Yellowstone Summer?

It is good to be back in Yellowstone for another season, seeing old friends, meeting new folks, enjoying the wildlife, especially the newborns.

It also means missing some folks who didn't return this season but knowing we will stay in touch and see each other as I have with fellow employees at places like Bodie and Glacier and Minkalo.

There is a question mark in the title for a reason. Here it is Memorial Day and I am looking out my window at a white world as thick snow continues to fall. Road closures have been a constant and Dunraven Pass hasn't opened yet this year. Ice and snow periodically ( almost every day, for a portion of the day) closes some roads. Another pass closes after 10 am each day until late at night due to avalanche threat when the snow begins to warm. Still another is closed due to a rock slide. You can click on photos to enlarge them for viewing.

RVers should enjoy the little cave for my sewer connection.

That's not a snowbank; that's my car.



Spring is the time for new life. Grizzly sow and cub and mallards.






Sunset from Steamboat Point, across Yellowstone Lake



Hayden Valley




As I load these photos onto the blog I am reminded that the sun has come out a few times since my arrival. Perhaps not for long, but with fairly dramatic effects.





This grizzly is working over an old carcass. It is common for ravens to move in on the spoils of someonelse's hunt.








Where there are bears there are bear watchers and photographers.
This is the same general area and the same bear as the two photos above, but this time it was further from the road and I couldn't get a good photo so I opted to photograph the photographers many of whom have lenses that cost as much as a season's earnings for me.


Driving Yellowstone's roads means sharing them.

Winter snows collapsed the service center repair facility at Fishing Bridge.

Lake Hotel ready for guests. We miss Ted standing by the door. Not opening it perhaps, but with a ready smile for guests and employees alike. Hey Ted, hear there is even more snow at Crater Lake. Happy digging.



Long afternoon shadows on Pelican Creek and marsh.