Pebble Creek

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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.