Winter in Yellowstone

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2010-03-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

Do we have to?

Hellroaring

2010-03-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

The day after our Garnet Hill hike we went back and walked part of the Hellroaring Trail. The trail is named for Hellroaring Creek which was named by a prospector during spring runoff.

It's only a mile downhill to the suspension bridge (a 600 foot drop down muddy and snow packed switchbacks). We wondered how they built the suspension bridge over the Yellowstone. Packing in the concrete and steel cables must have been fun.

There were lots of elk north of the river. Elk are the most skittish animals we've encountered in the park. Probably because these elk wander about 8 miles north out of the park in the fall and and get shot at.

Though at the same time there are elk hanging around the buildings in Mammoth. They are fine if you are next to your car in a pullout by the road, that's where you are suppose to be. But people walking on trail is a problem for them.

We sent these packing up the slope. Philosophically you would like your presence not to alter the animals behavior, but that's hard with elk when you are hiking in the backcountry.

Wolves like elk. We thought this wolf was just ahead of us, since tracks were melting out fast. You can also see older and much smaller coyote tracks to the left of the wolf tracks. A coyote weighs about 30 lbs and a wolf 100 lbs.

On the way out we saw grizzly tracks which weren't there on our way in. Exciting to see when the tracks are fresh and going in the same direction as you are.

The bear veered off the trail and appeared to head back down towards the nice meadows down by the Yellowstone and not up the switchbacks. I'm on the switchbacks below looking back at the Hellroaring looking at the bear and enjoying the vista.

More Bear!

2010-03-25T05:34:00.001-07:00

Monday, Bette and I hiked the Garnet Hill loop trail out of Tower Junction. Weather wasn't that great, with quite a few snow showers, though we did get some sun breaks. The trail starts out going through the rolling sage brush of Pleasant Valley towards the Yellowstone River. You encounter the Hellroaring Trail (what a name), and a suspension bridge across the river. More on the Hellroaring in our next post.

There were signs of spring with these flowers about to bloom.

Ran across a few elk skeletons. The one below was probably from this winter. Some of the bones appeared to be partially buried. We wondered if a mountain lion had killed the elk since a lion will cover up its kill. The kill was also at the base of the steep cliffs on the northwest side of Garnet Hill, which looked like good lion country.

The last part of the trail entered Yancey's Hole, the site of an old hotel during the early days of the park. It's where people now take wagon rides from Roosevelt Lodge to a cowboy barbecue. On the way in we saw bear tracks along the muddy trail. A little bit later as we walked down the wagon/stage road we saw a large dark brown animal in the snow covered flats. It was not behaving like a bison. Through the binoculars we could see it was a grizzly bear!

Adrenaline really kicked in though the bear was a good safe distance away across the hole. He was pretty clear through our binoculars, as we watched the bear play in the snow. He rolled around on his back, laid on his back with his hind legs in the air with rear paws held by front paws (happy baby pose), sat up to look around and laid flat out on his back with front and back legs outstretched like a human looking up at the sky (corpse pose). After playing he started moving off in a direction away from us which was a relief so we started again walking down the road. The photo below was taken probably at the closest we got to the bear. At that point he was ambling around the base of the draw sniffing the ground, and taking a break every now and then to sit down and look around.

The bear was upwind of us, so it wasn't clear that he ever was aware we were there. At times he sat down and looked in our direction, but never got up on his hind legs to look around. We were in clear view the whole time (just sage brush). I tried to sketch some of his antics. It was quite the thrill!

First Bear of spring!

2010-03-19T13:21:00.001-07:00

Dave was the program assistant for a photography class the last few days. The class found this bear sleeping on his day bed near the Yellowstone river picnic area Wednesday evening. (the location makes it impossible for me to wipe Yogi Bear images out of my mind). I was very jealous that I missed seeing him so I went back to the picnic area Thursday morning. Luckily he was still snoozing away on the same daybed. He had built up so much grass around himself that he looked like a strange bird on a nest. As far as I can tell the only big change between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning was that by Thursday he had rotated 180 degrees so that his head was pointed in the opposite direction. I went to hike the beaver ponds loop right after seeing him so every shadow under a Douglas fir on the entire hike made me feel my pack strap to be sure my bear spray was present. I hope I get to see more bears before we go, but I don't want to wake one up in case he's grumpy when disturbed.

Blacktail Creek Trail

2010-03-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we hiked to the Yellowstone river. The trail traveled across some rolling sage covered hills and then went down the side of a canyon formed by blacktail creek. The snow was melted from the southern facing slopes but was still clinging to the northern facing ones. When we finally reached the river there was an impressive suspension bridge to take us across.

There are some great campsites along the river-it would be a hot hike down there in summer but if you left really early in the morning you could be swimming by the time it got hot.

On the way back up we scanned the hillsides for bears as we had heard one was seen in the area earlier in the week. We didn't have any luck.

Beaver Pond Loop

2010-03-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

I headed towards Mammoth on my day off yesterday in search of a trail with little enough snow to be hikable. The "beaver pond loop" starts and finishes near the Mammoth Hotel. The hotel is closed for the season now so I had the trail all to myself. It climbed up above the hotel area for some nice views of the Gardner river canyon.
It then wound in and out of Douglas fir stands to a series of beaver ponds. This one was the largest of the ponds. Two dams were visible creating a large upper and small lower pond.

The route back was though a high sagebrush covered plateau. At one point I came across this herd of elk. Right after I took their picture they realized I was there and all went running off. I tried to assure them that they could safely stay bedded down but they weren't convinced.

Mystery Bird

2010-03-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

I found this bird track while skiing for what looks to be the last time around Round Prairie. It was a frosty morning with a light dusting of new snow. Warm afternoon the day before. There were no other tracks in the vicinity. No little mouse footprints.

My first assumption was some sort of owl jumping on a mouse or other small rodent under the snow. Owls do rely on hearing, so would not need to see the little mouse. But who knows. It's a neat track anyway.

Where the sheep and the antelope play

2010-03-13T14:35:00.001-08:00

Although we thought it would be hard to top the white rabbit sighting we decided to go for a short hike after our pizza in Gardiner. As Dave said in the previous post, there's almost no snow left in that part of the park. We hiked a short way up the "Rescue creek trail". Rescue creek was (mis)named because it was thought that it was the site of the rescue of Truman Everts. Everts was a member of the Washburn expedition who was lost for 37 days in Yellowstone. When he became separated from his party in the southern part of the park his horse ran off carrying most of his gear away. He survived by eating thistles (and as a result eventually after being found needed to drink bear grease as a laxative-imagine 37 days of an all celery diet). Luckily he had some opera glasses still with him which he was able to use to start fires to keep warm. He was eventually rescued ( just not on rescue creek) by two fellows who never received their reward money. Washburn felt that since Everts was alive he should pay the reward and Everts contended that he would have found his own way back without the rescuers. At any rate, we got treated to some good pronghorn antelope sitings and even some big horn sheep were down on the flats.

White Rabbit

2010-03-12T10:44:00.001-08:00

The day after our trip up to the Pebble Creek meadows we went into Gardiner to go to the post office, grocery store, and get a pizza at the KBar. The environment is a lot different than up in the mountains. Gardiner is always in a rain shadow, and never gets much snow even in a normal year. The elevation there is about a mile above sea level. The Pebble Creek meadows were up at about 8200 feet.

On the way into town near where the Boiling River enters the Gardiner River, we saw a white rabbit in the snowless sage brush along the side of the road. It bolted up the hill, and stopped long enough to get a clear picture. It doesn't stick out as much when it's near the snow patches, but it looked pretty vulnerable lower down where there was no snow.

Jack Rabbits rely on speed (up to 40 miles and hour), and protective coloration to avoid predators. This one needs its summer brown-gray coat. The winter white doesn't look so helpful with all the snow gone.

Pebble Creek

2010-03-11T07:20:00.001-08:00

Given the poor x-country ski conditions we thought it would be a good time to snowshoe up to the upper meadows of Pebble Creek. The short 1.5 mile trail up is steep, climbing about 1000 feet from Warm Creek. You can see where we started below.

The meadow was extensive, and untracked except for one set of ski tracks. No big bison churning up the snow here. We felt like we were defiling the scene with our snowshoe tracks. Our skis would have been nice once in the meadow. Snowshoes were slow going.

There were lots of small mammal tracks and these tracks that appeared to be cat tracks. The tracks were pretty melted out, so probably look bigger than the orginals.

Out in the meadow I thought the stride wasn't that long, but the photo below makes it look bigger. So the choices are bobcat, lynx, mountain lion, and probably one of the first two given the type of animals (small) available to eat.

Photos don't do justice to the expanse of white meadow, and the surrounding mountains. Plus the silence. The trail down to the Pebble Creek Campground heads down the meadow curving somehow out of sight to the left through a large gap in the mountains.

Spring?

2010-03-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

It looks like Spring is here. About three to four weeks early. High temperatures have been in the 40s the last few weeks, and a lot of sunshine. Rivers opening up, walk ways melting. We may have done our last ski. It was doable but the skis clattered on the ice, and we had to walk some of the downhills -- ice packed luge runs. Guess we will look for bears. There are reports of a few out and about.

Coyote

2010-03-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Coyote are common in the park. You often see them trotting along the road, and they regularly serenade us. We found this one mousing near Tower Falls along the ski trail.

I missed the pounce.

Looks like it missed this time, but it kept at it as we passed by.

Something Different

2010-03-02T23:14:00.001-08:00

While Bette and her sister Diane were touring the Northern Range, I was supporting a bit different type of class -- The Artistic Journal in Deep Winter. It turned out to be a lot of fun. The class started off with making your own journal. Stitching the binding was a challenge. But here is my journal.

The class included working indoors and outdoors with different media. Below are students sketching along the Lamar River. It was a balmy afternoon in the 40s.

The instructor, Eleanor Clark, had some great specimens you could work with. I found the pheasant feet to be quite attractive for some reason. Am I another Olaus Murie or what?

Well maybe not. Here is my memory drawing of coyote and bison in the Lamar Valley.

Dinner time

2010-03-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

On our way back to the ranch after snowshoeing Diane and I stopped at a pull-out by the Lamar river where we had seen photographers earlier in the day. The photographers ( who were Francophone Canadians) were getting into their car but told us (once we found the one who spoke English) that if we watched the wood pile we would see the animals. We went and watched the woodpile as instructed and just as I was starting to think about going back and making dinner the otters apparently also were thinking about dinner. All of a sudden three little brown heads appeared and then the otters dashed out onto the ice and slid down into the water. We watched them for a long time as they took turns surfacing with fish in their mouths.

A different sort of visitor

2010-03-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

My sister, Diane, came to visit for a long weekend. On Friday we went for a ski in the northern part of the park. She did really well especially considering that it was only her second time on cross country skis.
On Saturday we skied the Tower Falls trail and got a look at Tower Falls and Calcite Springs (a thermal feature on the Yellowstone river).

Later Saturday afternoon we snowshoed into a canyon near Pebble creek where this being in canyon wall looked down on us.

Visitors

2010-03-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I was cleaning the bunkhouse when the radio crackled. My first thought was "Oh no, the lunch group is here and I haven't made coffee for them yet". It turned out that the visitors that John was telling me about didn't want any coffee, they were just passing through. When I opened the bunkhouse door to greet them they decided to veer across the parking area instead. This is probably a good thing because I don't think they would have fit through the door.

Republic Pass II

2010-02-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

We finally got back to Republic Pass on a sunny day. This time we could really see the mountains surrounding the pass. I think this is my favorite of the places we have skied so far. Perhaps that should not be surprising because these mountains are part of the Absarokas. When our friend Ben first introduced me to the Yellowstone ecosystem we backpacked in the Absarokas and most of Dave and my subsequent backpack trips have also been in this range. The range extends for 80 miles so we still have lots backpacking to do! The name "Absaroka" is what the Crow people called themselves. It translates to "children of the long beaked bird" and probably refers to ravens rather than crows.

Specimen Ridge

2010-02-24T14:30:00.001-08:00

One day last week we decided to head to the top of Specimen ridge. The ridge got its name because it has petrified trees on it. Unfortunately for us, the trees are on the steep sides of the ridge and hard to access in winter. We snowshoed up to the top of the ridge as the climb was too steep for skiing but once on top there were just rolling hills and we were able to just amble along and enjoy the views.

The petrified trees are located somewhere in the conifers off to the left. We'll have to wait for a summer visit to see them up close rather than just through binoculars.
The weather was funny while we were on the ridge. There were snow showers over some of the distant ridges but we had sunny skies over us.
From the ridge we had a nice view of Mt. Washburn. Our friend Don skied up to its top the same day we were walking the ridge (26 miles 3,000 feet elevation gain).

East Rim

2010-02-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

On a recent day off we skied along the east rim of the Yellowstone river canyon. The park grooms a trail on the opposite rim and we could hear people laughing and talking on that side but we had the east side to ourselves. At least we thought we did. After we were back at the ranch we found out that one of the institute instructors was filming a cougar on the rocks beneath the trail that day. We did see cougar tracks but didn't see that cat itself.
When we got near the top of the trail we saw some big horn sheep. We went into whisper-mode thinking that we needed to be very careful not to spook them.
As it turned out, they actually walked towards us and seemed more curious than afraid.
Only when they got pretty close did they finally begin to run off in the other direction.
Some eventually went over to the edge of the rim. That's the Yellowstone river down below.

Howling

2010-02-14T23:53:00.001-08:00

It's 1 am. I'm in the bunkhouse, and just finished the Slough Creek post. The wolves are howling up a storm and they are close by. Will be an interesting walk in the dark back to the cabin.

Slough Creek

2010-02-14T23:16:00.001-08:00

Bette and I have made several ski trips up Slough Creek. Slough Creek is one of my favorite spots in the park. The first time I was there was back in September 1978 with my friend Don. We were on our way back from an attempt at moving out west. Recall us sitting by the campfire at night cooking hotdogs on a stick while listening to bugling bull elk. My brother and I made several fall fishing trips to Yellowstone in the late eighties and both times we camped in the campground there, and fished the lower sections and first meadow. Then in the early nineties while Bette was backpacking with our Wisconsin friend Ben in the Absarokas southwest of Cody, I was fishing there and saw two whooping cranes plus a helicopter that was flying in to pick up a hiker mauled by a grizzly bear.

Our first trip up was during a period when it seemed that all our days off and ski trips were on cloudy days with light snowfall. You missed some of the more spectacular mountain views, though skiing through a light snowfall in the mountains is beautiful too. The first picture is looking down after climbing up most of the way from the trailhead. We started way down at the bottom. The second picture is of Bette up in the first meadow with the patrol cabin in the background.

We went back on a sunny day with our co-volunteer John (aka Yellowstone Jack of the Wolf Collaring - Bison Stampede Fame). Snow was great and someone kindly broke trail ahead of us. Made it up farther but still didn't make the second meadow. Another time for that.

Bison in the meadow were pretty feisty. Must be the relatively mild winter. These two were knocking heads. Not sure what the one is doing with its tongue out.

Then it was back out. The snow was soft enough so that the downhill was a lot of fun. Managed to make it out without crashing for a change.

Cabin 8

2010-02-14T06:51:00.000-08:00

Earlier we posted photos of the bunkhouse. Here is what are cabin looks like.

Below is the view out the front door.

That's it.

Wolves and Wolf Watchers

2010-02-08T06:15:00.000-08:00

Wolves are the stars of winter wildlife watching in the park. People visit the park often enough to get to know the different wolf personalities, and some wolf watchers have the number of their favorite wolf (collared wolves get a number) on their vanity license plates--Like "YNP 21" or "Wolf 302". It's quite a subculture. Do you know there are also geyser watchers?

Viewing is usually from the road and often at quite a distance. Scopes are required to see anything, and there are some huge telephoto lens. Below we are watching a group of wolves which are beyond the trees that are between the buses and the background ridge.

People moved up to the rise on the other side of the road to get a better look.

The photo below is of the the same wolves that were being watched in the above photos, only taken the day before. These wolves were just above the road. The photo was taken with our new 300mm lens on maximum zoom, while I was shivering. It gets cold standing around doing nothing. I'm surprised you can see anything.

There are four wolves in the picture (and a wolf shaped rock). The wolves up by the tree are members of the silver pack of four wolves. Named for the seated silver colored wolves. The black one below the tree may be a male (wolf 146) trying to either join the pack or woo away a female. They females weren't showing a lot of interest in him.

If you are interested, Ralph Maughan's blog is a good source of information on the goings on of the Yellowstone wolves, and those outside the park too.

John and the wolf collaring

2010-02-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

The wolf biologist have started collaring wolves this week. On Wednesday we got word that they were working right near the Buffalo ranch. Dave dropped a group of students off near the location of the collaring but there was no room for the bus. He came back to the ranch to get me and we watched from further away. First the spotting plane came into sight.
Then the helicopter came in with the darter hanging out of the door. The noise and wind spooked a herd of bison who started running full speed away from the helicopter.
Unfortunately, our coworker John had not heard that the helicopter was coming and had headed out to ski down the valley. The bison wound up heading straight for him. Those of us who knew him couldn't decide whether to watch John or the wolf. Once we realized that he was not directly in their path we could not stop laughing. (John has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time) We'll probably tell more John stories later. He is now calling himself Yellowstone Jack and is planning a series of stories about his adventures. This one will be called Yellowstone Jack and the Stampeding Bison.
This last photo was taken by John as the bison ran by. I love the way the bison's tongue is hanging out. He said he could hear them grunting as they went by. The biologists successfully replaced an old collar on one wolf and got a collar on a second one from a pack that previously had been uncollared. Apparently the wolves, bison, and John survived the ordeal just fine. We all enjoyed viewing his photos on the big screen TV and hearing his tale over wine and baked brie that evening.

Bear Claws

2010-02-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

I found these bear claw marks on a lodgepole pine up a small drainage off of the Bannock Trail just outside the northeast part of the park. People say bears claw trees to communicate their presence (both male and female), and sometimes to take out their frustrations. Wonder how people know that.

You can tell the size of the bear by the width of the claw marks. I'm not sure how old these were (trees grow, increasing the spread and height of the marks).

Hopefully we will see some grizzly bears in March. The males come out first. Given the low snow levels and relatively mild temperatures we might see a bear this month!

Winter Wolf Retreat

2010-02-03T15:21:00.001-08:00

I was the program assistant for a class called Winter Wolf retreat. The instructors were Nathan and Linda (Dave assisted them for a class earlier). This class was a bit different from the others we've had so far because it was not an official Yellowstone Association class. This one was part of Nathan and Linda's Wild Side business. As a result the meals were catered! Zac was our chef and the food was yummy.
We began each day with wolf watching from 7 am to at least noon. The wolves cooperated once again. Lots of intrigue (males from other packs lurking and flirting and hoping to pass on their genes). In the afternoons we headed out for a few short snowshoe hikes. On the way to one of them we got a nice look at this big horn sheep.
On another day we snowshoed in to a canyon near the Pebble Creek campground. We walked along and on a stream that was frozen in places.

Republic Pass

2010-02-03T15:12:00.001-08:00

We finally had a day last week when all four volunteers had the afternoon off. Don, who has been here many winters agreed to lead John, Dave and I up the Republic pass trail in the national forest just outside the park. It was a pretty good climb up to the high meadows in the picture below but it was also a very nice ride down at the end! It was snowing all day so we didn't get a great view of the pass. We'll have to try again on a sunnier day. Of course when we got back to Cooke City (a very small town at the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone) and had settled down with some mochas at the local coffee shop the sun finally poked through.

3's a charm

2010-02-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

When we arrived people people told us that a nice frozen waterfall was hidden in the small bunch of conifers visible in the lower left of this photo. We look at these trees every day from the kitchen window and decided to ski over to have a look at the waterfall. The first time we tried was during the cold spell when we first arrived. By the time we found a way to cross the many braids of the Lamar river the sun was starting to set and we had to head back to the ranch without getting to the falls. I had a day off without Dave and tried to get to the falls again. This time the weather was nice and warm. So warm that the stream crossings on the route I chose would have required swimming. So much for trial two. Finally, on the third try I chose a circuitous enough route that I managed to get across the river in a few spots where it had frozen.

When I finally made it to the clump of trees the waterfall was just barely visible.
After making my way through the downed trees guarding the entrance to the falls, I was rewarded with total quiet except for the musical sound of running water under the ice in an almost church like setting with columns of ice like draperies at the altar.

Crepuscular

2010-02-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

Wolves (bears too) are crepuscular. They are most active in the hours around dawn and sunset. That means getting out just before or as the sun is coming up when supporting a wolf watching class. Getting up early isn't too hard, but early morning is the coldest time of day. Scraping the bus windows and keeping your feet warm are the main problems. As the season gets on we will be getting out earlier and earlier.

Snow Tracking

2010-01-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

While Bette was doing camp chores I was supporting a Snow Tracking class. Of course it snowed each day covering up all the tracks. I guess you do snow tracking after it snows.

I did learn a lot about animal tracks, gaits, and investigating such things from the instructorJim Halfpenny. Jim's well versed in tracking, winter ecology, and mammal carnivores large and small.

We did find a few tracks in the afternoon field sessions. The class made plaster casts of coyote tracks in a plowed pullout (picture below).

t's quite a process. You try to clean the track as well as you can. Then spray it with this wax, covering all the snow to seal the track. Quickly mix up some plaster to milkshake consistency, and gently pour it into the track before the plaster sets. Cover with a plastic bag anchored by a perimeter of snow blocks. Cover the whole thing with snow to insulate, so the plaster sets. Wait a half hour or so...

We had hoped to find wolf tracks, but settled for a wolf. The black wolf, probably a Druid Pack wolf because of the mange, was by an elk carcass above the Yellowstone River. The wolf was waiting for us to leave, and is standing below the large conifer in the middle of the picture. You can double click to get a larger view. I took it with the zoom on our little point and shoot.

Jim also shared with us the website of his friend Lily up in Ely, Minnesota. Lily is a black bear, and has a webcam in her den where you can see her and her new born cubs.

Back at the Ranch

2010-01-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

I've had "camp duty" for the last two days. Yes, that means scrubbing toilets!

It occurred to us that we haven't yet posted any pictures of where we are living. These photos are of the Bunkhouse. It was originally the bunkhouse for the ranch hands when the bison were being raised here in order to try to save them from extinction (at the turn of the century only 25 were left in the park). When the Yellowstone Association first started offering classes here in 1979 everyone stayed in the bunkhouse. Now we have cabins and a bathhouse but the classes, cooking, and hanging out still all take place here. We'll post some pictures of our cabin and the bathhouse soon.

The kitchen. There are two sinks but it can get pretty busy when a class of twelve plus the instructor and the four volunteers are all making dinner. Notice how well caffeinated we are!

Dave blogging! (or maybe reading about either Illini or UVA basketball)
This is the classroom. We have the usual digital projectors, whiteboards, and a nice flat screen TV for either watching DVDs, Videos (yes we have too many of those to not have a VCR) or power points. My favorite part is that there are many bookcases full of natural history and Yellowstone history books to be read.
In the summer this is a second classroom but in the winter it is the boot room. Everyone stores their indoor shoes by the front door and leaves their wet boots on the racks. Inevitably as soon as you put your boots on to go outside you realize that you've left something critical (like lunch) back in the kitchen. Unless you can convince someone to play fetch, off go the boots, on go the indoor shoes, the lunch is retreived, off go the indoor shoes and on go the boots!

Days off!

2010-01-24T18:53:00.000-08:00

We had Thursday and Friday off this week. Thursday was a grocery shopping and relaxing day. Assisting the class was great fun and I was sorry to see everyone go but it was also pretty intense. I was up at 5:00 each morning to make coffee, eat breakfast and get the bus defrosted for a 6:45 departure to look for the wolves at sunrise when they are most active. The days finally wound down at around 9:00 each night. Even Friday was pretty relaxing, we went for a ski and found some nice flat rocks to eat lunch on.

Yellowstone Wolves

2010-01-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

Last week I assisted a class called Yellowstone Wolves. Someone must have told the wolves we were coming because they put on quite a show for us. The Druid pack has five eligible females, we were able to see them from the road with spotting scopes. Sadly, they have mange and look a bit bedraggled but that did not stop a very nice looking grey male from hanging around nearby. It is getting close to mating season and the assumption was that he was hoping for a chance to woo one of the females. Up on a hill on the other side of the road were two other males. At first we could not see them but could hear them howl. Later in the day a big horn sheep came running down the hill where it found a nice cliff to hang out on. A short while later a black wolf came down the hill and crossed the road moving towards the five sisters. One sister was in a bit of a ravine so that we could not see her but it seemed like he might have gone over to flirt with her. He wasn't there very long, however, before he recrossed the road and went back up the hill. Unfortunately all of this took place far enough away that I couldn't get any good photos.

One other day of class we walked up to the pens (see photo above) where the wolves lived when they were first brought to the park (1995). The idea of using the pen was to acclimate the wolves to this area so they wouldn't run back to Canada. Oddly, when they first opened the gate to the pen the wolves not only did not flee north, they didn't even leave the pen at all. Finally, the biologists decided to put a carcass outside the pen to lure them out. As they hauled the carcass up the hill to the pens they saw one of the males out on the ridge ahead of them. They hurried down to a creek bed below and made their way back to their truck!

Another field trip was to an abandoned den. The hole that the mother wolf excavated was quite impressive. Sadly, it was only used one season, presumably because the pups born there did not survive. They were last seen near a swollen riverbank and may have drowned. Apparently mothers will not return to a den if the first time they use it the pups do not live. If the pups had survived that first time the mother might have continued to use the den again even if she had some years in which the pups didn't make it. There is something about that first time that is very important

Yellowstone Association in the news

2010-01-24T14:47:00.000-08:00

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-01-14-yellowstone-in-winter_N.htm

USA today ran an article on Yellowstone in Winter. The classes they describe are part of the lodging and learning programs. The participants stay at the Mammoth Hotel rather than here at the buffalo ranch. When they are out in the field they stop here for lunch and one of our jobs is to make sure the coffee and hot water for tea or cocoa are ready when they arrive. In exchange we often get the leftovers from their sack lunches. They always leave us the raisins but occasionally we get lucky and wind up with chocolate chip cookies or potato chips. We also invite them into our bookstore and try to talk to them into becoming members of the Yellowstone association. I haven't watched the video attached to the article yet but one of our fellow volunteers is interviewed on it.

Three Mooses

2010-01-22T15:25:00.000-08:00

I was skiing alone (Bette was on a wolf class) late afternoon on the Bannock Trail in the northeast corner of the Park when I come upon a cow moose and what I thought was its calf in the middle of the ski trail. It was difficult to see the second moose, which I thought was the calf because the one moose was between me and it. I could see eight legs.

This made me nervous. I had just read "The Better to Eat You With", a book on predator-prey relationships. The author had described a cow moose they nicknamed the Assassin because of its aggressive protection of its calf. I thought I should at least get a picture before turning around, and fell over as I went to get my backpack. Maybe this reassured the moose that I wasn't all that dangerous.

Then I see a big head with large antlers move into the trail. What was a bull doing there? I do not think they usually hang out together. Maybe he just wanted to use the trail too. Anyway in the picture the bull is on the left, but the spruce branch blocks a view of his antlers. Moose drop their antlers, but he still had his.

More Bison

2010-01-20T06:04:00.000-08:00

Bison like to use the roads. Bette saw this fellow on her way to skiing.

First Class

2010-01-20T04:27:00.000-08:00

We have been posting lately as we've been busy with our first classes. Bette finishes her Wolf Class today.

My class was also a wolf class. Turned out to be a small group of students. Four were originally enrolled (I think that's the minimum before cancellation), then two left after getting here. Unfortunately they had some health issues, and had to leave. So more like a private tour than a class. The two instructors Nathan Varley and Linda Thurston, the assistant (Me) and two students. That's some teacher - student ratio. Nathan and Linda are on the right and students Karen and Lisa on the left.

The class included wolf watching, information on the latest happenings with wolves in the Yellowstone vicinity and a meeting with a local rancher to get a rancher's perspective on wolves. We did see wolves from two wolf packs, and bighorn sheep. This was all through scopes, though you could see the sheep with your naked eye up along the ridge line. There were three or four rams interested in a young ewe. Seemed a little late for that sort of activity. Comical as one ram followed the ewe around, and then had to ward off several other potential suitors. No head butting. Just chase one away, then run back to the ewe to deal with the next ram who moved in while he was chasing the other one.

Below are pictures of the ranch we visited in Paradise Valley. You can see there is not much snow in a lot of Montana except for the mountains - El Nino.

Class went well. I didn't crash the bus which was my main worry. This was the one year anniversary of this very class going for an unscheduled ride off the road down into the Lamar Canyon. Amazing that no one got seriously injured. Nathan and Linda were great fun, knowledgeable, and were easy to work with for my first class. They have a few other classes here this winter, including two through their own wildlife touring business (www.wolftracker.com). Those classes are catered so we are also looking forward to the good food.

Playing in the snow

2010-01-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

We had both Wednesday and Thursday off this week. On our way to go snowshoeing Thursday we saw our first big horn sheep of the winter. They were hanging out on this ledge above the roadway. I had left the "good" camera in the cabin because it was snowing but it would have been nice to have the better lens to zoom in on them.
Not too far from the trailhead we spooked some ravens who were enjoying the remains of this elk. It looked like coyotes had eaten most of it as none of the tracks around were big enough to be wolves.
We stopped for lunch near this bridge and hoped to see some otters but had to be content with watching a dipper preen himself.
On Wednesday we set out to do a little skiing and got caught up in it and wound up going 10 miles. It was an almost perfect day. My only complaint was that it was a bit too warm so the snow was slow and we didn't get as much of a ride on the downhills as we had hoped for. At the end of the day we came around the final bend only to discover that someone else wanted to use the trail. We took off our skis and started to climb up a side hill as the bison sauntered on by.

Dave is standing at an overlook of the Yellowstone river canyon.

Wolves

2010-01-13T06:37:00.001-08:00

We saw our first wolves the other day, after hearing howling at night for several days. While we were finishing dishes from a lunch group the wolf watchers pulled into our parking area and pointed their scopes out across the valley. Went out on the back porch with a scope and saw five wolves pulling away on some kind of carcass. Ravens waiting their turn. Could see flesh hanging from their jaws. Later that evening the coyotes were on the carcass after the wolves had left. You really needed the scope. Binoculars just showed there was some critters out there.

Getting busier

2010-01-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

We spent today practicing our bus driving skills. The roads are pretty good. They are plowed and sanded and are generally not slippery. The buses also feel quite stable. We caravanned to Gardiner today. Had pizza at the K-bar for lunch and saw a bit of the Ravens/Patriots game. There was a classic guy at the bar telling the bartender how he came out west to "ski and shit" and to look for "young girls". Yuck!
We had Thursday off and went for a short ski (the temperature never even got to zero) The steam coming out of the stream behind Dave is not a thermal feature. It was just so cold that any open water was steaming. The buildings in the top photo are the Buffalo Ranch, home sweet home. The treeless hill behind it is often full of either bison, elk, or both.

Friday and Saturday were spent in a wilderness first aid class. There were 24 students so things were pretty busy here. It was a great class. Lots of hands on "scenarios". One of the instructors should give up teaching and leading outdoor adventures and become an improvisor. Her angst-filled teenage character Daisy (with a mysterious abdominal ailment) had the whole class laughing even though she appeared in the 16th hour of class. Dave and I were patients for the hypothermia segment. We got "beamed" (carried by 8 rescuers) into very cozy cocoons made of multiple sleeping bags and fleeces and then encased in a tarp. I was a bit disappointed when the scenario ended and we had to leave the cocoon and go back to class.

Visitors

2010-01-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

When we walked back up to the cabin after breakfast this morning some bison were hanging out nearby (note the fire hydrant). They are very beautiful when frost covered.

Correction - Minus 43

2010-01-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

Well it can't get too much colder, can it?

Minus 30

2010-01-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yikes!

Ski Legs

2010-01-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

Did our first ski. Took a short trip outback towards one of the original wolf pens. Followed the bison tracks when we could. Had to break trail otherwise. Made the mistake of going down one downward sloping meadow between rows of trees. Looked like a gentle ski run. Unfortunately all the snow blew in there so breaking trail was a bit challenging. The edges were better.

Snow

2010-01-06T07:38:00.000-08:00

A nice amount of snow fell over the last few days. At least a foot. Shoveling the light powder is pretty easy. Temperature had been warm, but this morning it's sunny, windy and cold. Beautiful with the morning light and new snow.

Heard a wolf yesterday. Low plaintive howl while night was falling.

Bison Jam

2010-01-02T17:53:00.000-08:00

We made it to the Lamar Buffalo ranch yesterday afternoon and were greeted (appropriately enough) by a Bison jam. Luckily the bison eventually decided to move off of the road and we were able to complete the last mile of our journey.

Across the wide Missouri...

2010-01-01T05:01:00.000-08:00

We made it to Billings, Montana. Today we head out to the Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone.

Getting out of Charlottesville was the hardest part weather wise. Here is the car already to be loaded with all our stuff. We just needed to dig it out first. The record snow in Charlottesville helped us get into a winter mood, on not. Fortunately, this was the most snow we saw between our front door and Billings.

Visited the families on the way with stops in Saratoga Springs, NY, Chicago, IL, and LaCrosse, WI. It was good to see everyone.

A lot of wildlife along I-90. First there were the cats east of the Mississippi. Then deer, pheasant, antelope, eagles, coyote, and we think a bobcat. Eagles were enjoying the numerous road kill deer. We were struck by how the landscape really becomes "western" after crossing the Missouri even though we usually think of the Mississippi as being the east-west boundary line. It's also amazing how much sparsely populated land there is between LaCrosse and Billings.

We spent yesterday in Billings buying way more food than we ever buy at one time. There's a very nice food coop in downtown and we even became Albertson's preferred customers. Dave is now the proud owner of a pair German wool pants from the Army surplus store. We finished the day off with a trip to Carter's Brewing-one of two good brewpubs within walking distance of our motel.

2009-11-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

Starting January 1 we'll be living at the Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park for the winter. We are hoping that we can use this blog to share our photos and stories with our friends and family.