4/19/2017

We have been in Gardiner, Montana for almost two weeks, training for our jobs at Madison campground again. We will be moving to the campground on Friday. We spent a little more than a week traveling from Puyallup, Washington to Gardiner. We stopped at Memaloose State Park near The Dalles, Oregon the first night. Then we spent three nights at Farewell Bend State Park near Ontario, Oregon. We usually stop in Declo, Idaho for a night or two after driving the third segment of our trip, but friends that we will be working with in Yellowstone were staying at a casino RV park in Fort Hall Idaho, so we stayed there with them for a few nights. The weather was a little iffy between Ashton Idaho and West Yellowstone a couple of days, so we made a run for Yellowstone on Monday the 10th while there was a break in the snowy weather. We only hit light snow a couple of times going over Targhee Pass and the roads were clear and dry all the way to Yellowstone.

We got to Gardiner a couple days earlier than we needed to for the job, which gave us a chance to do some sightseeing in Yellowstone before all the paying visitors come. There is still quite a bit of snow around the higher (6500+ ft) elevations and the snow pack has been melting slowly so far, since the temperatures still dip below freezing most nights, but it is warming up during the daytime.

On the trip through the park, to get to Gardiner, this is what some of the areas looked like.

 

The only road in the park, open to all traffic before April 21st runs between Gardiner Montana and Cooke City Montana in the north end of the park. We drove that road each day before we had to start our training.

So far, this has been our best year for animal sightings per trip. In the four trips we've made we've seen...

Elk by the Gardiner River

  

Bison all over the place

 

 Pronghorn in Lamar Valley 

  

A Dusky Grouse that didn't want us to drive on his road.

A red fox

A Killdeer in one of the Mammoth hot springs

 

Sandhill cranes

 

Bighorn Sheep 

 

Moose

 

Along with some interesting ice falls in Ice Box Canyon

And deer behind our trailer

 

All in the first three days after we arrived.

Don had five and Penny had 2 days of training, then we got a day off today and took the same drive again. In just five hours we saw

More Bighorn Sheep 

Eagles 

 

A Grizzly bear having lunch 

 

Nesting Osprey

 

Wolves

 

And the newest arrivals to the park...

Two baby bison

 

 Hopefully, we'll have the same success the rest of the season.

4/7/2017

We arrived in Pocatello, Idaho yesterday afternoon, on our way back to Yellowstone for another season. We are staying in the RV park of the Fort Hall casino, visiting with some co-worker friends that are also on their way to work in Yellowstone this summer.

We spent last winter at Thompson's Mills again, which gave us a chance to get Don's mom moved to Wisconsin, where she can get some assistance with her mobility issues related to her knees. She will be living with friends that we've known for many decades.

While we were at the mills we had -

Snow

Rain, LOTS OF RAIN, which flooded the mill a couple times

 

 

Ice

 

Great Blue Herons 

Nutria 

Bald Eagles

 

 

Beautiful sunsets

Rainbows

 

and a good time.

Don was able to get a security camera system installed in and around the mill. He also built a floor for one of the chicken coups, so we don't have to walk in the mud when we go inside it to clean it out. We gave the usual tours to the guests and had a couple of school groups come through, one of which was 120 second graders from Philomath.