Through June

7/4/2020

On June 15^th we drove around the lower loop. We didn’t see much wildlife until we got to the Canyon area. There we saw two of the 3 Amigos elk resting in the tall grass near the Canyon Corrals, with their antlers in velvet.

On the 16^th we went to the Lamar Valley after a stop in West Yellowstone. Along the Madison River we saw a pair of doe elk with babies.

On our way out to the Lamar Valley we saw Osprey in the nest in the Lamar River Canyon. One was in the nest while the other was just coming back after looking for food for their young.

A few miles up the road were herds of bison taking their noon nap.

On our way back towards Mammoth we saw a family of Badgers across the road from the entrance to the Petrified Tree.

Near Hellroaring trailhead we saw black bear foraging for food.

We drove through Firehole Lake drive as we returned home. Great Fountain Geyser was just getting ready to erupt so we stopped to watch an always entertaining eruption.

The next day, we drove to Elk Creek just to see if the Badgers would be out of their burrow. Two of them were.

On the way back we saw another black bear near Phantom Lake.

The 18^th we drove around the lower loop again. We wanted to hike Uncle Tom’s Trail, but it was closed (we think due to snow), so we walked down the South Rim Trail to the viewpoint for the Upper Falls. Water levels are still very high.

On the 20^th we went back to the Lamar Valley. No badgers were visible but the bison were out wandering around with their young.

We also saw a couple of black bear that were too far away for good photos, but there was one near the Yellowstone picnic area that was close enough for a good photo.

On our way home we drove through the Hayden Valley and saw an eagle sitting in a tree.

We had to get gas at the end of our trip, so we stopped at the lower gas station at Old Faithful. Lucky for us, Castle Geyser just happened to erupt at that time.

On the 22^nd, we drove around the Lower Loop again. A bison was fording the Yellowstone River near Alum Creek.

Near Mud Volcano, there were a couple of coyote hunting for rodents.

We had to work for three days straight, so we didn’t get out for a drive again until the 25^th, when we went out to the Lamar Valley. On the way out from our trailer, we saw a Blue Heron in the top of a tree along the Firehole River. It kind of surprised us, since we thought Blue Heron were ground dwellers when not flying. It did take off and fly away as we watched it.

A little farther down the road, an Osprey was sitting in the top of another tree.

Up near Blacktail Plateau we saw a black bear with a good case of quarantine hair.

On our way back through Mammoth, there was a herd of elk laying near the church. Among them was a very young one.

On June 26^th, the company sponsored a potluck dinner at the Norris picnic area. On our way home, we were driving by the Midway Geyser Basin at dusk and got a couple of good photos of the sunset.

July 1^st, we took another trip around the entire park. In the Lake area we saw more elk with babies.

 South of Canyon Village we found a cinnamon black bear looking for food.

Near the corral we saw the 3 Amigos together. One of them was trying to hide behind a tree, but he needed a bigger tree.

All three of them were close together.

Out in the Lamar Valley we saw a few bison, including some babies, crossing Soda Butte Creek.

Stopping for lunch near Pebble Creek, we saw another cinnamon black bear too far away for a good photo. Fortunately, we saw another one at Elk Creek.

Returning home through the Firehole river plains, we saw a grizzly bear foraging for food near the Mary Mountain trailhead.

We’re planning on resting over the holiday weekend and maybe taking a drive to the Tetons.

The Start of the 2020 Season in Yellowstone

6/15/2020

We sat out the COVID-19 closure at the mill, through May. On Sunday the 31^st of May we got a call from Yellowstone Foundation, asking when we could get there. Both Wyoming and Montana had insisted that the park open its gates so the states could start getting the income from the tourist industry that the park generates. Wyoming had the least amount of COVID deaths of any state and Montana’s cases were dropping, though they had been low to begin with. I told them “Four days from the day we're asked to come”. They were a bit disappointed and said they had hoped we could get there Tuesday. We don’t drive a thousand miles in one day but did drive longer than usual each day and we arrived Thursday June 4^th, after spending Monday packing up and doing all the necessary checks on our truck and trailer. We stopped in Pendelton, Oregon the first night and Declo, Idaho the second night, arriving at the park the afternoon of the third day.

Because of our delay and the short notice the company had to get stores open, we didn’t start work until Tuesday the 9^th , so we had a few days to drive around the park checking things out. The road between Canyon Village and Tower Falls will be closed all summer while they replace the roadway, which was getting torn up by traffic and is too narrow to have one way traffic during construction. That makes for a longer drive to get to the northeast corner of the park, but that’s ok with us. That’s the first place we went on Friday the 5^th.

We got caught in a bison jam up in the Tower area. They were crossing the bridge over the Yellowstone river and had traffic pretty well stopped.

They got off the road the other side of the bridge and headed east toward the Lamar Valley. We stopped to watch them for a while near a small lake less than a mile after the bridge.

From there we continued on towards the Lamar Valley. We saw a couple of sandhill cranes and some other birds near the bison. We noticed that there’s gong to be another batch of Osprey in the nest in the Lamar River Canyon

On the east side of the Lamar Valley, where Soda Butte Creek falls into the Lamar River, we saw a sow grizzly nursing her two cubs.

There was nowhere to park off the road so we had to get some quick shots of her as we rolled by the area between cars that were parked half-on, half-off, or right in the middle of the road. We drove up to Pebble Creek to turn around and on the way back through the bear zone, mom had finished feeding her cubs and was taking them up the side of the hill on the other side of the road.

Saturday the 6^th, we drove to Canyon Village and up to Mammoth. Most of the elk we’ve seen have been in the Mammoth area. We haven't seen a single buck elk yet though.

The pronghorn are looking a little like it has quarantine hair.

We can’t be sure but it looks like the lone swan on the Firehole river has found a mate.

The next day we drove around the lower loop from Old Faithful to West Thumb to Canyon and around to Madison before getting back to Old Faithful. It snowed that day.

 

On Monday the 8^th we drove back up to the Lamar Valley. This time we saw a cinnamon black bear with two well fed, 2^nd year cubs, near Elk Creek.

Out by Pebble Creek campground we saw a moose foraging for food.

Our first day of work the 9^th, we had a couple hours of training, then a full day of training on the 10^th. Thursday we shadowed an experienced worker in the only store that’s currently open in the Old Faithful area. We made all the sales while she was available to answer any questions or dig us out of problems we got into due to our unfamiliarity with the system. Friday we worked alone in that store while she and her husband went to another store to run it and the other workers went to various places to prepare to open additional stores around the park. NPS has to decide when they want the visitor’s center to open before we can open the store inside. They are supposed to have a meeting about it the 16^th.

We had the 13^th and 14^th off. We went to Bozeman Saturday, to restock our supplies. Sunday we drove to the Lamar Valley again. This time we saw another black bear.

 

We haven’t done any actual hiking yet. We’re trying to get our lungs acclimated to the 7000’ plus elevation. Soon we hope. Once things settle out, we think our schedule will be on 4 days, off 4 days, on 3 days, off 3 days. That will be alright with us.