SV! Day 14

Friday 27 June 2014

This is the famous ice cream brand sold here in Yellowstone. I plan to indulge on the Fourth. Took a loooooong nap today. :)

SV! Day 13

Thursday 26 June 2014
Saw two different black bears today! The first black bear was actually black. Such a cute face. "Are all of you people looking at ME???" Ahem. Sorry. Black bears are wild and dangerous. Got carried away there for a second.

The second black bear was actually a lighter brown color, but still a black bear, NOT a grizzly bear. He was digging and digging and digging. Hungry fella!

SV! Day 12

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Got to VOLUNTEER today!!! It was fun! We hauled old boards from Mud Volcano to the dump truck. We were working with three scouts troops from Laredo, Texas--great bunch of kids!!! Ranger Tom, Ranger Rita, Volunteer Siri, Volunteer Susan...and no pictures of myself. I ended up hiking 24 bottles of water up those steep slopes (and pushing a wheel barrow up and carrying planks down) and at the end when the sprained ankle and the slivers and everything else came crashing down at once (the kids, not me), it turns out I was the only one with a first aid kit! Tweezers, gauze, triple antibiotic cream, ice pack, ankle wrap... So, yeah, I saved the day. Pretty much.

Wish you could have seen the circumference of that fresh bison patty. And it looks like a bison knows a great bison beach when he sees one. Who cares if the water is 130 degrees and has the acidity of battery acid...it's just perfect.

SV! Day 11

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Woke up next to the Madison River to the tune of sandhill cranes chatting over morning coffee. Seriously. Worse than roosters if you ask me. No pictures of them however, so you get more bison. I can't help it.

SV! Day 10

Monday 23 June 2014

Pronghorn in the mist! We saw so many of these guys today--could really go for a good antelope steak... We hiked to Sparrow Ponds after visiting with several volunteers at the VC. We drove another 57 miles on a dirt Forest Service road which spit us out in the Ruby Mountains near Alder, Montana--scared up a couple of different foxes on the way.

Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

Went to church in West Yellowstone, Montana and then drove out past Henry's Lake to take a long dirt road to the refuge. RAIN! Holy SMOKES did it rain! But finally things calmed down and we camped in the middle of the marsh.

When the Guys Come to Mow the Lawn

Saturday 21 June 2014

We just love it when we get visitors even if they are bison who are only interested in yard work! It's fun to hear them rip the grass out of the ground, chew, grunt, and breathe. I went on K's boat tour and the lake was like glass. I stopped in at the backcountry office and photographed some funny stories from their timeline. Pelicans are popular here.

SV! Day 9

Friday 20 June 2014

I am officially in love with the Glacier Lily. It seems to rival my adoration for Columbine.

Saw a grizzly on my way to workout this morning...

After K got off work we did a three mile round trip hike to Natural Bridge. It was a fun little climb up there and across the water! Every night is Date Night with my ranger!

SV! Day 8

Thursday 19 June 2014

Went on K's Storm Point hike. At the end we popped out of the forest and back into the meadow where we saw Mr. Bison who was not there when we had passed by earlier...

SV! Day 7

Wednesday 18 June 2014

More snow today, however, nothing seems to phase the bison too much. They have a very clear agenda. Sometimes I imagine them asking themselves, "What's the next step in my life? I think I'll eat grass!"

I read a lot today so thought I would drive to Mary Bay. Drove right into a bison jam! The Law Enforcement (LE) Ranger has serious SKILLZ when it comes to using his microphone and loudspeaker to get the beasts to move! He makes up all manor of clucks and grunts and huffs in order to get them to move off the road. I wonder what the training was like for that very specific job skill...and who wrote the SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures)? I love the little red dogs!

SV! Day 6

Tuesday 17 June 2014

A day of cleaning and chores. Walked at Mud Volcano. Snow is still melting so some of the picnic tables are having a hard time making themselves available.

SV! Day 5

Monday 16 June 2014

Bighorn Canyon has a herd of wild horses and we were lucky to see and photograph four of them. I just love the portrait I got of this handsome stud. We hiked 2-3 different trails this morning and one of them featured some superb echoing so we yelled our heads off at the appropriate place and enjoyed ourselves immensely. The Bighorn Sheep could have cared less that we were photographing them. They just turned their butts to us and kept right on grazing. We got buzzed by a rattlesnake so I whipped my camera out, but it had already slithered under a bush. Darn. On our way back into Cody we stopped at Heart Mountain, a Japanese refinement camp (not internment and not confinement). The VC is so well done! You should go. Last stop before heading back into the park was for one item at Wal-Mart so I opted to stay in the car. As soon as K headed in, a microburst hit, and WHAM! We had a Wal-Mart plastic sack stuck to the antenna of our vehicle while sitting in a Wal-Mart parking lot! What are the chances???
K really wanted to see some of those horses! He was bummed that his family got to see them last August, but we didn't. So when it was my turn to pray I asked for it! And when we saw them, I said, "See? An answer to prayer!" So then he asked me to pray for permanent status.