4/19/18

We were able to drive between Gardiner and the Lamar valley a few more times during Don's training. We saw many of the same animals at various times and also saw new sights.

On April 11th we drove out to Lamar and saw the grizzly bear again. This time it came up on the road and passed about 20 feet in front of our truck. There were people out watching and photographing it, when it decided to cross the bridge, so all the people on the bridge had to walk to the other end to let the bear get across.

We also saw a mother moose and her 1 year old baby, not too far from Mammoth. After munching on the branches of bushes in the gully, they decided to lie down and rest in the snow.

 On the 12th we saw a fox walking near the buildings in Mammoth.

 April 16th was the next day we had time to take a drive. On this one we saw big horn rams lying on the rocks above the road.

 There was a black bear sow and a one year old cub between the Yellowstone picnic area and the Specimen turnout.

On the way back through the same area was a two year old cinnamon black bear.

 The bear smelled food in one of the cars parked along the road with people inside watching the it.

While we were out in the Lamar Valley we were able to watch a coyote catch a rodent under the snow.

 Near Tower Junction, on the way home, we saw the first baby bison of the season.

 Yesterday the 18th, we saw our moose family again. this time at Phantom Lake, about 4 miles east of the place we saw them on the 11th.

We are moving down to the campground on Friday the 20th. If you need or want to contact us, email will be the best way. We may not check our email every day though.

4/10/18

We didn't have much to post while we were at Thompson's Mills the last few months, but now we are in Yellowstone again and nature is revealing itself nicely.

We arrived Saturday, after taking a week to travel from Puyallup. We hit a little bit of snow on the road between Pendleton and Baker City Oregon, but didn't have any trouble driving through it. We stayed in Pocatello, Idaho for two nights waiting for the snow storm between there and West Yellowstone to blow over. No snow during that drive, but it rained the entire way. We had to go up to Bozeman and around through Livingston, Montana, instead of through the park. Apparently a large sink hole has developed in the road between Norris and Mammoth, so they aren't allowing any travel through that area until they get it fixed.

Now that we're here we've spent a few hours each day driving the north end of the park, viewing wildlife. 

Lots of bison.

 

More elk than last year.

Big horn sheep.

Pronghorn

A coyote.

The osprey is back in the Lamar Canyon and already catching fish to eat.

Two days before that photo, the nest was covered with snow.

Today we saw our first grizzly bear of the season. It is the darkest grizzly we've seen. We would have mistaken it for a black bear if it weren't for the shoulder hump and deep stop on the nose.

The snow is melting pretty fast up at this end of the park. Nothing's left on the road now, whereas we were driving on snow in some places Sunday.

Work starts on Thursday.

9/24/17

The late afternoon of the 8th of September we went for a drive to Old Faithful and back. There was a beautiful sunset over Fountain Flats

 

On the 9th we went out to Hayden Valley to see what animals might be about. We parked for a while to watch a herd of bison cross the Yellowstone River.

While we were there a flock of geese decided to take off in formation.

 

September 10th we drove out to the Lamar Valley but also decided to take a drive on the Blacktail Plateau. We were lucky we did, as we got to see a black bear sow and cub foraging for food.

 

On September 15th we had our first snow of the late season. We got less than an inch at the campground, but over the next week we had snow another three times, with up to 6 inches one night.

 

A drive out to West Yellowstone on the 17th showed how much the colors are changing with fall coming.

 

On the 19th we had more snow and we took another drive out to the Norris area.

 

On our way to West Yellowstone on the 22nd we saw a black bear roaming around on the side of the hill on the other side of the Madison River near 7 Mile Bridge.

 

On the 23rd we drove to the Hayden Valley again with a side trip to the top of Dunraven Pass. This is a view of the Hayden Valley covered in snow.

 

On our way out of the Hayden Valley we drove the North Rim Drive of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It's a fascinating place at all times but especially so with snow on the hills.

There was about a foot of snow on the hills at the top of Duraven Pass.

 

On the way back, towards the campground, we saw a grizzly bear cross the road ahead of us but weren't able to get a good picture of it, as it went into the woods on the side of the road.

September 24th found us making our last trip to Bozeman for the season. There was a beautiful sunrise along the Madison River as we drove out of the park.

 

 

9/4/17

August 1st, while out at 7 mile bridge (the closest place to the campground where we get cell service) doing some computer stuff, I noticed a Blue Heron resting in the Madison River, preening itself. It stayed there longer than I did and I was able to get a couple good pictures.

 

There was also a family of ducks swimming in the river.

 

On the 5th we drove out to the Lamar Valley again to watch the bison in rut.

 

There were a couple of young bison playing like they were in rut also.

 

After they played a while they decided to take a nap together.

 

On the way home we stopped at Midway Geyser Basin and hiked the newly opened trail to the Grand Prismatic overlook.

 As we were leaving the sun was shining through the clouds, making a beautiful sun burst.

 

We took another drive out to Lamar on the 6th, for more bison watching. One of the bison apparently had the job of bus driver that day, with seven birds hitching a ride on its back.

 On the way home we saw members of the newest wolf pack in the park. The pack lives very close to the campground we work in and we sometimes hear them howling in the evening. They were quite a ways off the road when we saw them, so we weren't able to get a very good photo of them.

 

We repeated our visit to Lamar the next weekend to watch the bison again.

On the 17th two adult and one baby elk came by our trailer eating the grass. We were able to sit in the door of our trailer and watch them from about 20 feet away.

 

On the 18th we saw an bald eagle on our way out to West Yellowstone. It was sitting in a tree looking for fish in the Madison River.

 

On the 19th we hiked around Trout Lake in the northeast corner of the park. We've done this hike before but this time we took a side trail that follows the creek that runs into the lake. It is a spawning ground for the cutthroat in the lake.

 

The wind was fairly calm during our hike and we got a good photo of the lake with the reflection of the background mountains in it.

 

On our way to the lake we saw a Redtail Hawk along the road.

 

August 20th we hiked Monument Geyser Basin. Looking down the Gibbon River canyon, you can see how much smoke is getting into the park from fires in Canada and Montana.

 

We were in the 98% totality area during the Aug 21st solar eclipse. You're nowhere unless you're in 100% totality but we did get some photos of the sun at our location.

 

On August 26th we hiked the Elephant Back trail. When you get to the top of the hill, you have a pretty good view of the north end of Lake Yellowstone. It would have been better with less smoke though.

 

August 27th the mother and baby elk returned to our trailer.

 

We are now less than 8 weeks from the end of the season in Yellowstone. We haven't decided whether we will be coming back again next year or not but it is probably more likely than not.