Life on the High Plains

A couple days ago I had an appointment at the Yellowstone Park headquarters in Mammoth.  I left three hours early to make the two hour drive from West Yellowstone to Mammoth. Along the route I encountered not one, but two bison jams. For the first bison jam the traffic was backed up behind the herd for miles and miles until they moved off the road into a beautiful green meadow. The bison are migrating right now.  Three herds are in Yellowstone and they migrate clockwise in the park.  They are smart enough to take the path of least resistance which is the roads.  Much easier than trying to walk through the forest. The second bison jam I encountered was moving in the opposite direction in the road construction zone between Norris and Mammoth. Needless to say I missed my appointment because it took 4 1/2 hours to get to Mammoth.  It's okay though because there isn't anything much cuter than a mother bison and her calf also known as a...

On Wednesday morning I visited the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River.  The waterfall is always amazing, but on this morning there was a beautiful rainbow at the base of the falls--nature's kaleidoscope. Happy Skywatch Friday!

I'm currently reading a book about the early expeditions into Yellowstone.  There were two expeditions in the 1870s.  The Langford, Doane, Washburn expedition in 1870 followed by the Heyden expedition in 1872. This past week I took myself on an expedition of the upper, middle, and lower geyser basins of Yellowstone. The most famous, of course, is Old Faithful.  There are two sides to Old Faithful.  The side where hundreds or thousands of people crowd the boardwalks trying to get a seat on one of the benches to watch the eruptions. What I like to do, however, is walk around to the "back" side of Old Faithful.  From here you can get a front seat to the eruption with only a handful of other people.  (Most visitors to Yellowstone are what I call "drive by" tourists.  They don't want to venture very far from their cars and therefore they miss most of Yellowstone.) This is also where you can get on the miles of boardwalks and trails in the ...

Today I visited one of my favorite places in Yellowstone--Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin. Grand Prismatic is the largest hot springs in the U.S. and the third largest in the world. I love how the beautiful turquoise water reflects into the steam.  After observing Grand Prismatic from the boardwalk I drove a couple miles down the road to the Fairy Falls Trail parking lot.  From there I made the 1.2 mile hike to the Grand Prismatic Overlook. This is a new trail that opened at the end of July last year.  I never had a chance to hike the trail last year so I was thrilled to find a parking spot and make my way up there this year. It is definitely a beautiful and unique view. Happy Skywatch Friday!

Last week I made the long drive to the Dubois Cemetery to hang out with my mom and dad.  My parents are buried a long way from any of their kids and they don't have anyone to bring them flowers so I took the opportunity beautify their graves. It has been nine months since my dad passed away and sometimes I still can't believe it.  What a gift it was to be able to visit him several times last summer and to be with him the last couple weeks until he took his last breath.  He is missed every day. I visited a few other relatives while I was there.  Dorothy was one of my mom's sisters.  There were seven sisters and four brothers in the family--one brother died at birth. There are two sections in the Dubois Cemetery.  This side has the beautiful pine trees.  My mom always said she wanted a tree, but... her and dad ended up on the treeless side because there was no more space under the trees.  I'm thinking about sneaking i...

Today was another cold and rainy day in Yellowstone so instead of hitting a trail I loaded into the truck and went exploring.  The destination--Earthquake Lake which is about 27 miles northwest of West Yellowstone, Montana. An earthquake hit this area of the Madison River on the night of August 17, 1959.  It was a 7.5 quake which at that time was the second largest quake recorded in the lower 48.  (Can you see the tree tops that are sticking out of the water?) It triggered the massive landslide that you can see above.  The massive slide blocked the Madison River and created Earthquake lake.  At the site of the slide 250 people were camping at the site of the slide.   28 people lost their lives that night including 19 who were buried by the landslide. The Forest Service built a visitor center at the site of slide and there is a memorial to the victims a short walk from the visitor center. The names are listed on the memorial....