the week in review

Sorry we've been MIA this past week. As we kick off the season here, it's been an intense few days with training and the like...

On Tuesday we all went to NPS interpretive training to hear from the various experts about bears, wolves, fire, the Lake Trout invasion, etc. It was a great day, but our head was spinning with information by the end of it, and we were reminded just how many species call this park home.


On Wednesday I set off with my district (northern) on a private tour of the park. We left Gardiner at 6 a.m., and quickly came upon a grizzly jam at Blacktail Lakes. There's been a bison carcass in the water for the past month, and we've been waiting for some action on it. A sow and yearling cub were just headed up towards the trees when we arrived, having finished their breakfast. We ended up seeing 7 bears on our tour, including a sow grizzly with a cub-0f-the-year (COY) who was trying to defend the cub from a huge boar grizzly. She tucked him in the treeline and fought with the male bear until he finally gave up and wandered away. She was frantically trying to find the cub, and we all cheered when she found him and they headed over the mountain together.

Steve had his private tour with his district (Canyon, Norris, Fishing Bridge) on Thursday. They saw just birds.

On Friday Steve had a meeting in Canyon, so I decided to tag along because Dunraven Pass was set to open at 8 a.m. We didn't get far before we got caught in a black bear jam at Calcite Springs:


It was great to see snowy Mt. Washburn again.


On Friday evening we set out for Old Faithful to spend the night and visit with friends. About a mile up the road we got caught in a massive bear jam--a grizz with four cubs was visible in the trees below. A grizz with four cubs is pretty rare. This bear was first spotted a month ago, and it's great to know she still has them all with her, as the 4th cub is a tiny, tiny little thing. These aren't great photos by any means, but you can count 4 little blobs.



When we woke up at Old Faithful on Saturday morning there was snow on the ground. We drove over to breakfast at the snow lodge, and I pointed out a coyote on the geyser basin. And then we all said "that's a really big coyote!" Oh wait, it was a gray wolf! Very cool to see him for a minute before he disappeared in the steam.

The season is underway, and this week we saw a big increase in park visitor's. The hours at the Visitor's Center (VC) changed on Saturday, we're now open from 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. It would feel like the summer season was underway...but it's still snowing!! Two inches on our porch when I looked out the window this morning. Sigh.