Category: National Parks

Brantley Lake State Park, Saturday October 15, 2016

Went to see the bats fly out of Carlsbad Caverns tonight, it such an amazing thing to watch.  Their were a lot of people there and we stayed until we couldn’t see any more bats.  Bats were still flying out it was just too dark.  Even with the full moon we could only see bats when they flew between us and moon. It takes two to three hours for all the bats to fly out each night, between 300,000 and 500,000 bats live in the cave.

This picture is from the national park website.  In order not to disturb and/or scare the bats cameras and electronic devices are not allowed to be on or used.  We saw a ranger escort three people out of the amphitheater for trying to violate this request.

Current plan is to be here for a few more days and then follow the warm weather to wherever it takes us.  Home for Turkey day.

Glad to hear that the BIG storm at home did not materialize and winds were in the 40 mpg range and rain for the week was in the 4-5 inch range.  Sunny and 94 here on Sunday.

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.