June 20, 2012

Greetings again from Yellowstone. 
 Another couple pictures of bison jams.  We have been stopped for up to 45 minutes while letting the beasts past.  Lots of babies (red dogs) this time of year.  You feel safe sitting in your car watching them go by but there was an incident this season with a family sitting in their car watching a herd, something spooked the herd and they ran up and over the car.  No one was injured but the car was totaled. 





 Caught this momma coyote feeding on a baby elk carcass.   She would get her fill and run over to her den which was approximately 30 feet away in the bank and regurgitate the food to her pups.  She did this a number of times with the pups waiting anxiously for their meal.  They would come out of the den a few feet and she would turn and bark at them and they would duck back in the den.  Of course it caused a major traffic jam.  The ranger is a gentleman we met last year through a mutual friend.  He and his wife work out of the Canyon area. 

 We tried our hands at fishing this weekend in Yellowstone Lake.  We caught four lake trout.  There is no limit on this fish because they are endangering the native cutthroat trout and the park service wants you to take as many out of the lake at possible.  Actually you are not allowed to put them back into the lake unless you kill them first.  But they have found a new home in our freezer.  The restaurants here will fix them for you so we will give them a try.  The biggest was 24" long.  Jim was quite proud of that one.  It was a cold blustery day so we didn't stay too long but were fishing near a couple from Oklahoma that had been there awhile and think they had a couple dozen.
 Took one of our many driving tours up through the Lamar Valley on the north side of the park where we spotted a mountain goat and a kid.  They were too far away to get a picture but it was exciting because they are pretty hard to find in the park and pretty elusive.  We drove out the north entrance to Cooke City which is an old mining town.  Thought the old ramshackle houses were interesting.  They looked like some of the originals from the 1800's and some obviously still inhabited.  We liked the one with the board over the window - bear proofing.

More to come

Ann & Jim

Yellowstone update June 11, 2012

Took a hike to Lonestar Geyser on Tuesday, May 29th.  It is a 2.5 mile trail back to the geyser along the Firehole River.  Quite a scenic and luckily flat walk.  The geyser erupts approximately every 3 hours and last for 30 minutes so it is chancy getting to see it go off.  We had to wait about one hour for the eruption but it was well worth waiting for.  The cone on the geyser is 10-12 feet tall and we have been told that it takes about 100 years for an inch of the cone material to build up.  The scenery along the river is just beautiful and there was still some snow on the path in some shady spots. The steam and water in the eruption goes up 50-70 feet and it makes
 quite a noise.  Met a young man from China there.  He is working in the Old Faithful Lodge also in the cafeteria.  He had hiked out by himself and we gave him a ride back so he could be at work on time.  Said no one in China would offer to do anything like that and that was why he loves America.
















 On Sunday, June 2nd, we went to Jenny Lake in the Tetons with a group from our dorm, rode the boat across the lake and hiked the Inspiration Point trail.  They had to hold the boats departure up for a few minutes until a bear left the dock on the other side of the lake.  It is 2.9 miles from where the boat drops you off, up a very secnic and steep trail - over 600 feet in elevation rise.  Most of the first part of the trail is along side a river and up past Cascade Falls.  This is some of the most beautiful country we have hiked in this area with the Tetons surrounding you on all sides.  At Inspiration Point, Jim and I headed back down the trail while the rest of the group continued on into Cascade canyon.  Jim and I took the 2.5 mile trail around the lake back to the boat dock where we once again met up with the group.  We all continued on into Jackson Hole and had dinner at the Silver Dollar bar in the the historic Wort Hotel just off the square.  It was nice to be eating off real plates as opposed to the cafeteria trays.  Got a couple good close ups of some of the critters we encountered.  We know the one is a yellowbelly marmot but we're not sure what the black one is yet.  Sure looks like a marmot but we need to check with the naturalist to see if they come in black. They seemed pretty used to people nearby on the trail.  And finally a couple views of Grand Tetons from the trail. 








































































And last but not least a couple pics of the Upper Geyser Basin here by Old Faithful  -  Morning Glory Pool, Groto Geyser and Castle Geyser which we were able to catch going off for the first time.  It erupts about every 12 hours and lasts for 30-45 minutes.  Quite an awesome sight.








Hope you enjoy seeing our photos as much as we enjoy taking them.  More to come soon.

Ann and Jim

3rd time is the charm

 Again the pictures did not get posted.  Hope it works this time.  Needless to say our internet connection is not the greatest in Yellowstone as we experienced last year.
Jim & Ann