Yellowstone

It is a volcano!

We looked at the thermal areas of Yellowstone from the Travertine terraces of Mammoth to the predictable violence of Old Faithful. We took ranger guided walks and explored on our own. We looked into crystal clear pools [ too hot for even the heat loving bacteria ], peered through sulphur rich steam at red blue green brown and black pools [ various types of heat loving bacteria] and marvelled at the gloopy little geysers in some mud pots [ acidic ]. We saw elk come in to drink in some pools and heard stories of elk and bison using the thermal areas like electric blankets in winter, stepping carefully over the boardwalks to find a comfortable spot for the night. We also heard from the ranger at Norris of wolves from the Hayden pack patrolling the boardwalks at night looking for any weaklings.

Oh yes the picture is of a small "volcano" that used to be used by fisherman to cook their catch.

Lots of wildlife.

We saw deer, elk, antelope, many many bison, coyotes and best of all wolves. [ See the separate entry below. ]

These elk were young bucks practicing their jousting at a Thumb geyser basin pool.














Some coyotes
have learned to beg by the roadside and the rangers are working hard to stop people feeding them. We saw this one and she was looking cute and posing for the camera.

We got special warnings about the bison.
An average of three attacks occur annually. Four fatalities have resulted from these attacks since 1975. Despite these warnings when bison walked through the campsite people got out and walked towards them. We were hiding behind our RV.


I was hoping to see ospreys as the streams around Yellowstone lake have been a hot spot for this spectacular bird. However mans interferance strikes again and they are now not common. Why, The bigger and more prolific deep swimming lake trout introduced to make the fisherman happy have taken over from the shallow swimming foot long cutthroat trout. However we did see this cheeky raven breaking into a motorcyclists chocolate stash.


We saw no bears but we did see evidence of bears in the form of bear poo. On the ranger lead walk about animal sign and tracking we learned how to differentiate between grizzly poo and black bear poo. He said

“If you look carefully and then smell it, the one that smells faintly of bear spray and contains small silver bells is definitely grizzly.”

People.

We watched tourists “doing” Yellowstone in a day Many companies offer special trips to do just that some even offering a retro coach. We liked the pace at which we did it but admired the scurrying ants heading to the next observation point.




The best moment for me was the wolf pack coming down from the high country in the Lamar valley. See the post below called Wolves.

One surprise was how busy the park is even in late September. Perhaps it was the excellent weather we had, bright sunny days with little wind. Many of the campgrounds were filling by mid-day and the rangers have no mercy, there is absolutely no boondocking in Yellowstone so many were forced out of the park at night, burning lots of fuel, so much for their "Green credentials".

We are in Jackson Hole at the moment, south of Yellowstone and Grand Teton staying in the priciest park we have stayed in but Jackson Hole is where the rich and famous come to holiday with mant "names" owning property here. We picked up our mail here and will be heading to Salt Lake City soon where Carol can do some genealogy as well we get to look around Mormon central.

CHARRO

I would like to thank everyone for their messages of sympathy for the loss of Charro.
Even strangers who never met him, but read the blog have sent kind thoughts.
Charro was 7 weeks old when he came to me and a month short of 15yrs old when he made the decision to leave.
Animals are free spirit and I still feel strong presence from him , especially when it is quiet and still. He has people that he knows, looking after him now, and is with his playmate Lady that he lived with as a puppy.
I hope that he will continue to come and go as he pleases until we meet up again his ashes will go back to England and be scattered at one of his favourite places.

Carol

WOLVES

Saturday September the 20th 2008, a year and a day since we left England found us at 6.30 am setting out from Slough Creek campground to look for wolves in the Lamar Valley. We had tried the day before and although three or four wolves had been seen running high on the ridges up and down the 15 miles of the valley, we had not been in the right place at the right time.

This morning we tried one of the places they had been seen before without luck before moving a mile or two East to join another small group of amateur watchers. We scanned the hill sides and the animal trails down from the high country for some time. Suddenly we heard a cry, “I think I see one. On the high trail to the right.” There they came, tails held high, bouncing along, just having a good time and heading straight for us. What followed was a once in a lifetime experience.

Nine wolves, later identified as the Slough Creek Pack, came down from the hillside and made for the riverside flood plain right in front us. They checked momentarily then made for a small depression in the plain, as soon as they hit the plain proper a coyote erupted out of the depression and ran away at top speed along the riverside. At first we expected them to chase the coyote as breakfast but they stopped at the depression and it quickly became clear that there was a carcass there, possibly killed by the pack last night. We had been there yesterday, near dusk and had seen no activity but there had been a lone pronghorn antelope grazing on the flood plain.

A large black wolf wearing a radio collar was first to eat but he soon allowed the others in to feed. The carcass was quickly torn in to several pieces and the wolves separated out and started a leisurely breakfast. There was no frenzied feeding but just a group of high spirited animals eating, playing tag with each other, stealing each others food and generally having a good time. [We were later to find out from the park biologist that the large black collared male was the alpha. The pack had been attacked by the Druid pack in the last ten days and the alpha and beta females were both killed.] There were three more large black wolves without collars who may have been this years pups and another two good sized gray wolves, one with a collar. One of the gray wolves went back to the site of the kill and came out with a large piece of the hide, which looked like it might have belonged to a pronghorn. A tug of war soon developed with three to five wolves piling in then dropping out to rest for a minute or two before coming back for more.

By this time word had got out amongst the serious wolf watchers and we were in the midst of a hundred or so people some like us with just binoculars and hand held cameras, others, usually dressed in camo., with giant spotter scopes and yard long camera lenses all on heavy duty tripods. Park rangers were dealing with the ‘Wolf Jam’ on the road. One of the two park wolf biologists were there and I was able to quiz her and she corrected my initial identification of the pack from Druid to Slough Creek.

The wolves seemed oblivious to us although there were the odd glances in our direction. After about an hour the play seemed to be over, most of the wolves lay down and only one or two were active. About fifteen minutes later one wolf started back towards the high country and this seemed to trigger the others in to getting up.
About three seemed to have left and the others were moving out when the leavers returned tails held high and a melee resulted around the kill. I could see no point in this other than high spirits but the coyote, a few ravens and several magpies who were on the scraps, got out of Dodge as fast as they could.

Then they left for good, not travelling line astern as a tight knit pack but spread out up and down the hillside, spooking a small herd of pronghorns as they went. It looked like they were heading away from Druid territory and towards Slough Creek.

We were incredibly lucky as it transpired that many of the other watchers had been coming several weeks each year, winter and summer, for many years and that was the best they had seen.

There were several unusual things about this wolf feeding. First, it was a pronghorn and they are supposed to be too fast for wolves to kill but maybe it was lame of sick. Second, there seemed to be very little domination / submission behaviour by the wolves perhaps due the absence of a female alpha. Thirdly the kill had not been taken over by a grizzly. Grizzlies can smell out a kill from many miles away and will takeover the kill, even sleeping on top of it to retain ownership.


Mud Volcanoes and Pelican Flats 21st September 08

We had a housekeeping sort of morning as it had dawned wet cold and windy before heading up for a walk round the mud volcanoes near Yellowstone Lake. The volcanic theme continued as we visited an area of the lake where the ground is hot enough for fisherman to cook their newly caught trout. The sulphur might add a little unusual flavour to the fish however.

We stopped off at Pelican Flats hoping to see some other fisherman in action but it looks like the ospreys had left on their migration south. The big herd of bison, many with calves, held our attention for a while. The calves were playful but the adults just kept their heads down mowing that succulent flats grass. Suddenly we saw a lone black wolf on the far side of the flats. At first it looked like he was stalking the herd and we wondered if we were going to see an attack by the only Yellowstone pack that has learned how to kill bison but it quickly became clear that he was not serious and the bison just ignored him. Eventually we lost sight of him as he headed up the valley. Still it is our second day with a wolf sighting. He probably belonged to the Mollies pack.

CHARRO

16th September 2008 Bozeman Montana

Charro was put to sleep this afternoon.


He was a special dog.

Flying in the sunshine with the GALLATIN EAGLES

The sun is shining the wind is light and there is a flying field near our RV park so we went flying to today with the GALLATIN EAGLES.

It is an interesting location to fly at. There is an Indian sweat lodge on the right hand landing approach. Local site rules forbid overflying the lodge if it is in use and there was smoke and cars parked there today so it was out of bounds. Left hand approaches involve flying round the pits, behind a large tree and then between two buildings before planting it on a narrow and short strip.

I enjoyed my flights and was struck again by how friendly everybody is up here.

CHARRO'S BIT
The fat one is playing with his noisy flying toys again! Still it is sunny out here at the field and the boss has covered me up so my bones are getting warmed up.

I have discovered a new wheese, I did not eat for a couple of days because of my last bit of tummy trouble so the boss tried to tempt me with proper REAL food. I have found that if I resist the old rabbit droppings she used to give me she will buy ROAST CHICKENS from WALMART and hand feed white meat. Yummee!

Kicking back in Bozeman

We are taking it easy in Bozeman for a week. Being close to a good vet is comforting at the moment. Charro is enjoying
laying out in the sun and I am getting a bit of building done.





We explored old Bozeman one day and found a beautiful, tree lined, shady neighbourhood filled with the most idiosyncratic old houses.

Some were clearly designed by someone who did a pic and mix from history others " just growed like Topsy"

The McDonald house is almost 130 years old. It was built by Richard and Mary who were African-American slaves, freed after the Civil War.






We should be off to Yellowstone to do bit of wolf waiting / watching then exploring the volcanic bits and other wildlife encounters next week.

Back in the USA - MONTANA - Big Sky Country

After a couple of visits to the vet in Cranbrook BC Charro is a little better but he is reluctant to eat or drink, seems to have lost his appetite. Still he enjoyed being out in the sun even if Carol thought it was cold.

We woke up next morning to find white tailed deer in the park next to our overnight site. They seemed quite unconcerned about us even when we started up and moved out.






We crossed the border back in to the USA and finnaaalllly it is warm again. The forecast is even good for the next 7 days. We should be in Yellowstone next week and just hope the good weather continues and we spot some wolves. At this moment we are about 70 miles into "Big Sky Country" and sitting out in the evening sunshine.

The Canadian Rockies Jasper to Banff and down to Radium Hot Springs

We drove up to Jasper and found a pretty little mountain town with lots of touristy stuff available in the shops. After watching the sun set
over the Continental Divide we found our basic campsite for the night. We discovered we had hit a big bank holiday weekend and every camp site for miles was booked solid. But we are OK as we have a generator, lots of water and a fridge freezer running off propane so living "off the grid" for a few days is not a problem.

Next day we drove down the Icefield Parkway, one of the top scenic drives in North America. This pic shows the Athabasca falls and the next the peculiar potholes
drilled down through the rock by the suspended particles in the water eddying round and round.




We briefly stopped at the Columbia Icefield, hundreds of square kilometres of ice, up to a thousand feet thick, and feeding eight glaciers. As it was cloudy and wet we skipped the bus trip
up the glacier and also decided not to hike it. The visitors centre was good but filled with Japanese and German tourists.

Banff was next, another mountain town in less spectacular sourroundings but better quality stuff in the shops. Some was so pricey viewing was by appointment only!

All in all this was a spectacular drive
amid proper mountains.















The weather forecasts now give the height at which snow can be expected and they have just had 20 cm of snow over the local hills. Brr Brr we are off south tomorrow.

CHARRO'S BIT

Just had a bout of Canadian Tummy, the boss has been busy cleaning up after me and trying to get me to eat and drink but I don't seem to be hungry or thirsty, just very very sleepy.

So they did it again, took me to a vet who shaved my leg and stuck needles in to me in a place with tiles everywhere. Still after a couple of bags of stuff called Ringers Lactate [ looked like water to me but the boss had to pay lots more than water would cost ] I felt a lot better. The nice people there even gave me some food that tasted of proper food and better still persuaded the boss to buy some. Hurray I get some tasty food again but I still don't feel like drinking anything. So as well as hand feeding me the boss squirts water into my mouth while I am on my side.