Final trip to Yellowstone, part 2

After doing the bison thing in Hayden Valley, we continued on around Yellowstone Lake, and headed towards Old Faithful.
 We were joined at our picnic lunch near the Continental Divide by this raven.  You know, it’s hard to get a good picture of an all black bird with his black eyes closed shut.  :(  These are pretty crafty birds, and I’m sure he was just waiting to see if we left any scraps behind after our lunch.  No way, Jose!  This is a national park and bear country.  No scraps for you today.  :)
After getting to the summit of Craig Pass (8262’) we stopped at Isa Lake, which was covered with blooming lily pads.
Wouldn’t this have been a great place to see a moose?  No such luck.

As we zoomed past the Old Faithful exit and continued down the road to Madison, I decided to take the Fire Hole Lake Drive one more time.  There are plenty of geysers to view along the way, but none were erupting this time.
I chose, instead, to get some pictures of the colorful outlet from Firehole Lake.  That white stuff is not snow, but mineral deposits left from the hot springs.  If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see the imprints left by bison as they visit here.

Further on, I took another detour down Fountain Flat Drive.  There were two nice female elk grazing by the roadside.  Wouldn’t you know, that two young Asian fellows decided to walk up to the elk for a picture.  What were they thinking?
The elk, of course, decided to move on and get out of Dodge.  I guess I’ve had enough of people encroaching on the lives of these animals.  :(   STAY IN YOUR CAR!!!

I made a good amount of progress on my getting ready to roll chores today.  Jim, my neighbor, was a great amount of help as we checked out my new air compressor and pumped up the tires of the rig and toad.  The compressor performed perfectly, but what a hassle it was on several of the rig’s tires to even get a reading on the pressure gauge. The two outer tires on my dual tires on the back are so hard to get to the tire stems that I’m not sure I can do that myself.  :(
I don’t think I have the strength or long enough arms to do what he did today.  I also got the outside rug aired and packed up, and put the Blue Ox toad hitch back on the rig, among other things.  Tomorrow I’ll tackle all the inside stuff, do laundry, and unhook everything except the electrical cord.  I should be out of here pretty quick on Monday  morning.  :)

I did receive an email today from one of my readers telling me that I was way off base with thanking Teddy Roosevelt for helping to establish Yellowstone National Park.  Turns out he was only 14 at the time, and certainly wasn't in office yet!  Oops!  Guess I'd better check my details before making a statement like that again.  :(  Thanks Grant, for setting me straight.  :)

I leave you with one last parting shot of Yellowstone…
                                                                   THE END!!!

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

A Bountiful Burgeoning of Bellowing Bison :)

Oh what a time I had today!  After checking my comments, and seeing that the vast majority of you felt I should give Yellowstone one more try, Emma and I hit the road just before 7:00.  You can bet that I checked the camera three times to be sure everything was in order.  :)

I was feeling a little disappointed as I entered the Hayden Valley, and no bison were in sight.  For the last month I’ve literally seen hundreds of bison carpeting the floor of the valley.  Maybe I was just a bit early?  Eventually, they began to appear.  I went up and down that section of the road three times, but I’m sure glad I did.  I learned a lot.

It seems to me that there is a ritual that these male bison go through during the rutting season, and I was able to see it unfold before me.  If you’re a male bison, here’s what you do…
After giving a few good guttural bellows at a chosen dust bath location, go down in the fine dust and begin to roll.
Face and neck first, and then one side while kicking up dust to coat the outer side.
Then roll your head around to get the back of your neck.
And then, onto your back with your feet in the air so that white dust covers you everywhere!
Then, sit still for a minute as the dust settles before getting up and shaking like a dog.
Once that’s all over with, start bellowing again.  :)  Be sure to stick your tongue out.
If a good looking lady walks by, follow her!  Notice how much larger the males are than the females?
Give her a sniff, and lick your lips.
If she tries to give you the slip, run after her!  :)

I’m sure glad I went back for one last trip through this amazing National Park.  It was our first National Park, you know, and I’m so happy Teddy Roosevelt got this accomplished!
I have several other pictures from the rest of this journey, but I think I’ll save them for tomorrow.  We had one gully washer of a storm last night, and it looks like another one is on its way in a couple of minutes.  I’d better get this posted before the wifi goes out.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Every day is different…

at Yellowstone National Park.  It doesn’t seem to matter how many trips I make into Yellowstone, I see something new every time!   The skies were a blazing blue when I headed out this morning, but as I topped the pass on the way to West Yellowstone, everything became enshrouded in heavy fog.  I suppose it was from the good rain we had last night.  As I drove along the Madison River, you really couldn’t see much because of it.  So, that changed my plans.  It reversed the route I was going to take.  At the Madison Junction, I headed towards Norris, with the usual construction delay.
At least this time as I waited for 20 minutes to get through the construction, I was entertained by the antics of several chipmunks searching for delectable seeds amongst the rocks.  (remember these guys for the end of the post)

But instead of heading for Mammoth Springs, I turned right towards Canyon Junction.  At Canyon, I turned left to go over Dunraven Pass to get above the fog. 
The slopes at the top of the pass were just covered with blooms.  There was a yellow hue everywhere.
I decided to take a side trip up the Chittenden Road to the summit of Mount Washington (10,243’).
It was a very rustic gravel road with lots of holes and washboard surfaces, but well worth the drive for these views.
Below me was all the fog that I had encountered on my journey to the top.  Don’t the mountains just seem to go on and on?

As I headed back down the 6 mile, 6% grade, to the valley, there was a jam up of traffic at one of the switchbacks.  I pulled over to see what all the commotion was about.
Down below us, on the slope, was a Grizzly mom with her two cubs.  I was happy to see, because of the terrain, no one was scrambling after them to harass them to get a picture.  :)

As I neared Mammoth Hot Springs, it was swarming with visitors, and the temps had risen quite a bit, so I just pressed on south.  I couldn’t leave Emma in the car with the rising temperatures.  We stopped shortly afterward to have lunch at a picnic area that we had been to before.  There were no mosquitoes, and no other people.  Just about perfect to stretch our legs and get a little relief.  :)

Just as we reached the turn off for the petrified tree, I noticed a blur to my right and slammed on the brakes.  A black bear was hot footing it across the road with two rangers in close pursuit.  The rangers were clapping their hands and hollering at the bear to get out of the area.  The bear took their advice and headed into the brush across the road.  It all happened so fast that I couldn’t get a picture, but was an exciting moment none the less.

I hit the construction on the way back just right and only had to wait a couple of minutes before driving through the one lane passage with about 150 other vehicles.  :)  As I headed out to the west entrance, I took time to take the Madison river drive.  I have taken this drive many times on my way out of the park hoping to see something special.  Today was the day…
There was a beautiful Trumpeter Swam floating along.  This lone fellow, or gal, has been along the Madison since I arrived two months ago, but has never been close enough for a good picture.  These birds mate for life, and I can only guess that their mate died over the winter, and this bird did not find a new mate for this breeding season.  :(  Aren’t they elegant looking?

To answer a few reader’s inquiries, I now have a Canon Rebel XS, but had a Canon Rebel XT when I took the Missouri pics.  As for the Idaho mountain grass picture that I had for a header, I cropped the picture and used a slight tint.  The picture was taken shortly after dawn with a soft morning light, while I took Emma on her first outs.  I think I’ll tackle the comments from Rick and Al about uploading pictures tomorrow, as my mind right now is kind of worn out for the day.  :)
As the sunset progressed after the storm last night (from my new header picture), the colors did a dramatic change.  This was the most picturesque sunset so far at Red Rock.
                           THE END!  (hope you remember the chipmunk from earlier  :)) 

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Bozeman and butterflies

I had a long list as I headed out to Bozeman, MT, yesterday.  Besides groceries, I needed to purchase an air compressor, and I also ended up buying a printer at Wal-Mart.  It was a 230 mile round trip, without a whole lot of excitement along the way.
The raft companies where doing a good business along the Gallatin River.
I did see a nice adult bald eagle during my brief 20 mile pass through the edge of Yellowstone on US 191.

Once I  got home, a pretty strong storm blew through the valley.
It left an eerie light over the campground, and a nice rainbow lighting the mountain ridge.

Mid morning today, I took Emma for a long walk on some of the dirt roads surrounding the campground.  I brought my camera along hoping to get some more wildflower pictures.
I did get a couple, but the astounding thing was the thousands of butterflies that surrounded us.  It was like being in one of those butterfly enclosures in a zoo.
I wondered if it was because of last night’s heavy rain that there were so many on the ground.
This variety really seemed to like the Astor-like blooms. 

Maybe you can guess that I have another question about Blogger.  I changed the header picture today and I can’t figure out how to get the picture to fit the space.  If I shrink it to fit, this is what happens.  If I don’t shrink it, it is way too big and only a portion of the picture shows.  I’ve gotten such great help with my other questions, I thought I’d throw this one out for suggestions.
I’ll leave you tonight with last night’s sunset after the storm.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

The Call of the Wild

I awoke with the enthusiasm of Marlin Perkins this morning, and was ready to tackle Yellowstone’s Wild Kingdom!  :)  Of course, there was no film crew from Mutual of Omaha, but I pressed on without them.
First up was the female elk herd along the Madison River.  I don’t know why all these females don’t have young.  I guess it’s hard to find a good man.  :)  You can see that the elk on the right has a radio collar on her neck.  They are fairly easy to see along the river in the early morning.

After getting through the construction on the way to Norris Junction, I headed for Canyon.  Along the way, there was another bear jam.  Usually that means a bear is way up in the woods somewhere, and you probably need a spotting scope to see it.
But today was different.  A grizzly bear was feeding not very far from the roadway.  Of course, people were foolishly scurrying about getting closer and closer to the bear to snap a picture.  I was able to get this shot without ever leaving my car.  I just don’t understand why people will endanger themselves and their children by dragging them within feet of a wild animal.  How could you be so stupid?  And why do they have to harass the wildlife?  Ugh!
On a different, and less aggravating, note I’d like to ask you more experienced users of Picasa3 out there if you think it’s possible to eliminate this blue post in the photo.  I tried, but didn’t have any luck.  I’d appreciate your input.

After I turned right at the Canyon Junction, I decided to turn off on the South Rim loop, which I hadn’t done when my sister was here.  It lead to the overlook for the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
I took this same shot of the Lower Falls in 1970 when I was a sweet young thing and tenting across the West.  :)  I remember putting my polarized sunglasses over the lens of my point and shoot camera at that time.  It really had a dramatic effect on that long ago photo.  The myriad of colors in the rocks of this canyon is astounding.

I continued on through the Hayden valley to once again enjoy the massive bison herds.
I’m thinking this guy could use a little time at the hairdresser’s.  :)  He’s sure packing a bunch of debris.
Notice those horns already growing on these little ones.  I’ve read that bison don’t see very well, but with those big noses, they must have exceptional olfactory skills.

I’d have to say that today was a great trip into the ‘Wild Kingdom’.  This place just takes my breath away.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy