Yellowstone Expedition Guide, a great purchase

When you think of Yellowstone National Park, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? If it's not the first thing, it's most likely the second thing, it's Old Faithful.
and if someone asked you what was the next most identifiable part of the park, and you didn't answer, bison, bears, wolves, and elk, it probably would be the Grand Canyon and the Canyon Falls.

Having owned property just 35 miles from the park for almost 20 years, Marty and I have been frequent visitors, we've done most of the things that can be done and have seen most of the places and things to be seen. However, things have changed since our July 8th visit. Marty purchased the Yellowstone Expedition Guide at the Yellowstone Association store in Gardiner. Since then, and 2 visits later things have changed. The guide is almost 300 pages long and includes a CD featuring 14 narratives about Yellowstone. The guide has been our companion for the last 2 trips, this is what it looks like, and if you are coming to Yellowstone, stop by one of the Yellowstone Association stores and get a copy, it will be well worth it.

Here are a couple examples of how it has changed our touring of the park. Typically we would enter either at Cooke City or Gardiner, we never missed the Lamar Valley and depending upon the amount of time we have to tour, we would see most or all of the park. But this is how things have changed. We had just left the Canyon area when Marty said to look for LeHardy's Rapids. The "most exciting rapids" in the park where native cutthroat trout leap over the rapids on their way to spawning. We have passed the rapids at least 50 times, never stopping, but this day we did. The trout had already made the trip to their spawning grounds, but look what we saw at the rapids. That's right, pelicans. They were fishing the rapids and after a tough trip through them, they would rest on this island.

As we started down the road to "artists point" for the classic view you have already seen, Marty said we should stop at Uncle Tom's Trail. So what is that I asked? It is a trail that originated in 1898 along the falls. Today it is known as the 328 steps down to the base of the falls and it feels like 2,ooo steps up to where you parked your car. We did the trip, had to make several stops on the way back to rest. The scene was beautiful and exciting. This was a photograph taken close to the bottom of the falls.
Old Faithful was next. We've been there many times as well, and as usual I was trying to get there as soon as I could to be sure we would see the next eruption of Old Faithful. Not so fast Clint, slow down and turn into the Firehole Lake Drive. What's there? I don't think it's a short cut to the geyser. No, but there are a couple of well know geyers there. The Great Fountain Geyser was first and the White Dome Geyser was next. Total drive was 5 miles, a another part of the scenic park we had missed for 19 years.

The day we purchased the guide, we had been in Lamar Valley, and observed an osprey sitting on a nest. With my tripod and camera, I intermittently hiked and took pictures until I though I was about to disturb the female on her nest. When I got home, I tried to make something out of the photos, you knew they were ospreys, the old man was in the background and out of focus, and I could not see any young osprey in the nests. Two weeks later, we returned and I was determined to get a better picture. We started across the field and within 5 steps from the car, mama osprey left the nest. 10 days later, we're back on the scene. This time I got the pictures I had been hoping for. I didn't know until I got home and put the images on the computer that there were 2 youngsters and they looked large enough to soon leave the nest with mom.

I'm sure you will hear more about what we've learned and new experiences as we plan to visit the park again in about a month.

The birth of a new season

Our most current trip to Yellowstone National Park started on June 7th. We arrived via the Beartooth Highway and were overcome by the amount of snow that still existed at the top of the mountains. We traveled thru the Lamar Valley and arrived at our destination, Chico Hot Springs for dinner and a dip in the hot springs. We returned to Yellowstone on the 8th and had just passed through the northwest entrance, on our way to Mammoth Hot Springs, when we noticed a single car parked along the side of the road looking into the rocky slope. The image that you see, is what they were watching.
A herd of Big Horn sheep and their 2010 crop of babies were strolling along the rocky ledges. The young ones were having fun, jumping ahead while the mothers tried to lead them along the cliffs. I soon discovered 3 of them had found a nice big rock as a platform. I immediately took this photograph as it was only seconds later that they had jumped off the ledge and were running around the slopes. They are very sure footed to maintain their position on the side of the rocky mountains.
On to Mammoth. We were out of coffee and we needed to take a pit stop before we ventured south toward Lake Yellowstone. I missed the turn and as I attempted to correct my error I noticed a lot of people with cameras on the street ahead. Not wanting to miss anything exciting, I drove on to find that a female elk had just given birth to a fawn. Immediately, I parked the car grabbed my camera and starting taking pictures. We observed most of the things that happen during the birthing process and I took close to 75 photographs recording the various events. The next three were our favorites. This is the young calf, moments after it's birth, attempting to get up as it's mother licked it to give it strength and encouragement. I labeled this, "I love you Mom"
Soon after there was another new arrival at the scene, of course there were more people as the word spread of the fawn's arrival, but this arrival was not a twin, it was a magpie. They do have a symbiotic relationship with elk and we soon observed the real reason for it's being there was to help get rid of the afterbirth. Hopefully, this would prevent wolves and bears from getting the scent and perhaps attacking mom and the new fawn. I'm not sure if the mother was inviting the magpie, introducing it to the fawn, or hoping with would leave.
The next order of business was for the calf to get enough strength to stand up and get some nourishment. The calf was quite awkward and it took some time for it to maintain it's balance long enough that it could get near mother's milk and have it's first meal. This is usually the first critical step in the life of the newborn, and this youngster passed the test as seen in this picture.
Before the day was over, we saw something new on something old. Each year the bull elk lose their antlers in the late winter, early spring and soon the growth of the new antlers begins. This guy is very proud of his new growth and is looking forward to sparring with his fellow bull elk to then earn the right to sire some calves for the 2011 season.
It was a great trip, Yellowstone abounds with other new life and another year of tourists.

April what brings May flowers?

I started to the barn this morning to spread the manure. This is not the correct answer to the question, because I have to spread the manure in pastures far enough from the house that there is not an after effect. It was not raining, it was too cold for the flower seeds to hatch, it was too cloudy to get any germination, yet I still had to spread the manure and it was April 30th. This is what I saw . . . . .


and yes, I had to hook up the tractor to the spreader and drive thru 30 MPH winds with a wind chill of 10 above, because there was more manure to be cleaned out of the barns. So you say, that wasn't much snow. How about going to the other side of the barn, the south side toward the mountains and take a look at the Beartooth. As you can see, the visibility was less than a mile. The only good news is, we needed the moisture and there has been a lack of snow in the mountains, which means the rivers and streams will be lower than usual, but good for fishing.
See you in May.

Controlling the robins during mating season

In an earlier post, I made comment about the robins pecking on our windows. I wasn't sure the motivation, so I studied the problem. It goes like this. In the spring, prior to the female robin laying her eggs, the male is in a very protective mood. He may see his image, ie: a reflection in a window glass and thinks it is a competitor infringing on his territory. Being protective, he attacks the image expecting the competitor to leave. This goes on until there is not reflection or the female has settled in her nest and has laid so eggs. This becomes very distracting when you are inside the house and they start attacking at sunrise, and throughout the day, or until there is no reflection. This is what Clint did to end this foolishness.

If you can see my reflection in our bedroom window as I'm taking this picture, you can be assured that the robin saw his as well. The difference is, there is a photograph of a crow that has been printed and pasted to the window. The robin said,"this is not a friendly picture" as he saw his own image in the window. The robin left and went to another window. We now have crow prints on all windows which he thought was his territory. No more pecking on the windows.

Proof of the eating is in the pudding, they say. Well, in years past there have been several robin nests around the house which I was not allowed to destroy until the young robins had fled the nest. There are no new nests. Thank you Mr. Crow.