wolf testing bull elk

thursday in lamar

The sun starting to rise over Electric Peak as we left Gardiner at 6:00 a.m.


Spring in Yellowstone means death,


and life.




In addition to spotting a couple of grizzlies, we were extremely lucky to see this yearling wolf from the Lamar Canyon pack running alongside the road.


Last night I was back in the Lamar for a work dinner, and I saw a moose at Petrified Tree, 5 grizzlies in the valley, and a black bear near Hellroaring pullout. Just another work day here in Yellowstone...

We haven't posted in a while, which I know because my dad pointed this out to me yesterday. The past two weeks have been a little crazy--I just accepted a full-time, year-round job with the non-profit we moved out here to work for. Tomorrow I go back to a regular, M-F gig. We moved this week too, leaving behind our mountain view of Bunsen Peak for a new view of Mt. Everetts. On Thursday we moved into an apartment building, built in the 1930s, in Mammoth proper. We can now walk to the Visitor's Center, though we have to look both ways when we leave our apartment building to make sure there aren't any elk hanging out on our lawn.

Though it's October, we've had a heat wave here in the park for the past week. If it weren't for the changing colors, it would be easy to forget it's now fall. Here are a few recent shots, and we'll pick back up with the Glacier trip soon.

family fun

On Day 1 we waited till Wendie got off work before heading out to check out the Park. Since AJ had never been here before, we decided he needed the full-on tourist tour. That meant hitting the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Upper and Lower Falls right smack in the middle of the day.

Even with all the people around the Lower Falls did not disappoint

Next we drove back over Dunraven Pass and made our way to the Lamar Valley. A quick stop at Trout Lake proved fruitless for otter viewings but it did provide a lot of wildflower pics.

Our next stop was suppose to be dinner but it turned out the power in both Silver Gate and Cooke City was out ,which meant we had to head back into the Park to get some grub. This proved fortuitous since when we made it back into the valley we ran into this grizzly right along the side of the road

A little further down the road AJ got his first view of wolf, the all-white, alpha-female of the Silver Pack. We could see her through the scope as she didn't even budge when a grizzly walked up beside her and decided to lie down right behind her.

We got up early on Day 2 and headed for Grand Teton National Park. We broke up the journey with some stops here and there.
Down in Hayden Valley we got a quick eye-full of a black wolf before we made our way to Mud Volcano and, next, West Thumb Geyser Basin, where Fishing Cone Geyser was still underwater

while Black Pool looked bottomless in the early morning light.

Cruising into the Tetons we grabbed a tent-site at Signal Mountain and then headed to Taggert Lake to do a hike.

The trail cut over a small cascade and through some pretty alpine meadows

and afforded us some great views of the mountains

We made sure to snap off some family photos for Marilyn


(can you tell which brother doesn't tan well?)

After some wilderness time we hit the big city (relatively) of Jackson, WY. As all first timers must do, we made AJ have a beer while sitting in one of the saddle barstools at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

Our reward for a long day of driving and hiking came in the form of some surprisingly good (and spicy) Thai food.

On our way back to our campsite we stopped off at the Mormon
homestead to try to get the iconic photo of the Tetons with the old barn in the foreground. Sadly, a haze from a fire burning over by Jenny Lake put a blanket over the mountains in the background.

The next day we were again up early. Though we didn't see a moose and missed a bear on Signal Mountain by just a couple minutes, we did have the perfect morning light to snap off some farewell shots of the Tetons.

turf

This morning Wendie got word at the Visitors Center that there was a wolf close to the road halfway between Mammoth and Gardiner. On my first drive-by I only saw a coyote, so an hour later I went by again and this time saw what all the commotion was about. About 120 feet from the road, feeding on a fresh elk kill, was one of the Canyons.

He was sharing the carcass with a mess of ravens

It took him a while to get use to all the people snapping his photo but soon he was posing for the cameras

(We went back later in the evening and tried to videotape him pulling the carcass out of the river. If it turns out, we'll post it tomorrow.)

After the wolf jam, I headed to Gardiner to go for a run on the track at the high school. It was snowing a bit and there was about a 30 mph wind so I figured it would be easier to drop 800 feet in altitude and do laps than run up and down the hills in the Park. All was well for about 2 miles until a young bull elk decided the track was his turf.

He gave me the what-for on my first two passes, but on my third lap by him he left the football field and literally chased me off the track.

Needless to say I had to finish my next couple miles running the Old Gardiner Road and the road near the Roosevelt Arch. I could only imagine what Claire would have done to this guy if he had the gall to eat the SportsTurf at WHS or leave his mark on the running track...

...probably something like the wolf did to the elk he was eating.

After dinner, went to check out the wolf again so Wendie could see it, and then we drove up the hill behind our house. Wendie was delighted to find out this is a great place to see rabbits (or more likely, hares). We spotted four including this guy

Luckily they were all too quick for Wendie to catch and bring home to live with us.