The Big Update

So because I have updated in a while, and because over the past week I've been extremely busy and seen a lot of things, I'm clumping the last week together in one huge mega entry. Enjoy.

It's Like Wildfire!!

First off, it's fire season in Yellowstone and wouldn't you know it, the lake has become the epicenter for forest fires this year. We've had one fire or another burning continuously across the lake from where I live for the past three weeks. Late last week, the biggest of the fires started up and forced the closure of the East Entrance road. It's still closed more than a week since the fires began. They've also set up a Fire Camp for the firefighters to stay in as they suppress the fire. Pretty neat stuff. Even today there is a fire burning!

Last hike with Jenn.

So Jenn, my YNPBFF, left on Tuesday morning to return home to Billings, MT. But before she went, on Monday, Jenn, Ba'ra (her roommate), and I went for a hike around Ice Lake and to the Little Gibbon Falls. The lake was nothing to write home about, but the falls were awesome. They fell 25 feet and you could climb down to the base and even right up the waterfall itself. Pretty neat.

2 Nights at Grebe and Cascade Lakes with the Birds.

For the first time this season, I was able to go on a back country trip and do some camping in the outdoors away from people. I went with my friend Sue Mae from Malaysia, who had never gone camping before. It proved to be a really good experience.

We intended to go to the lake to camp and fish, but we ended up going on a really awesome bird watching trip. When we reached Cascade Lake, we found a pair of Trumpeter Swans, the largest waterfowl in North America and one of the rarest, and watched them as they cruised around the lake.


When we got to Grebe Lake we saw a ton of ducks, Barrow's Goldeneye and even a few Loons, swimming about under the sunset.

When we woke up in the morning we tried our hand at fishing, but the wind soon picked up and made any attempts at throwing a fly futile. So decided to just lounge around on the beach. Overhead we saw bald eagles, ospreys, and hawks flying about. It was nice.

Around 1pm we left our campsite headed back to Cascade Lake to camp there for the night. Just as we were leaving the lake behind, we saw two ospreys flying really close together overhead. Then out of nowhere a small hawk, not sure of the type, came in flying right at one of the osprey. Turns out the second osprey and the hawk were trying to steal a fish that the first osprey had clutched in its talons!! The osprey and the hawk locked talons twice fighting over the fish and plummeted to the lake below only to let go and fly up just before hitting the ground!! This happened over 5 minutes until the osprey with the fish was able to fly high enough to make its escape.


About half way to Cascade Lake, Sue Mae saw a large bird fly across the trail in front of us. As she was showing me where, another huge bird fly right overhead not more than 10 feet above me!! The birds turned out to be a pair of Great Grey Owls, the largest and one of the rarest owls in North America. They sat in two trees "talking" to each other as they let us take their picture. Then fly off a bit towards what sounded like another owl. Sure enough, there was a third owl a little bit away in another tree. I'm guessing it was their baby as it was a bit smaller than the other two. We ended up watching them for over 30 minutes as they called to one another, some of which I have on video. It was awesome.




When we finally reached Cascade Lake, we set up the tent and went to the lake to filter some water. There we saw two mother ducks, maybe blue winged teals, with their ducklings in two right next to each other. What was odd was that another baby bird was swimming right beside them. It was a Western Grebe and almost looked like it was trying to be a duck. It was follow the ducks, then the ducks would follow it. Too cute.


The next morning we left the campsite as two blue herons fly over some lily pads. It was an amazing trip!

Also my spotting scope came today. Can't wait to try it out!!

37 days...

What a drive

Pictures coming when the Internet stops being so slow. Sorry.

So last night, my friend Megan from Kentucky and I were sitting at dinner ruminating about how we had nothing to do that evening. I had 4 1/2 hours until I began work at 10pm, and was looking for "anything" to do. I offered up a drive into Hayden Valley to possibly see the wolves, which Megan hadn't done yet.

So we get in my car and head on up to the valley. About halfway in we spot the largest traffic jam I'd ever seen in the park. My first thought was that it's bears, as in the area you sometimes see them. Sure as shit, when we get out and approached the horde of people with spotting scopes we hear bear talk. But not just one bear, or even two bears, no. The people there have seen 5 days throughout the day! Why you ask? Well a large bull bison decided to die on a hillside about 250 yards off the side of the road and grizzlies were scavenging it! When we were there we saw 2 male grizzlies feeding on it. Take a look. (The carcass is under the bear to the bottom right of the picture, with all of the ravens around.)

The one bear in the middle kept chasing the ravens away, it was pretty neat.

After the bears we went to see wolves, but saw nothing. So we continued on towards Canyon. At that time for some reason I was feeling very adventurous so I decided to head west out of Canyon and drive the entire lower loop of the Figure-8 of roads through the park which is about 107 miles! On the drive we saw 2 coyotes, tons of elk, including two huge bulls that were together as seen by the picture below, bison, an osprey, and dumb tourists. Not to mention amazing scenery. It was a great drive!

Also last night I decided that I had had enough of having to borrow someone's spotting scope to see bears/wolves/etc...and I sometimes am alone and want one, so I bought one online last night. It's nowhere near top of the line (I don't have the $3000 for that) but for $175 I picked up a really good scope with an 80mm lens and up to 60x zoom. It's the Celestron Ultima 80mm Angled Spotting Scope. I'll let you all know how it works after I try it out. Hopefully in Glacier National Park next week!

A walk with Jenn

So today Jenn and I were feeling pretty bummed that Hilary was gone for the summer, and we decided to take a walk along the lake to raise our spirits. Turns out that that was a fantastic idea of I ended up taking 60 some odd pictures of what we saw on our little hike that took us no farther than 1/2 mile from Lake Lodge.

First we got to the lake and tried skipping stones, but the waves prevented any records being broken. But we did stumble upon a really neat occurrence. If I threw a large stone into the lake and it made a big splash, the splash would create it's own little rainbow! Too cool. Unfortunately we were unable to get a picture of our man made rainbows. We had to settle for this amazing real-life one instead.

A neat picture if I do say so.

Farther down the beach we came across an old abandoned building with this sign on it:


This building must not be molested?? That's just asking for some hot man on building action!

Just past the building was a little pond that we never knew existed, and it was teaming with life. We saw a family of sandhill cranes, two adults and a fledgling, a muskrat, and a family of ducks. All the while dozens of swallows were flying overhead. It was a neat place that warrants another visit soon.



Then on the way back, the sky has some really neat cloud formations that warranted pictures.


Not too shabby for a little hour and a half walk.

Go Go Gadget GPS Locater!!

Days with m' kin

On Wednesday my dad and brother got here after leaving Ohio on the previous Friday and seeing the sights along I-90 in South Dakota and Wyoming.

The first day that they were here we went on a 10 mile hike in Pelican Valley to Turbid Lake, an area that is supposed to be full of bears. But alas, no bears. We did however see a wolf print on the path that was pretty cool.


After the Pelican Valley hike, we traveled north to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and saw the Upper and Lower Falls which are huge.

After that we went farther north to Tower Falls where we did a little off path hiking onto a sweet rock bank along the Yellowstone River.

Then finally we traveled even farther north to the Lamar Valley and may have witnessed the first attempted buffalo sexual act of the season! And we got to see two Proghorns running at near top speed as one was chasing the other. Plus a coyote sighting.

The next day we decided to climb Mt. Washburn at an elevation of 10,243 ft. The hike up and down wasn't particularly hard but I did get quite sunburnt. We also got to see 5 bighorn sheep ewes on the north slope of the mountain and 2 blue grouse. Then since we exited at a different trailhead than the one we started from, I had to hitchhike 5 miles back to the car and then drive back to pick up my dad and brother. Met a nice couple from Darbershire, England.


On Saturday I had to work, so the two of them went off on their own thing. In the afternoon I went on a hike of Pelican Creek with Jenn and Hil. We saw some cool views and a gnarly tree on the hike. It was sad though as it was our last hike with Hil as she left this morning bound for home in Michigan.

Well that's what I've been up to recently. Now, does anyone know the way to Old Faithful?

Fire and Sunsets

Three days ago, there was a fire burning across the lake from where I work. After work Hilary, Jen, and I decided to see how close to the fire we could get. Turns out, not very close as there is a little bit of a mountain range in the way. But I did get this shot from across the lake.


On our ill-fated drive, we ended up stopping at the Lake Butte Overlook as the sun was going down and I snapped these sweet looking pictures. Enjoy.

This one was shot through a tree that had been burned in two by a forest fire. It felt like Styrofoam.

My dad and brother arrived in Yellowstone this morning and on our first drive to Hayden Valley we not only found ourselves in the midst of a bison herd, but we also got to see wolves. Hells yeah. More on their visit to come.

Bozeman and Bears. Wolves too.

So yesterday three Czech girls, Bada, Mischa, and Mirka, and I went to Bozeman, MT. They were shopping, I was picking up some things from Wal-Mart and the like that I needed. Despite the fact that it was hot, it was a nice day and an even nicer drive.

Once back in the park, instead of taking the way we took to get to Bozeman, I took a different and longer route figuring that we might have a chance to see some more wildlife. Boy was I right. After eating eating in Mammoth, we set out towards Tower-Roosevelt and not more than 3 miles East of Mammoth we came across a big traffic jam with people getting out of their cars right in the middle of the road. I said to the girls, "This is a bear." Well I was partially right as it was just one bear, but a sow black bear and her two cubs! The sow was pretty small but totally unafraid of the people who were only 40 yards away. Her cubs were playing around and one even went up a tree!




After that awesome encounter we continued onward and just South of Tower we say another group of people stopped along side the road, and it was another bear. But I only saw the butt of this one for about 2 seconds before it disappeared into forest so no pictures.

Then about 15 minutes later on our drive up the side of Mt. Washburn we see even more people stopped on the side of the road. Now I knew ahead of time that this area is great for seeing grizzlies, at a distance, so I figured it was one of them. It was but unfortunately not 3 minutes before we got there the grizzly had gone into some trees and couldn't be seen. We waited 15 minutes, but saw nothing so we moved on.

About 30 minutes after that we were driving through the beginning of Hayden Valley just south of Canyon. This is the same area where I had seen the wolves last week, but from which they were supposed to have moved. We apparently they moved 2 miles further south and about a half mile off the road because as we rounded a turn I saw the kind of mass stoppage that only wolves can create. Sure enough the same wolves from last week were out in the valley across the river.

At first I only saw the two Alphas lying down which only looked like two gray patches in the grass. But then about 15 minutes after we got there, two puppies came out from the woods and began playing with each other. It was awesome. Because they were over a half mile away, I have no pictures, but through the spotting scopes that people had set up you could see them perfectly. The two I saw were both gray and black and about 25 to 30 pounds. They were very rambunctious and having a good time.

That drive home ended up being a lot more interesting than I had anticipated, hopefully I can have another one like it soon.

My Peeps

Since I've been talking about them since I've arrived, I figured that I should post up some pictures of the friends I've made since I've been here.

Here's Josh from Memphis, TN just after he's had a drink which apparently didn't agree with his stomach all that well.

Josh, 25, is a pretty cool dude who now plans on moving to Montana to finish up college.
Jen(nifer) from Billings, MT shows us how the EDR food can be used as a super strong adhesive when you need it.

Jen, 25, has become like a sister to me since I've been here as we have very similar personalities and senses of humor. Basically the two of us like to gang up on and make fun of the others, but always in good taste.

Robyn from Helena, MT hiding in a burned out tree on our Fairy Falls hike.

Robyn, at 20, is the youngest in the group and by far the most innocent and is a never ending source of laughter.

Hil(ary) from DeWitt, MI shows us the proper technique to randomly point at nothing in order to cause tourons to stop.

Hil has that typically Michigan girl attitude and doesn't take shit from nobody, which makes her an absolute blast to hang out with as she's always in a great mood.

Well they there are, me peeps in Yellowstone.

Fairy Falls

This morning my friend Robyn and I hiked to Fairy Falls, the 4th highest waterfall in the park. It was one hell of a hot hike as the temperature at 9am was already nearing 90 degrees. On the trail about a mile in we came across a bull elk who was blocking our path, and did so for fifteen minutes. We got pretty close to him too, but he didn't seem to mind our presence.






Just a bit past Fairy Falls was Spray Geyser which is a peculiar little thing as it never gets more than 6 or 8 feet high, but is going off continuously.

(Tom?) Riddle Lake

While no mystery, I hiked to Riddle Lake Friday morning and took some nice pictures.

Date of Photo: July 20th.

Friday night I went to the Columbian Independence Day party at our employee pub. Let's just say I had a great night and a not so great morning/early afternoon on Saturday.

Then basically Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening I began and finished reading the seventh Harry Potter book which I had delivered to me here at the park. No spoilers, except to say that it was a great ending to the series.