5/28/14

The weather has been great this week. Mornings around 40 degrees and afternoons into the 60's and 70's. Due to the altitude we're at, it seems warmer than it is, but we're not complaining. The snow is nearly completely melted on the west side of the park. All roads are now open and the number of visitors have picked up steadily. The campground was completely full Friday, Saturday and Sunday and nearly full on Monday.

Yesterday, Penny and I and another couple working in the campground took a tour, free to Zanterra employees and run by the Yellowstone association, to the Lamar Valley. There were a dozen people taking the tour. The only problem we had was that they had inadvertently left our names off the list of participants. With a limit of 14 people, we could have been left sitting at Madison, with no seat on the bus. We called the tour office this morning to make sure they hadn't left our names off the list of any of the other tours we signed up for.

We saw on of a pair of black bear cubs, just as we got to the east end of the town of Mammoth. The rangers think they were at the age where their mother kicks them out of the den so they can go live on their own, since the mother was nowhere in sight.

 

 A little farther out of town, we saw a pair of elk bucks in velvet.

 

 Not much farther we saw another, older black bear.

 

Just before we got to the Lamar Valley proper, we stopped to see an Osprey's nest across the Lamar River.

We just missed seeing wolves lunching on a bison carcass, but at the east end of the valley we saw three moose in the willows near the river. Unfortunately, they were too far away to get a decent picture of them.

On our way back toward Mammoth, the tour guide took us on a one mile (round trip) hike to an abandoned wolf's den. It was the den used by the first natural wolf pack (after wolf reintroduction) in the park, back in the late 1990's.

 

We had to hike around a herd of bison that decided to use the meadow we were going to hike through to get to the den.

 

By the time we were hiking back to the bus, the bison had decided to take a siesta.

 

I think I finally got my camera lenses clean.

5/22/14

We went to West Yellowstone earlier in the week and saw an elk in the Madison River, standing there looking at the people gawking at her. We also got stuck behind a bison jam of four females and their calves. There was nowhere for them to get off the road for about a half mile, so we moved very slowly, with the mothers trying to herd their calves away from the cars.

Down at the eagles nest, we saw two eagles trying to get a goose out of their nest. The eagles were none too happy and the goose didn't want to move.

I believe I had the dumbest reason ever for someone wanting to change camp sites given to me by a camper during the week. They came up to my window and first wanted to change sites because they had asked for a tent only site. I explained to them that they were in a tent only site. They said "no they weren't, because there were three RV's in the sites around them". I think I was successful in finally getting them to understand that tent only sites are often mixed in with RV sites and that what they probably wanted was to be in a tent only loop, which at the time we couldn't do for them. They then said they needed to change sites because "their site was too windy". I explained to them that all sites will be about equally windy and they told me that I was wrong because "they had walked down to a site three spots away and it wasn't as windy in that site". I wasn't able to convince them that the wind had simply died down a little while they were in front of the other site. In an effort to shed myself of these people, I found a site in another loop that should have made them happy. After I completed the paperwork, they said "never mind, they would stay in the site they are in". I guess I have to learn to speak Chinese if I'm going to be able to help some of these people.

Monday we drove the south loop of the park. We didn't see much wildlife but we did notice that the snow is melting quickly and the river levels are up. Here is a photo of Kepler Cascades, just east of Old Faithful.

 

We also saw an interesting cloud formation between the Norris and Canyon Junctions.

 

I obviously need to clean my camera lens again.

Tuesday we drove to Idaho Falls and returned to camp via Grand Teton National Park. The peaks are beautiful, as always.

On our way north through the park we saw an elk in velvet and got a couple of decent close ups.

 

 

The south entrance of Yellowstone still has quite a bit of snow.

Wednesday we drove up to Bozeman but took the longer way back, through Ennis, because of the construction on more direct route. The longer route took us by Earthquake Lake, which is a place we want to come back to and spend more time looking around at all the geological exhibits.

 

It's a beautiful 72 degrees this afternoon, but at over 6000 ft. altitude seems warmer than that.

 

5/12/14

This afternoon, after work, we drove around the lower loop, now that Craig Pass is open. Saw a lot of snow between Old Faithful and Canyon. Didn't see any wildlife until we got to Gibbon Meadow on the west side of the loop, near the end of our trip. There we got stuck in a bison jam for a few minutes. Out of a herd of a dozen or more, there was one baby bison that was walking with its mother along the road. Penny got a few good shots of it while we were creeping by.

About a quarter mile from the campground, Penny saw a wolf. She wasn't able to get a picture of it as we drove by and it was gone by the time we were able to turn around and go back.

5/13/14

Yesterday we drove counter clockwise around the south loop, this morning we drove clockwise around it. About a quarter mile up the west side of the loop we ran into a bison jam.

 Just below Gibbon Falls we saw a large bald eagle perched in a burned tree across the river.

 

There was a lot of snow from Norris Junction to Fishing Bridge but not much wildlife. Just south of Bridge Bay we saw our first bear. It was a black bear but at least it was a bear.

 

Early in the afternoon, as we approached the Madison Junction and the campground, we had another bison jam.

 

Later in the afternoon we took a hike down to the river, since we had to take the trash out anyway. There were a couple of elk laying and grazing in the meadow between the Gibbon and Firehole rivers and one of them crossed the Gibbon while we were watching.

 

While we were watching the elk, out of the corner of my eye I saw a small animal swimming across the river. It swam to the far bank and appeared to be dining on some of the grass at the edge of the river. Because it never left the river, we couldn't get a picture of its entire body but we were able to get some shots of its head and back. Unfortunately, when I zoom in on the picture, it becomes pixelated long before I can tell what kind of animal it was. I think it was a beaver, but it's very difficult to tell since I never saw its tail. It could also have been a river otter or a marmot, I suppose, but I don't think the marmot is as aquatic as this animal was and it seems too fat to be an otter.

 

5/14/14

We took a drive through the Lamar Valley today, all the way to the northeast entrance of the park. There wasn't much wildlife activity between the campground and Mammoth Hot Springs. On the other hand, between Mammoth Hot Springs and the north east entrance we saw a few elk, pronghorn and big horn sheep.

 

We stopped by the petrified tree and came across some very friendly ground squirrels.

 

The Lamar Valley seemed to be carpeted with bison, hundreds of bison. In one section alone we counted over 50 bison. In another smaller herd we counted 13 baby bison. On the way from Mammoth out to the north east entrance, most of the bison were lying down, resting.

 

We also saw a red tail hawk circling over the Lamar river.

 

On the way back towards Mammoth, a baby bison decided to cross the road, but took its time doing so.

 

 

 

5/7/14

We took a drive this afternoon, into West Yellowstone. On the way back to camp we saw an eagle in a tree, overlooking the Madison River.

 

 This afternoon we took a walk to the amphitheater for something to do. There were a few bison in the meadow when we got there. One of the female bison that appeared to be pregnant laid down in a wallow while the rest of the herd walked around eating. It made me think she was going to give birth, but we didn't wait around to see. The next day, she was still close to the campground but now had a calf with her.

 

5/8/14

We were able to get a few distant photos of the day old calf near the mother. We thought this might be a nice photo for a Happy Mother's Day message.

 

 Happy Mother's Day!

5/9/14

At noon today, it's snowing to beat the band. We're supposed to get up to 3 inches today and the roads are supposed to ice up. I guess we won't be doing any touring this evening.

We only got an inch of snow, so it wasn't as bad as we were led to believe. We still didn't do any touring this afternoon.

5/10/14

It's 9 a.m. and snowing again.

It snowed off and on most of the day. We'd get a half inch or inch of snow, then it would melt. Later we'd get more snow and it would quickly melt off.

After work we went into West Yellowstone to refill our propane tanks. On the way back we saw more bison in the meadows. This evening there were three baby bison in the herd.

From the photo below, you can probably tell how hard it snowed while we were in West Yellowstone.

 

4/29/14

Woke up at 4:30 this morning. Looked up through the skylight over the shower and saw a beautiful clear sk,y with tons of stars. Unfortunately, it was 15 degrees outside, so we weren't going to get dressed to go outside in the cold. There should be more stars, on a warmer morning, in the future.

This afternoon, I took a drive to Old Faithful village, while Penny was working. Needed to get dinner tickets for a shakedown dinner at the Snow Lodge Thursday. It will be a test of the cook and wait staff at the lodge. For less than $7 per person, it should be ok.

We took a walk down to the confluence of the Firehole and Gibbon River's, which become the Madison River.

This is the Firehole River coming down from geyser basins.

Here is the Gibbon River coming down from the Norris area.

 

 And here is the confluence with the Madison flowing out.

 

Penny also got a few pictures of a pair of geese and an Osprey flying by.

At 6 o'clock this evening, it's mostly sunny and snowing. This place has really interesting weather. I think it's the moisture in the air freezing out and falling as snow, rather than a real snow storm.

5/1/14

This was our last day off before, before the campground opens. We decided to take a drive to Bozeman and get a few supplies. It's a nice drive along US 191 except for the construction south of Big Sky. They are blasting an outcropping of rock at a curve next to the river. It's a one lane road for a mile or so, where you have to follow a pilot car. Not something I'd want to drag our trailer through. On the way north, we had to wait about 15 minutes for them to get all the south bound traffic through.

 

 

We saw a pair of moose along the way but Penny wasn't able to get a picture of them and we couldn't turn around easily. When we got back through the west entrance to Yellowstone, we saw a pair of Osprey in an eagles nest just west of seven mile bridge (that crosses the Madison River half way between the gate and the Madison Campground. There was no place to pull off and get out to take pictures so we turned around three times to give Penny the time to take a good picture of them.

 

 5/2/14

Today is the first day of work with campers in the campground. Penny 's working 9am to 3pm. Don's working 3pm to 8pm. We don't expect too many campers this early in the season.

Well, the first day exceeded our expectations. There were a bunch of campers checking in, not only those that had reservations but many that had no reservations. When the day started, there were about 50 reservations expected to check in during the day. Don checked in more drop-ins than people with reservations. There was a line of campers at the windows when the office was supposed to close at 9pm. Lots of people bought firewood too, at $8 a box.

Don had people from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, British Columbia, Manitoba, France and Germany check in to camp. His paperwork was a little off at the end of the night, but he had the right amount of money in his cash drawer, so it was fixable. He still has to figure out this computer program and what money they want accounted for, where.

5/3/14

We got a report that there was a grizzly bear sighting about a half mile north of the campground. We didn't get to check it out though.

Lot's of campers checking in still. Even though the snow is melting quickly, we still have to do a lot of searching to find sites for the people that are camping in tents. Apparently they don't like pitching their tents on snow. Don had three or four international parties (French, Canadian and two German). Everyone's money came out right tonight, even though Don thought he was off by a dime, until someone found the coin he had missed.

 5/4/14

Today someone saw a wolf just a mile or so up the road. Someone else reported seeing a moose around the Norris geyser basin, where the area is closed to out of vehicle treks, due to bear activity. Penny and I will be taking a drive on our days off to see if we can't find some of these allusive critters.

Work in the office was slow today, finally. Being a rainy Sunday, not many people were checking in. Sixty camp sites checked out today.

This evening we had a brief thunderstorm with some rain. It knocked out power, off and on, for a few seconds at a time, over the course of a half hour.

Don came up a dime short again today. I think the guy that counted my bank yesterday miscounted. So we stuck another dime in the bank and will see how things turn out tomorrow afternoon.

5/5/14

A slow day for check-ins today. We plan on driving around the park tomorrow, to see what there is to see. Someone said there were at least six red dogs up around Mammoth yesterday.

5/6/14

We took two drives today. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. All we saw was snow in the morning when we went to Canyon Village and half way to Mammoth. This afternoon we went towards West Yellowstone. No animals either trip. They must have heard we were coming.