Road Trip

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2013 trip so far:  bison, pronghorn, elk, white-tail deer, Uinta ground squirrel, coyote, snowshoe hare, grizzly bear, moose, wolf, red fox, black bear, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, mule deer, llama

*Birds we’ve seen on our 2013 trip so far: osprey, pheasant, magpie, raven, Canada geese, mountain bluebird, grouse, golden eagle, bald eagle, American avocet, sandhill crane, red-tailed hawk, cliff swallow, northern flicker, Clark’s nutcracker

 

[Click on any photo to enlarge.]

Generally the furthest we venture from the park is Livingston, MT, about an hour away, but Russ needed some routine bloodwork done, and the closest lab covered under our insurance was in Butte, MT, about 2-1/2 hours from here.  What a great excuse for a road

trip to somewhere we haven’t been!  Before we even got out of the park, though, we spied this shaggy looking coyote along the rocks in the Gardiner Canyon.  He’s obviously collared and tagged so not just a stray that wandered into the park.

The drive took us through Livingston, which meant we once again got to pass this llama farm on the way there…very cool looking animals, and just another critter we could add to our list of those we’ve seen on this year’s trip so far.  We could also see evidence of
   the Emigrant Peak fire off in the distance.  It had been burning for about a week and at this point was at about 600 acres but in no danger of harming any structures or people.
 

 

    The drive to Butte was not all that spectacular though the ride through the canyon was pretty.  This rock (at left) has a specific name but darn if I can remember it!  Didn’t write it down and didn’t take a picture of the sign…duh!  We
   also spied this interesting old rusted tractor at the top of a hill, and we crossed the Continental Divide again, but if there wasn’t a sign on the highway informing us of that fact, we wouldn’t have known.

 

  Butte is known as the “richest hill on earth” because of its history of mining for gold, silver, and copper.  Dotted along the skyline you can see these black steel structures which kind of look like oil derricks that mark the remnants of the old mines.  There is a national historical district, part of which we passed through on our way to the lab, but didn’t have time to really check it out.  Once the labwork was done, we headed back to Bozeman for a quick picnic lunch at KFC, then stock up at Walmart, then a quick stop at Albertson’s in Livingston, and then home…a very long day indeed.

 

Yellowstone Tidbits:

• Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is about 20 miles long, more than 1,000 ft. deep, and 1,500 - 4,000 ft. wide.
• Bullsnakes are Yellowstone’s largest reptile, ranging from 50 to 72 inches long. They are nonvenomous, and are often mistaken for rattlesnakes because of their appearance and defensive behavior.
• The oldest thermal area in the park is Terrace Mountain near Mammoth Hot Springs which may be a dormant thermal area dated as 406,000 years old.
• The most active thermal area is Norris Geyser Basin.