Bechler

Sunday 13 July 2014

We went to Church in West Yellowstone, Montana. Then we drove into Idaho and back to Wyoming in order to reach the Bechler Region of the park, a considerably less visited area.

Mosquito times a trillion...

I am not even kidding.

We fought our way to Bechler Falls on a 3 mile round trip hike. We hiked along the Falls River (in Wyoming they call it "Falls River" and in Idaho they call it "Fall River"). We got to the confluence of the Falls River and the Bechler River so suddenly we were hiking along the Bechler. We actually hiked past the falls and just enjoyed the area as much as we could. We kept putting on more bug spray.

Somehow we managed to cook fajitas at our camp site. The wildflowers are endless! Our tent was relatively mosquito free and seemed like a true haven once I crawled in.

The "Disneyland" of Yellowstone Campgrounds

Saturday 12 July 2014

I worked out on the elliptical, hiked at Mud Volcano, and then went on Ranger Graham's Storm Point hike. He is Master Geology so I learned a lot! The marmots were being forward and careless. The afternoon was spent cleaning and preparing for our weekend adventure. However, rain poured for two hours. Nonetheless, we drove to Madison Campground so we could sleep fairly close to Church meetings held the following morning. We started unpacking our vehicle and K got this look on his face. I asked, "What's that look?" He answered, "It's not a good look." We had left the tent poles, stakes, and the rain fly at Fishing Bridge, forty-two miles and who knows how many bison jams away. So we discussed options. We had to have the gear for the weekend. One of us had to go back.

We thought about both of us going back. That was pointless. So then I offered, "Why don't you go back and I'll build the fire and prepare dinner so that we can eat when you return. The man looks at me and says...can't believe he said this..."You can't build a fire."

I laughed so hard!!! I explained with some vigor, "Just because I've been LETTING you build the fires all these years doesn't mean I CAN'T! Ask all the people I camped with before I met you! Ah, he cracks me up. However, I will go on allowing him to make himself necessary.

So he stayed. He cooked. I drove. And I saw the grizzly cross the road right in front of my car. That bear was hauling so I couldn't get a photo, but I thought to myself, "There's my little prize for my little sacrifice."

Madison Campground is large, reservable, and packed. It is a loud place in the evenings with kids riding their bikes around and people chatting at their picnic tables. What bear in its right mind would venture there? We didn't even bother to take bear spray into our tent for the evening. It just reminded me of Disneyland for some reason.

SV! Day 23

Friday 11 July 2014

Hiked to Natural Bridge with Susan (my second time, her first). I also volunteered for two hours at Wildlife Olympics and that was a blast! I love meeting people from all over the world. Laundry. Spaghetti and meat balls for dinner.

SV! Day 22

Thursday 10 July 2014

That photo is a pollen puddle. It rained this afternoon and afterward I went to the actual Fishing Bridge to attend K's River Reflections program. I was the only visitor so he didn't do it. I walked up to the gas station from there and just thought the swirls of pollen in the puddle on the pavement were pretty.

I am still exercising daily. Saw cutthroat trout in the river. Barely beat K at Phase Ten.

SV! Day 21

Wednesday 9 July 2014

I finished reading Yellowstone Has Teeth (excellent) and then went on to reread (also excellent) Number the Stars.

Ken kissed me at lunch and said, "You get cuter every day." Thought I'd better record that for all the posterity we don't have.

We went to Ranger Mike's evening program which is a terrific blend of park, American history, and humor. I would call it "interpretainment." I loved how he mentioned that Lewis and Clark never quite made it to the Yellowstone region because they didn't have the twenty-five dollars by the time they got out here!

I have a new second counselor serving with us in the stake Primary presidency! We were sad to see Rachel go but excited that with baby number five on the way they were able to move out of their condo and into a house with grass in the back yard.

Ranger Travis has his wife and kids here visiting from Washington (NPS is tough on families!). Ranger Landon volunteered to babysit so that Travis and his wife could go out to dinner together. In a way, we all babysat because Landon played with them in the yard near the picnic table. He made dinner for the kids (8 year old girl, 2 year old boy) by roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the fire pit. Ranger Graham was out there with his guitar providing some distraction as well. When the parents returned, Landon and the girl proudly showed the parents pictures on his phone of the girl placing bison hair she had found around the yard in her armpits to pretend that she had these really hairy underarms (she was wearing a tank top). It was hysterical and I regret that I didn't snap one myself. That's what you get when a twenty-something single man babysits in Yellowstone--armpits full of bison hair! Here in YELL, we just make do with what we have. A good time was had by all!

SV! Day 20

Tuesday 8 July 2014

We did laundry and ate pineapple. I finished reading Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance by Stephen HERRERO. Basically it all comes down to this: bears need about 20,000 calories a day so don't bother them.

I went to TR's evening program. He lets me help get the fire going and he lets me count the visitors for the stats report. Early in the program he and I, skewed by our we-live-in-Yellowstone perspective, both thought we heard an audience member yell, "Elk!" Sometimes wildlife will attend evening programs. However, what they really yelled was, "Help!" A woman in the audience was having a seizure. K got on his radio and said (with the microphone still on), "Seven hundred, seven hundred, two Lima three one top notch emergency." Top notch is not code for anything...it's just the repeater they use for radios in that area of the park--they have to say "top notch" every time they call on the radio. He reported the seizure, EMS copied, and K said to the audience, "Help is on the way." He was wondering why his radio was echoing so that's when he remembered to turn the mike off. The woman is 34 and diabetic. She has a history of seizures but because she hadn't had one in over a year, her doctor had just taken her off the medication to help prevent them. The audience remained quiet and calm and patient. K told them that if they needed to leave, he understood. Nobody left. He walked around chatting with people and answering questions while EMS assessed. The woman was able to walk on her own to the ambulance with her husband by her side and K went on with the show after receiving clearance.

It's a small thing, but I was just so proud of him! His calm presence was an influence on all 131 folks there! He handled everything professionally, beautifully, and efficiently. Even the EMS guy complimented him on arrival by saying, "You called that in perfectly!" One of his supervisors emailed his boss about it even. At the end of the program K said, "Have a good evening and thanks for stickin' with me!" Love him.

SV! Day 19

Monday 7 July 2014

We hiked to Lone Star Geyser but it had already gone off so in order to kill time we hiked farther exploring some back country thermal areas along the way. TR is more ambitious about skipping around questionable crust. I patiently waited until he told me a safe way to get to each feature. I have no desire to sink into a boiling pool of scalding water. He's pretty safe, by the way. I'm just more cautious than that.

The eruption began, but we figured out it was a "minor eruption." After waiting an additional 25 minutes, we were rewarded with the major eruption. The trail is flat and 4 miles round trip, but we added another mile and a half or so with our meanderings. Met up with a woman who was doing amphibian surveys (Western Toad). We began coveting all of her mosquito mesh gear.

If you've never hiked to a back country thermal feature in Yellowstone and felt the spray of the geyser rain down upon you, I would highly suggest it!

Later we were treated to a lovely dinner at the Lake Hotel by John and Garrett who came to fish again this summer. They are the nicest people and we love spending time with them, dinner or not.

Oh, and the Red Dogs (baby bison). They are so cute. They start out looking kind of like normal cows but somewhere along the way they morph into those bison looking creatures. It is hard to get a photo of one because they are carefully guarded by the herd. I usually find one with a cow on either side of it (Mom and Aunty).