Yellowstone Bears

Those of you that saw my previous post know I'm in the midst of scanning old family photos. It's always interesting to see what you find hiding in the shoe boxes full of prints, slides, and negatives. This series is from a 1952 Yellowstone National Park trip.

I'll admit to doing some cropping, but I'm thinking that the photographer (I assume Dad or Mom) was also way too close for comfort.

Apparently the driver of the Studebaker wasn't sharing, so ...

Maybe the passenger will. And here I thought tourons were a more recent phenomenon.

7.07.2012 De Lacy Creek Trail

Today is the last day for us in Yellowstone and we took advantage of the beautiful weather this morning to hike to Shoshone Lake on the De Lacy Creek trail.  It’s 3 miles each way and we added a bit more at the far end to walk the beach along the north shore of the lake.  Shoshone is at 7,700 elevation and is believed to be the largest lake in the continental US without road access.

Like all trailheads in the Park, bear information is posted at the trailhead and BJ made sure they knew we were coming. Shortly after we started, we dug some bug repellent out – the mosquitos were live and well!

Much of the trail is in the trees, often near the edges of meadows that are supposed to be good moose habitat but we saw neither bear nor moose. Every once in a while, a section of trail would cut across an arm of the meadow.

About 2 miles in we met a young couple coming out from a 3 day back country trip. When we got to the lake we had the whole beach to ourselves although it was clear that at least once bear had recently walked along the edge of the water.

Nice spot to eat a snack and add a more liberal helping of Ben’s magic potion.

On the way back, shortly after I asked BJ to take a picture to prove I actually was on the hike, we met the first two people headed south.  By the time we got back to the trailhead, we’d seen 28 people in groups of 2 to 6, headed towards the lake as the thunderclouds built along the continental divide about a mile away.

It was really pretty amazing that in a park as popular as Yellowstone, we could have significant solitude by getting away from the road.

Based on the views at Shoshone, the Lewis Lake > Lewis River > Shoshone Lake trip is back on my want to do list!.

7.05.2012 Looking for Animals

Today was a day to wander around Yellowstone, looking at the sights and looking for animals. We started off the morning at West Thumb where a herd of elk tried to upstage the mud pots and pools - and yes, those first two pictures are in order!
 

We stopped in at Bay Bridge Marina to get some info from the shuttle boat people and the back country office. Turns out the shuttles to the South Arm or Southeast Arm of Yellowstone Lake will handle up to six people and their kayaks or canoes. Lakefront, backcountry campsites may be available for a spur of the moment trip, and the permit is free unless you decide to reserve in advance. The online reservation process costs $25. A number of the sites on the South Arm are closed for bear management until mid July, so it looks like a late July trip might be optimal.

We spotted our first (of many) bison at Lake Village, and a deer at Fishing Bridge. We also saw our first traffic jam there!

There were more bison posing at the Mud Volcano area, but the highlight of the day was the bear that we spotted as we were coming back from the town of West Yellowstone – the source of cheaper gas and internet access thanks to McDonalds.

7.04.2012 Yellowstone National Park

Today is the shortest moving day of the trip.  40 miles from Colter Bay in Grant Teton to Grant Village in Yellowstone.  Since we supposedly couldn’t check in until 11 a.m. we had some time to burn.

rvsue had mentioned on her blog that she used bounce dryer sheets and a bowl of water to clean the bugs off of the front of her trailer.  The front of our trailer was a mess so I had to give it a try.  Great tip!  The sheets have just enough texture to them to take the bugs off pretty easily and a paper towel to dry it left the trailer looking much better.  You can see in the picture the before (left side of picture) and after.

We had a reservation at Grant Village which assures you’ll have a place but not a specific place.  Once again we ended up on the “wrong” side of the drive, but there were enough empty sites this morning that we were able to leverage sites on each side of the road and were just barely able to do a u-turn to get our door facing the table, etc.

We headed out to Old Faithful, hoping that we'd see animals - no such luck.  We’ll be here until Sunday morning.

Driving Around in Circles

Google Maps

A pretty big circle, it seems.  Google says it's 3550 miles from where we are to where we're going and back again.  As to where we're going, that's influenced by all sorts of things.  We're going to do the route counter-clockwise so that it works out with our niece's wedding which is in some ways the biggest (but not the initial) influence.  If all goes well, it will be the first time in years that Mom and all my siblings have been in the same place at the same time.

I'm looking forward to meeting the parents of the groom.  Ellen & Pat recently moved to Ellensburg, Washington and are in the midst of fixing up an old farmhouse and the farm that goes with it. Ellen writes a wonderful blog about her transition from "city girl to country girl ... and God's great sense of humor..." Highly recommended!

Before we get there, we hope to enjoy the mountain vistas in Grand Teton and the wonders and wildlife in Yellowstone.  We'll pick up our grandson and spend a few days in Glacier and a day in Idaho before the wedding, followed by visits to Mom's place, BJ's hiking friend's place in Oregon, and ghost towns in California.

Twenty-four nights with the longest travel days being just over 300 miles.  It's a mixture of boondocking, National and State parks, Forest Service campgrounds, and commercial RV resorts.  We're looking forward to power for the air conditioner at the lower elevations.  Some of the places are going to be much more crowded than I'd like, but that's what you get when you visit popular National Parks in peak season.  Because of the schedule, we're leveraging reservations as much as possible.

We'll be moving faster than I'd like, but we need to save a week of vacation for our almost annual Green River float trip in late September.

We're all hooked up and ready to go, other than a shorter than normal day at the office tomorrow before we head out of town.  We'll try to do updates regularly assuming we can find wi-fi.