Author: harrylange

Liberty Lake – Spokane County Park – Tuesday June 7, 2016

We are in site RV13 on a warm day, 94.  Will be here one night, not a bad place when nobody is here. The rock parking spots are 13 feet apart.  Our large slide is taking up 2 feet of our neighbor’s 13 feet.

Update:  We will never stay here again the sites all steep and the people who stay here are urban idiots.  Two groups who came in after us acted surprised they would have to pay for their site, the sign on the camp host site said “Off Duty”. I think they both planned on leaving early the next morning before the host was “On Duty”.  One group had two additional cars come in just before dark and both cars left at 6:30 a.m. and the original campsite owner left at 7:00 a.m.   The restrooms were cleaned in the morning however he left puddles in the men’s side that looked about an inch deep.  

Maps:
Today’s drive

Campground location

Aerial of campground

Yellowstone National Park, Second Trip In 2000 and Beavertail Hill State, MT – Monday June 6, 2016

Our second trip to Yellowstone was September 8, 2000 to September 17, 2000.  This trip was Tanya, Brian, Jean and myself.  Left at 2:30 p.m. on Friday Sept 8 and got home at 2:30 a.m. Sunday Sept 17, 2000.  This trip was a little faster pace.

Saturday – got to the park at 5:00 p.m., camped at Mammoth
Sunday – Mammoth, Tower Falls, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone , camped at Norris Campground
Monday – Norris Geyser Basin, Old Faithful, camped at Grant Village
Tuesday – Fountain Paint Pots, Firehole Lake, Midway Basin, Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin, back to Grant Village
Wednesday – Geyser Basin by Yellowstone Lake, Mud Pots, Mud Volcano,
Thursday – Don’t know what we did
Friday – at 2:40 left the North Entrance for home, 10:30 p.m. drank beer with Tanya at a Montana Rest Stop campground.

Monday  June 6, 2016
We are spending the night at Beavertail Hill State Park, site 24, just east of Missoula.

This is the warmest we have been for a while.  The weather report said it was 91 in Missoula today.  During the two weeks we were in Yellowstone we used 13.6 gallons of propane, I think that is the MOST we have ever used and every day when we ran the generator we had the electric heat on.   We had a great time, might go back next year.

Yellowstone National Park – Thursday June 2, 2016

Today was a trip to the southeast section and Yellowstone Grand Canyon.

Visited the Paint Pots area.

These will dry out later into the summer.

These were cool because of the waves in the water coming out of the hole.

During our drive south we saw a Great Gray Owl.  Again I took a bunch of pictures, while I was getting my camera out I missed the owl take two flights.  During the third flight a blond B____ walked right between me and the owl.  You can see her blurry head in one of the pictures.  I was lucky compared to the girl I had been standing next to for the previous 20 minutes.  She was standing to my right and just far enough below me that the blond B____ blocked out all of her pictures.

The owl flew a little south to a new tree.

And then away.

Here are a few more geyser pictures from Black Sand Basin.

Map

 

Yellowstone National Park – Wednesday June 1, 2016

This was Mammoth Hot springs area day.
On the way up to Mammoth we stopped along the road to see a bear.  Turned out to be a grizzly with two cubs.  I will spare you having to look at all the great pictures I took of this bear, 1105.
We spent several hours looking at the visitor’s center and walking around the old fort area.

This shows the sizes of Yellowstone volcanic  eruptions.  The little one on the left is the ash put out by Mt. Saint Helens in 1981 and the other three are the different Yellowstone eruptions.

One of the elk had left it’s calf by one of the buildings for safe keeping.   The park service had to post a ranger in the area to ensure one touched the calf.

This is a Great Horned Owl nest with 2 young in it.

Map

 

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.