The night of May 18 - May 19, we had a snow storm. We ended up with over 4 inches of very wet snow. A number of tent campers found themselves in very short tents in the morning, after the snow collapsed their tents.

 

On the 19th we took a hike out to Lone Star Geyser. Like last year, we got to the geyser just as it was beginning to erupt. We could have ended up waiting for three hours if our timing hadn't been so good.

 

On the way out to the trailhead, south of the Old Faithful area, we came across a pair of trumpeter swans in the Firehole River but we weren't able to get a photo with both of them with their heads above the water at the same time.

We also saw a herd of bison resting near the lower geyser basin. One of the females had two babies lying near her. We don't know if they were both hers or not.

 

Once a week Penny has to drive to Norris Campground to sell fire wood to the campers. It's usually a half hour drive. It's become a common problem this year for it to take longer to get there because of the bison in the area. Some of the people have taken an hour and a half to get there. This is what Penny had to wait for the last time she went up there.

 

Driving back from town one day, we saw the first of the goslings that are beginning to hatch.

Tuesday the 26th we went on a hike to Storm Point with our hiking partners that we work with. On the way to the trailhead, which is east of Fishing Bridge, Penny said she thought she saw a bear in the woods on the other side of the road. We stopped at the turnout on our side and walked back to where she thought it was, expecting to find a stump. After looking around for five  minutes or so, I saw some movement in the trees, back towards where we had parked the truck. I walked back along the road towards the truck because it had looked like whatever it was, was moving that direction. Penny and our hiking partners hadn't gone very far when one of them yelled "Don, it's headed right for you!". I looked up into the woods and sure enough it was a good size black bear foraging for mushrooms and working it's way towards the road. Penny said something about having to get back in the truck and flew past me and jumped into the back seat on the driver's side. I walked back across the street to the truck and climbed into the driver's seat. Our hiking partners made their way to the back end of the truck. Fortunately, the bear stayed on the other side of the road and made its way back into the woods after digging up a few morsels in the opening in the woods. We were the first ones to find this bear, but a crowd of cars started building up around us as people driving by saw the bear. It appeared to be a beautiful male.

 

After the bear disappeared into the woods we continued our drive to the trailhead. It rained a little while during the first half of our hike, but we were in the trees, so we didn't get terribly wet and it only drizzled for a short time.

Near the far end of the loop walk is a rock formation that yellow bellied marmots live in. Last year when we did this hike in the late summer, we didn't see a single marmot. This year we got to see a few. They are cute little buggers that use the rocks as a condominium.

 

On the second half of the loop trail we found black bear foot prints that had to be no more than a few hours old, since the rain and hikers would have obliterated them otherwise. They were probably from the black bear that we had seen earlier, since they indicated the bear was headed towards where we saw him. We got caught in a hail storm for the last few hundred yards of the hike, but it ended shortly after we got back to the truck.

We are looking forward to our next hike, though we haven't decided where that will be.