Bullish On Friendships

*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

[Click on any photo to enlarge for better viewing.]

One of the great things about this lifestyle is the people we meet along the way.  We’ve shared hosting duties with several wonderful people the last couple of years and have stayed in touch with most.  As summer was turning into fall, we were bidding farewell to another set of hosts. Though we haven’t had the pleasure of working with Connie and Frank, we have gotten to be friends since they worked at Indian Creek and we’ve shared potlucks, dinners and just general chitchat.  We all went to dinner a couple days before they were leaving for the season and were joined by Donna and Rick who would be moving over to Mammoth and working with us for the next month.  Happy trails to Connie and Frank until next year!

Of course there are times when campers become friends, too.  No real rhyme or reason as to why some and not most, but probably simply has to do with how most people make friends.  Some are people that camped close to us and we get to chatting, some that
during registration or while making our rounds we strike up conversations with finding  something in common, some...
who knows.  Shirley and LeMoyne were camped behind us and during their stay, became friends and we even shared some libations on their last night.  They return to Yellowstone every year, and we’ll look forward to catching up again next year.

  When we got our schedule for hosting in Mammoth this year, we were excited to learn that we would be working through the elk rut (mating season).  We got to experience some of it last year when we stayed a few weeks after our hosting stint was over but were looking forward to experiencing more of it.  Generally as August winds down, the cooler
temperatures bring the elk down from higher elevations including the mature bulls with their big racks.  They are everywhere in the Mammoth Hot Springs area...in town behind the hotel, near the Visitor Center, in the campground, just everywhere (the bull at right is between our car and our RV!)  These bulls move around quite a bit gathering up cows and calves to create their own little harems, and there's usually lots of activity
with other bulls trying to “woo” the gals from the other guys, lots of posturing by the boys to show whose stronger and more virile, and the younger, immature bulls trying to get in on the action though not very successfully.  Hmmmm, sounds like your typical Saturday night!  Hope this guy on the left doesn't end up in jail after a rowdy night on the town!

One thing we had never seen (nor had one of our co-hosts who has been working in the campground during the rut for 5 years) was two of the cows sparring up on their hind legs.  These two ladies were evidently agitated at each other about something and perhaps vying for the attention of the nearby bull.  Just another catfight!

During the rut bulls have lots of pent up energy, and to show off they will thrash nearby bushes, cars, and the ground with their antlers.  To appear more impressive, they will also wallow in the mud and urinate on themselves as a “perfume” to attract more cows.  When I took this picture of a bull thrashing his antlers on the ground, I didn’t notice that he was “spraying” himself until I uploaded the pics to the computer!  Now that’s what you call an action shot!

As we’ve reported before, there are times when our campsite was surrounded by elk, and it can be quite intimidating when all you see is a huge rack passing by your front window!  Though I didn’t get a shot of that I did get one of him standing just outside our door!  We’d always heard bulls and bucks referred to as 10 point or 12 point, etc., but out here they refer to them as 5 point or 6 point or sometimes as 5 x 5 or 6 x 6, all referring to the number of

branches on their antlers.This guy was a 7 point (or 7 x7 or 14 point). However you want to call it, he was big!He hung out there for a little bit and fortunately did not decide to poke, scratch, or charge the RV, but finally lay down

      with his harem in the grass just outside. One cow, however, seemed to prefer a shadier location and seemed to be keeping a watchful eye over all those lying below her, or maybe she was just playing hard to get.

Yellowstone Tidbits:
*Young bulls (about a year old) are called spikes mainly because of their single antlers that have no branches.
*The earth’s crust is so thin in spots that in some places molten rock is no more than 2 – 3 miles below the surface.
*Yellowstone National Park protects the largest number of undisturbed hydrothermal features in the world.
*The most common tree in the YNP is the lodgepole pine that has cones which only open and release seeds during fire.
*Three tributaries for the Missouri River begin in the Yellowstone area with two of them beginning in the park.