Well, we’re back in the land of connectivity, here in Boulder, CO. We rolled in last night at about 7:30, after a pleasant 500 or so miles from Cody – the 75 mph highways make a wonderful traveling feature - 300+ pronghorn along the way, not to mention more cattle than we can count.
We’re staying with our dear friends Will and Beth, except we’re not, because they had to leave (their house in North Carolina finally sold… so a little unfortunate timing… the saving grace being we’ll see them when we roll back through in October), so we’re hanging with Blondie (their sweet 14 year old lab who is currently sleeping by my feet) and our other dear friend Bill. But let’s play a little catch-up on our last week or so. There is way too much to try to explain, so here are some highlights.
Yellowstone highlights – in no particular order
-One 17-degree morning – a frosty wake up from our cozy little tent (the nightly condensation was frozen…our smallish 4 person backpacking tent did the trick, mostly)
– It did warm up during the day, and most of the days were quite nice… in the 60s and sunny.
-All the animals
A gazillion bison
2 wolves
4 red foxes (though it might be a double sighting of the same one…)
4 coyotes
Some deer
Lots of elk (including the one bull elk that wandered into our campsite the first night, and sat down about 100 feet away while we ate dinner, bugling every now and then).
6 or 7 big horn sheep (female and young ones… so no big horns)
3 trumpeter swans in an early morning fly-by
2 pronghorn (see above regarding the real pronghorn sightings…)
Lots of hawks, osprey, eagles, ravens, crows, gray jays, magpies, a kestrel, some mountain blue birds, geese,
A few fish (none caught)
Lots of bear tracks
We’re staying with our dear friends Will and Beth, except we’re not, because they had to leave (their house in North Carolina finally sold… so a little unfortunate timing… the saving grace being we’ll see them when we roll back through in October), so we’re hanging with Blondie (their sweet 14 year old lab who is currently sleeping by my feet) and our other dear friend Bill. But let’s play a little catch-up on our last week or so. There is way too much to try to explain, so here are some highlights.
Yellowstone highlights – in no particular order
-One 17-degree morning – a frosty wake up from our cozy little tent (the nightly condensation was frozen…our smallish 4 person backpacking tent did the trick, mostly)
– It did warm up during the day, and most of the days were quite nice… in the 60s and sunny.-All the animals
A gazillion bison
2 wolves
4 red foxes (though it might be a double sighting of the same one…)
4 coyotes
Some deer
Lots of elk (including the one bull elk that wandered into our campsite the first night, and sat down about 100 feet away while we ate dinner, bugling every now and then).
6 or 7 big horn sheep (female and young ones… so no big horns)
3 trumpeter swans in an early morning fly-by
2 pronghorn (see above regarding the real pronghorn sightings…)
Lots of hawks, osprey, eagles, ravens, crows, gray jays, magpies, a kestrel, some mountain blue birds, geese,
A few fish (none caught)
Lots of bear tracks
Lots of scat (including some mountain lion)
And 1 BEAR! (black, we believe… but we didn’t hang around long enough to make introductions)
-The hikes! From the heights of Mt. Washburn (10,243),
to the grand canyon of the Yellowstone, to the petrified trees of Fossil Forest, to the bear of Clear Lake… Lots of miles of incredible things.
-Campfires out of necessity (to keep from freezing… literally)
-Wolves howling in the night
-Elk bugling all around
-Thermal features (the boys can tell you the difference between a geyser, a hot spring, a mud pot and a fumarole (steam vent))
-Fishing the Gibbon River
-Watching bison, elk and coyotes from our campsite
And 1 BEAR! (black, we believe… but we didn’t hang around long enough to make introductions)
-The hikes! From the heights of Mt. Washburn (10,243),
to the grand canyon of the Yellowstone, to the petrified trees of Fossil Forest, to the bear of Clear Lake… Lots of miles of incredible things.-Campfires out of necessity (to keep from freezing… literally)
-Wolves howling in the night
-Elk bugling all around
-Thermal features (the boys can tell you the difference between a geyser, a hot spring, a mud pot and a fumarole (steam vent))
-Fishing the Gibbon River
-Watching bison, elk and coyotes from our campsite
-Drape Academy in unusual places (everything is a field trip!) 
-Opening our canned goods with a hatchet and pry bar (resourcefulness is a virtue…)
-… and… My simple pleasure - Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap – an all-purpose camping essential (wash your dishes, your body, shampoo the hair and brush the teeth!). I am very pleased to say that I went the entire week at Yellowstone NP without showering – just my daily stripped-to-the waist scrub downs with the Dr. Bronner’s J.
So these are my musings from the week. I’ll add some thoughts from the rest of the family’s journaling here.
Matt: 9-7-07
“We hiked Mt. Washburn today. We saw 4 big horn sheep, a red-tail hawk and a bald eagle. When we reached the top the view was amazing. When we were driving up to Mt. Washburn there was a bison in the road.” [editorial comment by the father – we were driving along the road, and saw a couple big piles of bison evidence in the road, which we were chuckling about, until we came around the corner, and there the author of such was, lumbering along the highway, quite content with that trail. He was playing a little chicken with all us drivers – walking right down the middle, and whenever a car would try to squeeze by on one side or the other, he would sidle along that direction. We joked that it must be his day to be out entertaining (teasing) the tourists….]
Andy: 9-8-07
“Today we saw a black bear. We were out hiking. We were on the Clear Lake trail. We had already seen a dead hawk, 2 red-tailed hawks, many paw prints, and lots of scat. At first we saw an animal. Then we thought it was a bison. Then we realized it was a black bear. We started making lots of noise. We got out of there in a hurry.”
Chrissie: 9-11-07
“It was cool driving through Hayden Valley at 6pm and again at 8pm. The bison had taken over the roads, we saw a bald eagle, an elk walking down the middle of the Yellowstone River, two bull elk “battling” on a hillside and a red fox crossed the road.
It’s all about being in the right place at the right time, which means lots of time in the park.”
Back to now…
We’re here in Boulder for the weekend, then have a good 800-mile driving day on Monday to get us to Grandpa Gene’s in Iowa. They’ve already started harvesting the beans (soybeans), so we have to get a hurry-up on and get there. We’ll update you all from there (unless we get the urge before then). We miss Seattle, but are having a blast – so far we’re not tired of each other!
Blessings!
-Opening our canned goods with a hatchet and pry bar (resourcefulness is a virtue…)
-… and… My simple pleasure - Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap – an all-purpose camping essential (wash your dishes, your body, shampoo the hair and brush the teeth!). I am very pleased to say that I went the entire week at Yellowstone NP without showering – just my daily stripped-to-the waist scrub downs with the Dr. Bronner’s J.
So these are my musings from the week. I’ll add some thoughts from the rest of the family’s journaling here.
Matt: 9-7-07
“We hiked Mt. Washburn today. We saw 4 big horn sheep, a red-tail hawk and a bald eagle. When we reached the top the view was amazing. When we were driving up to Mt. Washburn there was a bison in the road.” [editorial comment by the father – we were driving along the road, and saw a couple big piles of bison evidence in the road, which we were chuckling about, until we came around the corner, and there the author of such was, lumbering along the highway, quite content with that trail. He was playing a little chicken with all us drivers – walking right down the middle, and whenever a car would try to squeeze by on one side or the other, he would sidle along that direction. We joked that it must be his day to be out entertaining (teasing) the tourists….]
Andy: 9-8-07
“Today we saw a black bear. We were out hiking. We were on the Clear Lake trail. We had already seen a dead hawk, 2 red-tailed hawks, many paw prints, and lots of scat. At first we saw an animal. Then we thought it was a bison. Then we realized it was a black bear. We started making lots of noise. We got out of there in a hurry.”
Chrissie: 9-11-07
“It was cool driving through Hayden Valley at 6pm and again at 8pm. The bison had taken over the roads, we saw a bald eagle, an elk walking down the middle of the Yellowstone River, two bull elk “battling” on a hillside and a red fox crossed the road.
It’s all about being in the right place at the right time, which means lots of time in the park.”Back to now…
We’re here in Boulder for the weekend, then have a good 800-mile driving day on Monday to get us to Grandpa Gene’s in Iowa. They’ve already started harvesting the beans (soybeans), so we have to get a hurry-up on and get there. We’ll update you all from there (unless we get the urge before then). We miss Seattle, but are having a blast – so far we’re not tired of each other!
Blessings!
6 comments:
Hey guys
Sounds like lots and lots of fun. Not quite like my camping out at Highline H.S. Last week-end. Love traveling with you in spirit. Drive on
Katrina
We love that picture of you guys after seeing the bear. You all look very healthy and like you're having fun! Tell the boys we miss them (it's true!) and that we're following along, so keep writing. Love, Alison and Chul.
so THAT is what nature looks like. good to know. now i can say that i've seen it too.
In the wildlife sighting department it looks like Yellowstone takes the prize over Glacier! We saw goats, bighorn sheep, 1 black bear and several deer. We also spent two nights in a back county campsite that was visited by a Moose the day morning before we arrived and a Grizzly the night after we left, but we somehow missed the excitement.
Wish we could be seeing all this together!
Miss you guys,
Steff
I think I found my new friend walking in the middle of the road...the bison just trekking along at an ever so lovely snails pace!! Hey wait, I think I saw the chicken pass him up...
WOW! is all I can say. What a trip and it's only the beginning! Enjoy it. Blog what a great idea, this will probably even help you guys remember your trip! Have Fun!!
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