Yellowstone, Part 2 (08-18-17)

Yellowstone is a huge park and is definitely NOT what you would call a “one trick pony”.
In addition to the wildlife viewing, there is tons of great hiking. While poor Randy worked, we hiked several trails with Liz.

Hellroaring Creek was a 6 mile round trip hike to….Hellroaring Creek.  To get there, we descended about 850 feet into the canyon.  The problem with that, of course, is that what goes down, must come up!

The views of the Yellowstone River were spectacular along the way, and once we were at the bottom, we crossed over the river on a suspension bridge.













Ordinarily I am not a huge fan of suspension bridges, but this is sturdy enough to handle horses, so it wasn’t an issue.














Far below, the Yellowstone River was a sight to behold!

We were all tired, but felt like we accomplished something after hiking that trail.













The other trail we hiked was to Petrified Trees.  If we had done the whole trail it would have been 1700 ft of elevation gain. 













Lucky for us, there are petrified trees to see after only 1000 ft of gain.

We took a break and had a snack while we enjoyed the spectacular weather and views..

Yellowstone is also known for its geothermal activity.  In addition to the impressive geysers like Old Faithful, just driving down the road you can see the hot spring and geyser activity.

The Old Faithful area of the park is extremely crowded, but we did brave it one day, hoping to see our favorite geysers erupt.

Old Faithful is not the most impressive geyser, its just the most predicable decent sized one.

Our favorite is the Beehive- It spews 200 feet in the air and the base is shaped like a beehive.  The wind shifted during the eruption, and we got pretty wet!

It was early enough in the day that we decided to eat lunch and then walk down the boardwalk and wait for Grand Geyser to erupt. There was plenty to see along the way.





As beautiful as these pools are, their blue color means that they are about 190*- too hot for most living organisms to survive.

After an hour and a half of waiting (Patience is necessary when waiting for geyser eruptions) Grand Geyser did not disappoint.

We took the loop road back to the RV, which took a while due to traffic jams of all kinds.

We are not the only ones who like to explore.  Dozer loves it when we are in a place where he can explore outside.

Naturally, all that exploring is exhausting!













Things became a little dicey when we had a couple of days of not so great weather. One day the sun didn't shine at all. As I mentioned in my last post, we are totally reliant on our two solar panels in this campground. If our batteries got too low, we were going to have to leave.



We were extremely careful in our electrical use, and took more extreme measures than we ever had before. We charged our phones, computer, and cameras either while in our truck or at Liz and Randy’s.

The furnace was kept off because even though it is propane, it uses some electricity. One morning it was 45 degrees when we got up- IN the rig!

Luckily, making coffee isn’t an issue- its almost as easy to boil the water and pour it into the coffee maker as it is to make it regularly ( or, maybe I just think that because I never have to make the coffee?)



Anyway, soon enough the sun came back out and our batteries were back up to 100%!

We ended up staying in Yellowstone just over a week.  We had a great time with Liz and Randy, and really enjoy this park.  (I stole this picture from Randy- thanks Randy!)

Next up is the eclipse…..were we in the path of totality?  You betcha we were!

Yellowstone National Park (08-17-17)

We were lucky enough to get a spot in Yellowstone, with some help from our friends Liz and Randy.

Randy is a park Ranger, and Liz volunteers in several capacities.

The last time we were here, we were in a crowded RV park with electric, water, sewer hook up, and hundreds of other RVers. This time we were in a very small, out of the way campground, and THIS was the view out our window.  We fell in love immediately!

While we are here we will have only the water in our tank, no sewer hook up, and we aren’t allowed to use a generator, so the only power we have is what we can generate with our two solar panels.

We arrived on the weekend, so Randy and Liz were able to go hiking with us and hang out for a couple of days.

Our hike to Trout Lake was an adventure.  The lake was beautiful and we hiked past it and came across two other lakes- a Trifecta!















On the way back, we looked behind us and discovered a bison had moved onto the trail, and down to the lake for a drink of water.















Getting around the park to explore can be a challenge.  There are numerous traffic jams.














One day we were up on a hill, looking for some wildlife in the river when we noticed a bison causing a traffic issue.










Soon we saw him start across the bridge.
With the amount of bison scat on the hill we were on, we were concerned that he was headed in our direction, and in any case, once he crossed the bridge, he would be between us and the truck. 



So we booked it, and made it back to the truck just in time to see him lumber up the hill we had been on!

Of course, looking for wildlife is one of the most fun things to do in Yellowstone. We had heard that there was a pack of wolves feeding on a bison-  see the wolves? No? Me either.  This kill was so far away, we couldn’t really see anything.  But…. the next day, there was a bison kill closer to the road.

I would have loved it if we were the only ones who knew about this kill but the traffic jam was intense.  People don’t even bother to pull all the way off the road!

We gave up that first day, but got up at 5 am the next morning and headed out, hoping we would be able to find a place to park our beast.

Although we weren’t the first to arrive, we did find a spot.  It was too dark to see, but we heard that there was a grizzly at the kill site.  

Once the sun came up, the bear was gone and a wolf arrived.  Even though it was pretty close, “close” is a relative term and it was hard to get a good picture.

We were rather disappointed that we never saw any bears in Yellowstone.  Liz said its a little too warm for them and they went to higher elevations. We did see lots of other animals though…

We took a nice ride down a dirt road, looking for bears.  We didn’t see any, but this beautiful fox trotted down the road, seemingly oblivious to the 5 cars following him.

We also saw several Osprey- some were in a nest and some were soaring in the sky…

There were a few elk in the park and a few we saw up north, in Gardiner, when we went exploring..

And of course there were many, many bison.

This is getting too long so……To Be Continued…..

Yellowstone- Wildlife Count (07-10-12)

I counted the wildlife for my own purposes, and I was surprised at how much  we actually saw.  Of course, being in Yellowstone for three weeks contributed to the high number, partly because we learned how and where to go to watch them.  Even with these numbers, there were many times we could have stopped to see a bear of a herd of elk but didn’t because of the crowds. The longer we stayed here, the more I felt that we were being given a unique opportunity to see these animals on their own “turf”. They were all just living their lives, trying to ignore the humans that keep encroaching on their territory. For the first week, every time we saw a “new” animal, I got really surprised, excited, and anxious to get a good view.  Later on, I got just as excited, but in a much quieter way.  It’s hard to describe.  I guess I was no longer surprised to see the animals, because I know now that they just live here, but I was happy every time their daily routine brought them close enough to me that I could observe them.
Anyway, each number represents how many times we saw each type of animal.  Sometimes it may have been the same animal on a different day (who knows?)…
Wildlife watching could be addictive, except that there aren’t many other places in this country that we can see this many animals:
Bison- too many to count
Bull Elk-lone- 4
Elk herd with calves- 16-18
Big horn sheep-1
Osprey- 1
herd of wild goats-1
moose-1
moose calf-1
Grizzly bears- 3
Grizzly cubs-1 (there were two at the same time-2nd year cubs- bear cubs stay with their mom for 2 summers)
Black bears-5-6
black bear cubs-3 (there were two cubs each time) black bear sows can have 1-3 cubs at the same time, and all can have different fathers.
howling of a wolf pack-3 (the second time we heard it was just as awesome as the first time)
howling of a coyote pack-1 (difference between wolf and coyote howl- wolf is lower tone, pure howl, coyote is higher pitched with yelping mixed in)
wolves-3
wolf- Alpha female with pups-2(needed a scope to see them, I took someone’s word for it that the blobs of fur were pups)
wolf pack (Canyon Pack) -2
coyotes-4-5
Snowshoe Hare-2
Grouse-1
Pronghorn- 7-9 small groups or single animals
fox-1
Bald Eagle 3-4
Mule deer-1
fawn-3 (the third one was alone and actually could have been a tiny elk- after seeing it, we asked a ranger and both elk and deer leave their young alone in a field with “instructions” not to move- they have very little scent to them so predators pass them by.)
Sand Hill Crane-2

Grizzly and two cubs

Grizzly

black bear

And Then There Were Wolves (Yellowstone, 07-10-12)

  

On our last day in Yellowstone we spent the afternoon prepping to leave after a 3 week stay.  We finished early and headed one last time to Hayden Valley to watch for wildlife.  We figured we might as well give it one last shot.  We felt like we were greeting old friends when we got there- we’ve spent several hours with the same people, chatting while we scan the meadow with our binoculars.  These people come year after year to watch for wolves. They eat sandwiches for dinner because dinner time and prime wolf watching time coincide. When they see a wolf, they are quick to share their scope with anyone interested.  They love to share the excitement. When we arrived, they were quick to tell us that they had seen the wolf pack, with pups, about an hour before we got there.

The area we are watching is called a rendezvous site. Once wolf pups are weaned, at about 6-8 weeks of age, the wolf pack leaves the den behind and uses 4-6 different areas to meet and watch over and protect the pups. All adults in the pack are responsible for the pups.

This particular pack is called the Canyon Pack.  The alpha female is well known here because she still, even at the age of 6 (not young, for a wolf) prefers to find and kill prey by herself.  Lately though, she has let the males help her. When she goes off on a hunt, she leaves “babysitters” behind to take care of the pups.

  After a very short time we were rewarded with the sight of the alpha female leaving the rendezvous site, which is hidden from our sight by trees.  Along with her came two pups and a few minutes later, several other other adults.  They took the pups to the water, so they could all cool off. Between our binoculars and viewing through other people’s scopes, we had a pretty good view, and the pictures I got don’t do it justice, but at least I got some this time!



the Canyon Pack, down by the water



 

We thought that was awesome, but then we noticed the small herd of elk.  They had been calmly munching their dinner, but suddenly we could see them perk up and come to attention.  They gathered together, and a few seconds later started running.



The wolves are on the right of the elk, just in the water



The wolves had decided to chase the herd!

The wolves are behind the elk now

 The wolves do that to see if any of the elk are weak or sick and don’t keep up with the herd. The elk ran through the stream to the other side, but didn’t go any further than that. They turned and watched to see what the wolves were doing.


Finally, the elk are on the side of the stream, looking back at the wolves, who are still in the water, on the left.

 The wolves weren’t giving serious pursuit, just checking to see if they could catch an easy dinner.

Once things calmed down a little, the elk started eating again, and we realized we had lost sight of the pups and two of the adult wolves.  Apparently they brought the pups back to the rendezvous point when we weren’t looking.  The other 5 wolves, including the alpha female- she is the large white wolf, headed off towards the road, on the hunt.  Paul and I decided to cross the road and climb the nearby hill to see if we could catch sight of them again, and we did. 


too bad the wolves snuck past everyone when they were looking the other way! (black wolf is in the foreground)



This is the kind of traffic jam you get when people have sighted a bear or wolf. What was really funny to us is that all of the people are looking off to the right, and if you look in the foreground, you can see one of the wolves just after he crossed the road.

 

We watched them cross the meadow and approach two bison off in the distance.  Like with the elk, they approached and tested the bison to see if they could grab an easy dinner, but in the end they left them alone and went off to seek easier prey.

Yellowstone- Our Last Few Days (07-09-12)

When we first arrived in Yellowstone 3 weeks ago, we sat down and made a list of things we’d like to see and do.  A few days ago we revisited the list, tweaked it, and put together a shorter list of things that we wanted to make sure to do before we leave on July 10th.
We went back to the Old Faithful area to see if we could catch some of the other spectacular geysers as they erupted.  Old Faithful is popular, not because it’s the best or biggest, but because it’s predictable. We decided to dedicate one more day trying to see some more spewing, and we were pretty successful.  In fact, 3 of the geysers we managed to see put Old Faithful to shame!!  Especially Beehive.  Beehive and Grand are two of the tallest active geysers in North America.  We first witnessed Grand’s eruption, at around 10 in the morning:

We were lucky with that one that we didn’t have to wait more than 30 minutes.  The next eruption we wanted to see was Beehive, but it’s not known for it’s predictability. It can be anywhere from 11-18 hours between eruptions. We stood around for a while, then debated whether we should wait, when one of the Geyser Geezers (people who are addicted to watching the geysers spew) told us that no matter how long we had to wait, it would be worth it.  So, wait we did- for almost 2 hours, but the time passed by very quickly because we were chatting with a couple from New Jersey that we met.


Beehive Geyser

 Beehive has a “Tell”.  About 10-20 minutes before it erupts, a smaller nearby geyser, appropriately called Beehive Indicator erupts. Finally, at 12:35, Beehive let loose.  Now that’s a geyser! 
The water erupted with incredible force.  You could hear and see the power behind the eruption- I think partly because we were a lot closer to the action.  In fact, with the wind shifting every few seconds, we got quite wet.

That same day we managed to see Great Fountain geyser erupt as well.  This geyser pretty much exploded into the air.  It’s very difficult to capture all the action, even with video.

We’ve made a last minute push to see as much wildlife as we can, so once again we got up at 5:30 and headed out the door. This time, instead of Lamar Valley, we went to the closer Hayden Valley, to look for wolves and grizzlies.  Because of the rain, the fog was pretty thick and didn’t lift until we had been standing around for an hour or so.  We were with a bunch of people, some who had scopes, and we all chatted, so it was fun. 



Bison swimming across the river

   We ended up seeing a Bald Eagle (no picture- he flew too fast) and several bison who decided to swim across the river.








We all had our scopes and binoculars trained far into the distance, where the local wolf den is.  Eventually, the alpha female came into view, along with two pups.  I have to take the word of the people with scopes that there were pups- all I saw was a blob of fur, they were so far away (in fairness, they did let us look through the scopes, but it didn’t help much).

Later in the morning we went for a (boring) hike and came across some black bear tracks that were old, but still very visible.

On the way home we checked out the river rapids where the fish jump during spawning, but didn’t see any jump.  What we did see was another Bald Eagle.  This time I managed to snap a few shots as he flew over.

We did end up taking the boat out on the lake a total of three times, exploring new areas every time. We found a few thermal areas where the water temperature is considerably warmer than the rest of the lake.  This is overflow from a hot spring, and the water was about 85 degrees in that area.

The wildlife was plentiful- I took this picture of a grizzly from the truck as we drove by.

Bison like to take dirt baths.  This was along one of the trails we hiked.

This black bear was about 200 feet from the road, just minding his own business while we all took his picture.

I mostly took this picture because it shows just how huge bison are.  This guy is taller than the car. Hard to believe people approach them, thinking they are “tame”.  Two weeks ago someone was gored and landed in the hospital because he didn’t move out of the way of a bison. He just assumed that since the animal approached him, that he was used to being around people.

As we were leaving the park we got one more chance to enjoy the wildlife, although since we were towing and they kept crossing the road in front of us, I am not sure the word “enjoy” is appropriate.

The day before we left, we had our most incredible wildlife show, but I am going to put that in another post….more soon…..