We had to make a Costco/Wallyworld run Tuesday the 2nd of June, so we didn't get any hiking in. Wednesday we went to the Canyon area to hike Uncle Tom's Trail that goes down into the canyon in front of the lower falls. When we got there, we found they were doing construction in the parking lot and painting the lines on the roads, so getting around the area and parking were nearly impossible. We decided to drive up Dunraven Pass instead, since it had recently opened and we hadn't driven it this year.

Near the top, we decided to hike up the Mt. Washburn trail. We got about half way up and it turned into fairly deep snow across the trail. Even though we didn't make it to the top this time, we did get some pictures of the view down the Hayden Valley.

After the hike, we went out to West Yellowstone for dinner. On the way back we saw a few bison with their calves and a couple of birds.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday the 9th, we drove to the Old Faithful area with our hiking buddies and walked from the Old Faithful Inn to Morning Glory pool and back, which makes for a nice two mile hike. On the way to Old Faithful, we drove through Firehole Canyon drive - as we always do, since we find it more interesting than the main road. Near the bottom of the canyon, across the river, we found an osprey nest in the top of a dead tree, with a couple of fledglings in it.

 

We also drove through Firehole Lake drive, across from the lower geyser basin for the same reason. We sat there for about an hour, as it looked like Grand Fountain Geyser might erupt. Even though it didn't erupt while we were there, White Dome Geyser did.

 

During our Old Faithful walk, we were lucky enough to see Grotto Geyser and Castle Geyser erupt.

Our friend Al was recovering from a bout of the gout, so much more of a walk wouldn't have been possible for him. He thinks the two mile walk did help him though.

On Wednesday the 10th, Penny and I got up at 4:30 so we could head to Mammoth Hot Springs for a rendezvous with a tour bus at 7:30. It was our first of the season free tours, provided by the company. This tour was the Northern Range, Lamar Valley, Wildlife Tour. The actual tour was given by the Yellowstone Association, which does a good job of knowing where and when to go somewhere to have the best possibility of seeing some of the more elusive animals. They did not disappoint us, as we were able to find three bears and a moose, besides the thousand or so bison in the Lamar Valley.

When we arrived at Mammoth, we drove behind the Mammoth hotel to park. As we got back there, a female elk was grazing in the grass and eating leaves from a tree, immediately behind the hotel.

 

We watched as she chased a worker around a car. It turned out, her four day old baby was laying down between the hotel and a piece of equipment, so she was protecting her baby.

 

While we were waiting for the bus, the mother elk chased another person back into the hotel. There were signs posted at all the exits that she was in the area and everyone should give her plenty of room, but some people never listen. Apparently, she had attacked an unsuspecting security guard a couple nights before an broken his leg.

Except for seeing the bison in the Lamar Valley, our first stop to view wildlife on the tour was on the east side of the valley. Along the way, we made a pit stop so we would be ready for viewing opportunities where no facilities were available. The restroom we stopped at had barn swallow nests ringing its eves.

Nearer the northeast entrance, we were lucky enough to find a black bear and moose in the meadow across the creek. The bear was feasting on the fresh flowers in the meadow.

 

The moose was moving through the meadow, to a thicket of trees. We had to follow it along the river before it finally stopped to eat.

Near the end of the tour, the tour guide lead us on a short hike up to Specimen Ridge. It was interesting being able to see the Calcite area of the Lamar River, from the back side. We will probably do that hike again since we didn't walk the entire trail this time.

We got back to our truck just before it started to rain and it rained the entire drive home.

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.

5/13/15

We went on a drive to the Tetons Tuesday. Because of road closures due to construction, we had to go the long way around, through the Hayden Valley. This is the time of year that the Harlequin ducks congregate at the La Hardy rapids, just below the Yellowstone Lake, on the Yellowstone River. The males are only there for about two weeks during mating season, so it can be difficult to see them at all. The males have very interesting color patterns on their bodies.

 

Here is a photo with three pairs of ducks.

 

We had hoped to maybe find a moose or two in the Tetons, but we didn't find any animals at all. We saw a few elk and a bunch of bison during the drive through Yellowstone though.

We also stopped to see the Sulphur Cauldrons in the Hayden Valley. We've been by them many times, but haven't stopped there until now.

 

In the Gibbon Valley, on the way home, we did see a mother grizzly and her cub. We think it's the same one that was in the campground at the end of the season last year.

 

It snowed the first three evenings after we got to the campground, which is good, since it will help with the lack of snow pack that we have this year. We hope that it continues to snow every night until the end of September, as it might reduce the number of people that are planning on coming through the campground this year.

Sunday the 26th, we went on the company sponsored tour of the lower loop of the park. It is a tour available to guests, at a price, called the Circle of Fire. It goes around the loop stopping at all the thermal features, with the bus driver explaining the science and or history behind the different features. The company provides the tour so we can familiarize ourselves with the features of the park, to better explain them to the guests when they ask about them.

The first half of the tour was uneventful, other than walking the boardwalk around the Grand Prismatic Spring in a blowing snow storm. After touring the lower portion of the loop around the Old Faithful area, it goes around the west side of the loop up to Norris Geyser Basin, then takes a sharp right to head east to the Canyon Village area. We had lunch in the visitors center when we got there.

After lunch we headed south towards the Yellowstone Lake area, having to pass through a locked gate that prevents guests from driving in the area until the park service decides to open the gates - usually based on snow levels and the number of grizzly bears in the area. On the way south, the only thing we noticed was the low level of the lake and rivers.

 

On the way back north (we couldn't continue south because a bridge is being replaced along the road) one of our group saw an animal out in the field to the left. As it turned out, it was a grizzly bear. Well, not 'a' grizzly bear, but FOUR grizzly bears. A mother and her three cubs.

A few miles further, in the Hayden Valley, we saw a wolf across the Yellowstone River, walking along the bank.

This is just about the same location we had seen a wolf when we came to Yellowstone as tourists, nine or ten years ago.

After getting back to the Norris Geyser Basin and heading south towards the campground that afternoon, we saw another sow grizzly and one cub just north of the Gibbon Falls area. It appears that she is the same grizzly that was visiting our campground late last season. We all hope that she stays in the area she is currently and doesn't come back to the campground. Only bad things could come of it if she returns. At the very least she would be trapped and moved somewhere much farther away. At worst she would be put down as a hazard to humans.

It turns out, the photos we took of her last year in the campground, are now being used in one of the visitor centers, in a bear safety video.

After a few days of practicing our check-in process, we opened for business on May 1st. We checked people into more sites than any other opening day over the last five years. With the nice weather we've been having, there's little to discourage them from coming.

At some point during our bus tour on the 27th, Penny lost her ID pouch, where she kept her Xanterra ID card and her drivers license. Fortunately, she didn't keep anything else - like credit cards - in it. Apparently no one found it and turned it in and I went back to look around all the places she might have lost it, but I couldn't find it. That all forced us to take a quick trip to South Dakota to get her a replacement license.

After work on Monday (noon) the 4th, we headed east and got to Spearfish, South Dakota about 10 p.m. We stayed in a hotel in Spearfish and headed to Rapid City the next morning. South Dakota requires that you show proof of having stayed in the state, at least one night, during the last 12 months, to get a duplicate license. We hadn't been in SD since March of 2014. Otherwise, we might have been able to get her license online. We would have gotten her license in Spearfish, but that office is only open on Wednesdays, hence the trip to Rapid City. It took less than 30 minutes to get her license replaced and we were headed back to Yellowstone. After a 12 hour drive we arrived safely in the campground. Penny was able to get some nice pictures of the scenery during our trip, to help make it more worthwhile.

Yellowstone Lake is still frozen, but is thawing out.

There are some interesting rock formations east of the park.

 

 

And some interesting buildings 

 

Just east of Gillette, Wyoming, I-90 cuts through the middle of a coal mine.

 

One of the places we find very interesting is the Ten Sleep area of central Wyoming.

 

 

So far, we're having a great time. Hope to see some of you here during the summer.

To our families and friends -

 

Happy Mother's Day

4/15/2015

We left Shedd, Oregon March 30th and spent a week at the Puyallup Fairgrounds visiting with family and friends and taking care of a little business. We had Easter dinner with Penny's family on Sunday.

On April 6th we left Puyallup and headed towards Yellowstone for another season. We got to Maryhill State Park, near the Dalles Oregon, that afternoon and parked. We intended to stay for a couple of days, since we don't like driving every day. Unfortunately, someone decided to play with their guns starting about 10:30 that night. We don't know whether it was a park visitor or someone who lives near the park but we decided we didn't need to stay where idiots like to shoot weapons into the dark of night. So, we left the next morning.

We got to Farewell Bend State Park near Ontario, Oregon that afternoon about 2 p.m. We got the same spot we had when we stopped there on our way west in October and though numerous rigs came in each evening for the night, we never had anyone parked within a couple spaces of us. We stayed there for three nights, giving us time to do a little sightseeing. Four miles northwest of the park is a town called Huntington, Oregon. There are a couple of cement making plants there, one of which is closed and falling apart, the other is operational. We assume that is where most of the residents of this small town make their living. There is also an old cemetery on a hill east of the town that originated during the Oregon Trail days. It was a pleasant drive on a beautiful day.

From there we headed to Declo, Idaho for just one night, since the campground is close enough to the freeway, that the noise can be a bit of a nuisance.

We intended to go only as far as West Yellowstone, but we arrived there early in the afternoon and had time to drive the rest of the way to Gardiner. We could have gone through the park to get to Gardiner, which could have been faster, but the road between Norris Geyser Basin and Mammoth Hot Springs has not yet been paved and we didn't want to drag the trailer through a mud pit to get to our destination. The drive around through Bozeman added a couple hours to our trip but it was still pleasant. We got to Gardiner about 4:15 p.m. Two couples that we will be working with had already arrived earlier that day. One had come through the park and said the road was drivable as long as it wasn't wet. Hopefully it will be dry when we move down to the campground, since that's the way we will want to go.

When we arrived last year, the park had 130% of its normal snow pack and there was four feet of snow in the campground. The snow pack this year is less than 75% of normal and from what our friends that drove through the park said, there is no snow in the campground this year.

Hopefully, the fire season won't be too bad.

Today it's snowing off and on with gusty winds. Not much is sticking at the elevation we're at, but we can see it accumulating on the hills around us. We hope to get a hike in tomorrow, before we have to check in for orientation on Friday morning.

Thompson's Mills Sky View

2/22/2015

We've been having a good time here in Shedd, with somewhat decent weather (more sun than rain it seems). In fact, with all the good weather, especially the days that we give tours, it seems everybody and their brother comes out to see the mill. President's Day weekend we had almost 100 people come through the mill for a tour. We've been able to spend time with family but haven't done much hiking or touristy things.

We have seen some incredible sunsets out our back window.

 

A couple of weeks ago, we had a visit from a past employee of the mill. He worked here in the 1980's. He now works for a company that creates 3D renderings of objects from multiple photographs or laser scans. He had a lecture scheduled at Oregon State University later that week and wanted a presentation that depicted a potential real-life situation. Since he still lives nearby, he decided to photograph the mill and use it in his presentation. The interesting part of it all is, he used a remotely piloted helicopter to take video and still images of the mill from multiple angles. He gave us all of the images he took during the fly-bys. Below is a 30 second video of the mill that he took.

 

You can see our truck and trailer on the left side of the video, next to the shed, under the trees.

We have a little over a month left here and then we head back to Yellowstone for the summer.