Life on the High Plains

One of my favorite places in Yellowstone is Firehole falls.  I haven't visited there yet this year, but on the drive back from Idaho Falls yesterday I stopped to take a couple shots of the Firehole River above the falls.   I've never been a fisherman, but this river has always made me want to try fly fishing.   The river is really high right now because the snow melt has started, but it's still very serene and peaceful.   The ravens are Yellowstone are huge.  This guy was begging, but I know better than to feed any of the wildlife in Yellowstone.  It puts their life in danger.   A little further down the road I stopped at Biscuit Basin and snapped a picture of this big guy (from across the road with a telephoto lens).   My final stop of the day was at Shoshone Point.  On a clear day you can see the Tetons, but today all I got was a glimpse of Shoshone Lake.   Happy Skywatch Friday!

Meet Mildred, the Grant Village employee campground mascot.  She hangs out with us all day and night  We're pretty sure she has dropped a calf nearby.  We just hope the calf doesn't get eaten by a grizzly, like a baby calf did in the guest campground yesterday. A black bear came into the campground, found the calf and proceeded to start eating it.  Then a YUUUGE grizzly bear charged up, chased the black bear up a tree and then helped himself to the calf. Not long afterward the rangers showed up and "bean bagged" the grizzly.  What they don't know is that he came back a few hours later.  I hope he doesn't make a nuisance of himself or it might turn out badly.  All I know is that when the campground opens to campers on Friday I want to tell all the people in tents that they should reconsider.   Here's another grizzly and two cubs that I saw from a distance today near the Biscuit Basin area on my way back from Idaho Falls....

Today I got paid to go on the Circle of Fire tour.  It's a trip around the lower loop in Yellowstone.  The concessionaire I'm working for wants all employees to know as much about the park as possible so we can answer guest's questions.  They put us on buses with tour guides and they practice on us. The park still has some of these vintage 1970s era buses.  I thought it was pretty cool.   We started where I live, Grant Village, which is right on Lake Yellowstone.   Lake Yellowstone is the largest high altitude lake in the U.S. at 7,500 feet.   Lake Lodge is absolutely beautiful.  Some day I'm going to stay there as a guest.   We got to see this big guy swimming across the Yellowstone River.   Then of course a stop at Canyon to visit my very favorite Yellowstone feature.   Onto the Chocolate Pots.   Gibbon Falls.     Then on to Fountain Paint Pots....

Greetings from Yellowstone National Park!  I'm living and working in Yellowstone this summer.  Living the dream! I got my first day off this week so a co-worker (and new friend) headed off to Lone Star Geyser.  It's a 6 mile in and out trek inbetween West Thumb and Old Faithful.   I'm not going to lie, the trip was a little creepy at times because we were on the trail mostly by ourselves.  We were both armed with bear spray and bear bells and we chatted the whole way which I'm sure scared the grizzlies away.  There were quite a few snow banks and downed trees to traverse.     The reward was worth it.  We got to see this gigantic geyser erupt for about 30 minutes.  By the time it went off there were only about 12 of us sitting around watching one of Yellowstone's jewels.   Happy Yellowstone Skywatch Friday!

After five days of in processing and training we finally got a day and a half off.  Irv left this morning so I'm on my own now. I thought I'd give y'all a tour of my living arrangements.   This is my parking place and the pile of snow in back of the truck.  It's getting smaller...maybe it will be gone by mid-June.     This is my "little house" and my front porch.  As you can see I have an electric meter.  In the employee RV lot we have full hook-ups.  I wouldn't have done this adventure without that luxury.     We brought the generator along just in case of power loss.  In the 6 days we've been here the power has already gone out several times, but it comes back on fairly quickly.     This is another view of my "front porch".  I've got my bird bath, my spinning trailer and of course...     ...my fairy garden.  I've got solar lights wrapped around the garden ...

We have arrived!  Yellowstone is all I expected it to be an more this early in the season and more.  Hardly any people and lots of critters. I've been loading up in the company van every morning and going to Old Faithful for training.  It's only a 17 minute drive, but it takes abut 45 minutes.  Irv has had the opportunity to go out and play when he's not fixing something in the trailer.  We've had water leaks and other little things that have required his attention.   We've had quite the wildlife adventure so far.  This guy was outside our camper when we camped in the Gros Ventre Campground in the Teton National Park the night before moving into Yellowstone.   Here he is after getting up from his morning nap and meandering off into the woods.   The roads in Yellowstone are crowded with bison who really don't care if cars think they have the right of way.  It's so cool to have them walk right past the car. ...

The big day is finally here!  After several days of loading the trailer with everything I might need in the next 115 days, it was time to head north.  The further north we got, the windier and wetter it became.  Fortunately, we only passed through snow for a very short distance. We had cross winds of 40+ miles per hour which made the travel slow and most of the day we got about 5 miles per gallon.  Yes, I said 5 miles per gallon.  We had to stop for gas every two hours! Our planned destination for the night was Rock Springs, Wyoming and that's where we are parked now.  We are at the KOA which is directly off the interstate with these lovely Conoco Phillips fuel tanks in the background.  The KOA offers free Wi-Fi, but it is really slow so I can only upload this one picture. The cat has done amazing well.  She huddled in the crate in the backseat of the truck all day, but once we parked and unloaded her into the trailer, she has been explor...