what big feet you have!

Today was another warm, sunny day in the park. It was also my first official day of work. I visited with park guests all day, agreeing that the weather was beautiful and hearing about multiple grizzly sightings near Gibbon Meadows. The elk have been enjoying the balmy weather too, and can often be found relaxing around Mammoth (here they are at the clinic):

It can be hard to hear about everything that's going on when you can't go outside, but luckily we were able to take advantage of the weather and get outside over the weekend.

Saturday morning, after our customary coconut pancakes, we jumped in the car and headed down the road into Montana so Steve could get a bit of fishing in. Another day, another Montana Whitefish:


In the afternoon we met up with our friend and decide to head out on our first hike of the season. After much debate, we decide to hike the Garnet Hill loop trail,


which is an eight-mile loop near Tower Junction that none of us had done before.

Right after we set off we saw a tiny coyote running across the field,


and found this skull in the grass.


The trail starts off in open sagebrush


and then winds between the mountains and along the Yellowstone River. The trail was still muddy and wet in many places, and there were coyote, badger, bison, elk, and wolf prints on the trail. And a few grizzly prints--for comparison, that's a men's size 11 boot next to the print.


As we rounded a bend in the trail we found the skeletal remains of an elk along the creek; not, as Steve pointed out, a bad place to enjoy one's dinner, if one was a bear.


There were signs of spring on the trail too.


Soon we climbed high enough that we could see the Yellowstone River below--and the boys made plans to come back and fish later in the season.


The trail climbs along the Yellowstone for another mile, and then veers south and up...


and finally flattening out again.


In the midst of all the sagebrush we spotted this Mountain Bluebird,


and then had to take a couple of detours around a herd of bison that decided the best place to rest was in the middle of the trail.


For the mothers' reading this: the grizzly prints weren't fresh and were traveling in the opposite direction that we were. And we were carrying bear spray and making a lot of noise. (I'm sure you'll sleep better knowing this).

We've only seen one bear at a distance, through our binoculars, but they are definitely out and about and more and more sightings are reported daily. We've also heard reports that bison in the Lamar Valley have started having babies, hopefully I'll get out there later in the week on my day off.