4th of July

 Happy 4th of July. I am updating my blog this evening as this has been an incredible week for wildlife. There won't be a lot of text, but the photos, with brief captions, says it all.

During my tour on Thursday we saw 5 adult and three grizzly cubs, two wolves, a coyote, marmots, osprey, bison and elk. That is my bear record for one day. Although the sow and cubs were a long ways a way, some of the others were quite close. I usually do not photograph during my tours, but one guest had a Nikon and was regretting not having a longer lens. I loaned him mine which was in the luggage area of the Historic Yellow Bus. Since I had it out, I took some shots too.

After the first four grizzlies, I was headed to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, hoping to make it for the rainbow in the Lower Falls. This time of year it is spectacular but the sun angle is only good for about 15 minutes.

When we got to Hayden Valley I could see we would not make it due to the huge traffic jam. However, that turned out to be two wolves on a carcass, grizzly sow and three cubs across the creek, waiting, and a coyote circling, hoping everyone else would leave so he\she could have a chance at the leftovers. I believe the bear made the kill, but she may have ceded to the wolves as fighting them off would have made her cubs vulnerable.

Anyway, one of the wolves left, came towards the huge crowd, being held back by rangers. But it came close enough for the view above, with a long lens. It then swam across the creek and headed toward the den, probably to regurgitate food for the pups.









Two wolves on the kill with ravens sneaking in. Coyote sniffing area where wolf had passed through minutes before. And a very distant and blown up shot of the grizzly sow with her triplets.











One of the grizzlies along the north side of the lake, digging for roots or grubs.

The cutthroat trout are spawning. Their journey to the spawning grounds includes getting over Le Hardy Rapids, no mean feat in this year of abundant water. The river is running high and hard. Took almost an hour and used up a 4 GB card to get just two acceptable photos of fish in the air.
Cutthroat Trout are our native species, but in trouble now as someone put Lake Trout in Yellowstone Lake and numbers have plummeted.

Summer arrived almost in concert with the solstice. I didn't get any photos of our most numerous and ubiquitous summer species, the mosquito.

Summer also means thunderstorms. This one was on my way home from two days working at Old Faithful.

Lots of spring rain creates cascades of water along the East Road going to Cody. The sun was on the scene when I went over early one morning to do shopping and get my hair cut. Actually the last blog posting was from Cody after I saw this rainbow.

View from Lake Butte Overlook. I went up several times hoping for more shots of the Blue Grouse. The evening I took this shot, it was a consolation for not seeing the grouse.

Blue Grouse courting. He puffs up his chest,
showing the red region, fans out his tail
and makes a thumping noise. The hens did not look very impressed, at least at that time, and kept on eating and wandering away from him.

Lady Slippers or Fairy slippers, depending on where and who you talk to. These were at the end of their bloom when I finally got over to see them. They are growing on the trail from the dorms to Lake Hotel.

I took a weekend trip to Red Lodge with the two Pat's (one is in charge of the post office here, the other is in housekeeping). We went over Beartooth Pass, explored around Red Lodge, Rosebud Lake, Roscoe where we had a great dinner, Belfry, Powell (site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp during WW II..there wasn't time that day to visit, but I plan to go back), and back via Cody. While we didn't see a lot of wildlife, we did well on flowers. Sago Lily above right,

Prairie Smoke left.

In the Beartooth Mountains, right, with alpine flowers in the foreground. Tiny, rock hugging flowers, they defy the winds and cold temperatures at just under 11,000 feet elevation.

the tiny little sharp point, about two thirds from the left of the photo in the saddle of the range, is the "beartooth."

Marmots are common in the Beartooths......and in much of Yellowstone as well.




And what exploration outside the park would be complete without a little mining history, especially for this old Bodie guide and resident. This was a copper mine area. We tried to get to the old stamp mill for Cooke City area but snow blocked the way. However, I now know I can get close enough in my low clearance Toyota to make the trip. I will hike part way but I had been told I could not get within range. Obviously I can...AND WILL.

This blog program is frustrating as the layout I put together and which shows on my computer before I hit the save and send buttons is not what shows up on the blog site. I just hope it isn't too fractured this time.

Solstice Gallery

Spring means baby animals in the park. Here a bison calf nurses behind steam from a geothermal feature.

morning along the Madison River \ right: Glacier Lily, one of the early blooms.

elk in velvet.  Antlers are grown each year by the males.  The velvet will come off and the antlers will be shiny and sharp by the rut season

Arnica Fire, Sept 2010 with new spring growth.

Across Yellowstone Lake with Lake Hotel on the shore

Another view of the Lake. The ice does not break up until early June, with some chunks along the north shore until the middle of the month

stormy day along the Firehole River, hot runoff from Midway Geyser Basin.

hot spring in Midway Geyser Basin. Stormy sky is the same storm which included lightening on the boardwalk at Old Faithful, striking\affecting visitors, none fatally fortunately.

Thermophiles, microscopic organisms grow in hot water in some of the springs and in the runoff. It creates large mats in variety of colors. This is a mat at Grand Prismatic, the spring with the largest surface area in the park, and third largest in the world. The two bigger ones are in New Zealand

Excelsior Geyser, which last went off in the mid 1980s, after being dormant since 1901.

Grizzly. this is probably a three year old female. She spent a couple of hours digging in this small area right next to the road. It was an extremely cold day, with snow flurries. My guests didn't want to leave the bus and subject themselves to the wind. This was great as they could photograph from the bus. Some snow blew in thru open windows, but we had enough protection to make this an exciting experience for the guests. I seldom photograph during the tours, but we were here a long time so I photographed over the shoulder of a guest for part of out stay there.

Calf and bison cow. The young are often called "red dogs" As the summer goes on, the coat will darken to match the adults.

The photos were not taken on the Solstice, but they are all late May\June photos and are being loaded on the blog on the Solstice.

I am sitting in a coffee place in Cody, Wy, looking out the window on the old Irma Hotel, built by Buffalo Bill Cody. This is my first "city" day since arriving in Yellowstone the third week of May. My refrigerator is empty, I needed a hair cut, and have some other errands to run.

 

Spring in Yellowstone

Swainson's Hawk

It is a typical June in Yellowstone. Yesterday the high was 41F with a sharp wind that made it feel far colder. We had snow flurries all day. Today the sun is out, the morning was calm, although there is a slight breeze this afternoon, and folks are in shirtsleeves and shorts.

It was a mild winter in Yellowstone but spring has been wet. The snow is long since gone from the ground and Yellowstone Lake lost the last of its ice just over a week ago.

It is good to be back. This is my third season and the return is like coming home; warm greetings from all the people I met in the past years, familiarity with the place, stepping back into my job as photo guide/historic yellow bus driver.

I have no internet connection at my motorhome at Yellowstone Lake, where I am located most of the time. I am using my little Acer notebook on my days at Old Faithful, where my aircard works, to do my email. My schedule is to work at Old Faithful two days a week, followed by two at Lake and then a three day weekend. but I've not had a normal week yet due to some flaky new hires who quit (without notice, just skipped out in the night without telling anyone), some illnesses, and one pre-scheduled time -off so another driver could attend a family event. I've driven tours other than the photo tours, which meant some quick reading up on details of some of the geo-thermal features and history of the Lake Hotel.

However, I look forward to three days off beginning Sunday. My hair is shaggy and places to get it cut are distant. I also need a real grocery store, hardware store and place to get a few photos printed as examples of photo theories and tips.

This is the time of year of baby animals, roaring water in the falls, and the beginning of wildflower season. I'll transfer some of the photos from the larger laptop to this very portable device and get them posted for everyone to see within the next week to ten days. The only photos in this posting are of a Swainson's Hawk I saw on my drive from Lake to Old Faithful yesterday, the only images on my camera. I could have waited until everything was ready, but getting an update out on my whereabouts and activities seemed like a good idea, especially as a few of you have noted the long break since the last posting.