Yellowstone Adventure: Ranger Talks

 The 4th of July was my Friday so that night I decided to head down to the amphitheater to listen to the nightly ranger talk.  I arrived early so I could walk around and explore the trail on the lakeshore.


I started at the marina.  I love the reflection of the clouds in the lake.

 

Since this is a developed area the trail was paved.

 

I must be going in the right direction.


The trail has a suspension bridge.  I wondered if Irv would be brave enough to cross this.

 

Before long I can to an area where the trail was washed out.  I knew this was going to come up, I just wish it had been further down the trail.   According to a ranger I talked with, the lake is about 2 feet higher than usual for this time of year.  This area of Yellowstone had a tremendous snowfall last winter and got about 34 feet of snow.  That's why the lakes and rivers are running so high.

 

I took a shortcut off the trail so I could go walk through the campground.  The campground was filled with smoke.  It's a huge campground with 429 sites and I think all of them were having a campfire.

 

The campground is crowded.  Tents, campers, and people are jammed in everywhere. It's definitely not a place that I would enjoy camping in.

 

On my way out I passed the registration office which is where I work.  That line is there almost all the time especially after 4:00 p.m.  Tonight I'm working the night shift by myself so that line will likely be four times longer.


 

Here's the back of the office.

 

This is the ash trailer.  The campground attendants clean out the fire pits every so often, empty the ashes in here and then drive them off and dump them somewhere.

 

Almost time for the ranger talk.  They start a campfire every night so that the kids can roast marshmallows.


That night's talk was on the reintroduction of the wolf into Yellowstone in 1995.  Very interesting how the whole ecosystem changed when one of the top predators was brought back into the park.  Humans learned that they can't mess with nature.  Wait...maybe they didn't learn since the grizzly was just delisted from the endangered species list. 

I hope I have a chance to see a wolf...from a very far distance.

Comments

Yogi♪♪♪ said…
People love our National Parks and I think we need more of them.

One of the big state parks in Oklahoma is Turner Falls in southern Oklahoma. Years ago (decades ago actually) I was camping down there in that godforsaken place. My car was parked partially on the paved roadway which was strictly forbidden and a patrol car came by an with its windows rolled up, used a loudspeaker to tell me to my car completely off the roadway.

It was a real wilderness experience I tell you.
July 14, 2017 at 9:30 PM
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