosts, two of the couples from Indian Creek Campground stayed here the night before their stint was to begin. Indian Creek is about 10 miles from here and is very different in that it has lots of trees and seems very secluded and serene (probably because no generators are allowed). The 6 of us went for pizza the night they stayed here and though I have no pictures from that, I did get several shots of the bighorn sheep we passed on our way. The ewes and lambs seemed to be everywhere…on the road and the rocky hillside. I had the window open and as we passed this little lamb, you could clearly hear it bleating for its mama (pictured at left). A little further along these 5 lambs were having the best time playing, running up and down the rocky terrain. We were amazed at how at such a young age they are able to maneuver the slopes!

On one of our excursions through the park, we came upon a bear jam…in other words, loads of tourists pulled off to the sides of the road checking out the grizzly that was coming across the meadow. We stayed in the car and as he got closer, most everyone else got in theirs except for one photographer trying to get that perfect shot. Fortunately for him the bear paid him no mind as he was right on the other side of the guy’s truck and crossed the road right in front of it and about 20 ft. in front of ours! This bear was collared and only seemed interested in lumbering along to his destination. We made a U-turn as we could see he was heading towards the road from where we had just come. We (and several others) watched as he continued across the meadow and the dirt road, and then finally crossed the main road to the hills beyond. Just a couple minutes after he crossed, a pronghorn came bounding back across the road to get away from the perceived threat.

From there we drove into the Roosevelt Lodge area since we had never been back there. Established in 1906, there are several log cabins, a general store, horse corral for trail rides, and a rustic lodge for dining. As we were leaving, I just had to get a photo of this mule deer nursing her new young fawn right by the road.

On our way back we spotted a couple of rangers and photographers at a pullout and wanted to see what they were watching. Since everyone had binoculars or scopes, we figured there must be a bear or wolves in the distant trees. (Earlier we had seen several photographers packed in that pullout but couldn’t see anything and kept going.) As it turns out, they were watching a family of badgers just off the road…three youngsters bounding and playing near the dirt mound they call home. Having never seen badgers before that was definitely a first for us!

Yellowstone Tidbits:
*The park covers 2,221,766 acres (96% in WY, 3% in MT, 1% in ID) and is considered an active volcano whose last eruption was 174,000 years ago.
*Approximately 2,000 earthquakes occur every year but most are not felt.
*YNP is home to the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states.