Month: May 2016

Yellowstone National Park – Tuesday May 31, 2016

Today was my birthday so Richard and I were on the road early to look for wolves and fish on the other side of the park.  Out the door at 5:10 a.m., wait for the ice to thaw off the winds and on the road by 5:15 a.m..
Drove to the northeast section of the park Lamar Valley to look for wolves at a known wolf den.  The den is about 1.5 miles across the valley from the road and view point.

We saw:
White swan
Beaver
Buffalo and calves
Gray wolf
Dark brown wolf
Four wolf cubs
Osprey
Pronghorn
Grizzly bear
Black bear
Big Horn Sheep
Mountain Goat and young

Stopped along the road to watch a black bear on the ridge line on the other side of the Lemar river.  Ten minutes later the bear had strolled along the ridge, down to the river, swam the river, climbed up our side of the river bank and was 20 feet away.  Below are a few of the 292 pictures I took during his 10 minute stroll.
The bear walk right through the crowd of people who had formed along the road, across the road and up the steep hill behind us.  It was amazing to watch.

Here are some of the picture taken today.

Osprey Nest 

First picture of the bear on the opposite side of the river on a ridge line.

Worked his way down to the river.

Maps

Yellowstone National Park – Monday May 30, 2016

Today was laundry day.  While doing the laundry I updated to blog and downloaded InReach maps of our travels.  I have gone back and added maps to 5/23, 5/24, 5/26, 5/27, and 5/29 – 5/28 was an in camp day, 29th got a fishing map.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is what it takes for laundry and blog post days; PC, 2 cell phones – one for data and one to text the kids, cameras, GPS to upload the minute by minute locations, Ipads and assorted chargers and cables.

Yellowstone National Park – Saturday May 28, 2016

Today is in camp day.
Got my new telescope out to see what kind of pictures I can get.   The focus is still a challenge but that could be a function of distance, just to close for a 110mm telescope.  I’ll have to do some more research about the distance on earth I can see using this telescope.
Normal camera shot across the valley.

300mm shot.

Telescope shot, this is the rock point about the center of the above picture.

Trees on the ridge line.

Yellowstone National Park – Friday May 27, 2016

Today we headed into the northeast section of the park up the Lamar Valley looking for bears and wolves.  We didn’t see any bears, did drive through an area where the rangers were making people leave.   This usually means there is or was bears and people where blocking the road to take pictures.  Up the Lamar valley we saw sheep, antelope, buffalo and a WOLF.  This is an active wolf dean on the other side of valley had to be more than a mile away.  These pictures were taken with my 500mm lens with 1.4 doubler for 700mm.  I plan to go back with my telescope before we leave on June 6th.
Yellowstone river.
Sheep across the valley.
Antelope.

The wolf is the dark brown spot in the center, just to the right of the tree shadow.

Maps
This is where a wolf dean is located.
Aerial of wolf dean area.
Today’s travels.

 

Yellowstone National Park – Thursday May 26, 2016

Headed south of Madison area to see pools, geysers and the mighty Old Faithful.
We also got to see many people taking pictures of themselves.  Oh what I would have done for a selfie stick cutter.
This is the slow season.
Posing is a popular sport, this can take a while to get just the right pose.
This is what I call the Ipad squat, a very common sighting in this part of the world.
Set though two eruptions of Old Faithful, they are 90 minutes apart +or- 10 minutes.  These pictures are from the second eruption.  The wind changed just before the first eruptions and we ended up being  down stream of the steam.

Yellowstone National Park – Wednesday May 25, 2016

I got up at 6:00 a.m. and headed back to Norris Geyser area.  I spent a couple of hours looking around and taking pictures, only saw one other person during the first hour and a half.
In the afternoon Jean and I want over to Canyon Village to the Visitor’s Center.
Road buffalo.

On the way back we spent some time watching a coyote hunting in the tall grass.  We got to watch him get four of these voles or moles whatever he was eating.

Map
Today’s travel.

Norris Geyser Basin

Yellowstone National Park – Tuesday May 24, 2016

Jean and I went exploring with the RV’s today (Richard and Vickie).  Headed north on the west side of the park to Mammoth and back.  We saw bison and elk along with the Norris Geyser Basin and walked some of the Upper part of Mammoth Hot Springs, back to camp by 4:00.

Formation inside of a pool.

Mammoth Hot Springs.

Norris Geyser.

Mammoth Hot Springs.

Maps
Today’s travel

Some of the walking around Mammoth Hot Springs.

Yellowstone National Park – Monday May 23, 2016

We left Lewis and Clark Caverns this morning with a little excitement.  When leaving the motorhome this morning I stepped down onto the automatic retractable steps just before they locked into the out position.  This sheared 3 of the 4 mounting bolts for the motor off it’s mounting plate.   It keep the steps up while we drove to Yellowstone I used 2 of Richard’s ¼ in zip ties.  If you cannot hold something in place with Duct tape or zip ties it should go directly into the trash.

We got to Yellowstone at 1:30, got our campsite for two weeks, set up camp and pulled the steps apart.  We could use the steps fully extended when they were braced up with my tool box and a leveling block, at least we could get in and out with no problem for the next two weeks.   Richard and I took the step motor into West Yellowstone and found Jake at one of the auto repair businesses who very nicely took the three sheared of bolts out of the motor.  We than went to Ace Hardware and found the three bolts we needed.  It took a little pushing and adjusting to the step motor installed back into the step bracket however we were done by five and the steps work great.

We are staying at Madison Campground 14 miles into the park from the west entrance, in site E196.

Great view from our site.

Maps

Today’s travel.

Madison Campground.

Lewis and Clark Caverns – Sunday May 22, 2016

We drove down to Virginia City this morning, most of the town was still closed things open up on Memorial Weekend.

I will add some pictures when I get them off my camera.

In the morning we leave for two weeks at Madison Campground in Yellowstone National Park.  I know their is no internet at the campground so I do not know when I will post again.
Written on IPad.