My Life and Travels
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Yes we went back on Tuesday. On Monday we started down into the caverns at 12:30 and came out at 4:20. The bat flight program starts at 5:45 so we stayed and it was again amazing. The bats started to come out at 6:10 and they were still coming out when we left at 7:15, it was just to dark to see them. The ranger said it takes 2 1/2 to 4 hours for all the bats to come out 300,000 to 400,000 are here this year. Did you know you can see bats two miles away. They come out of the caverns in what looks like a flying tube extending out into the air and across the country side. You can actually see clouds of bats out at least 2 miles from the caverns and maybe further.
Tuesday we came back to spend more time in the caverns and to see the bat flight again. Jean got a big blister on Monday so I walked down the natural entrance by myself and Jean took the elevator down a hour after I started down. At home this morning when I set down to put my shoes on Hank stationed himself so I could not leave without letting him know I was leaving.
On Monday I took 700 pictures and Tuesday I got an additional 476.
This is one of the largest single features.
An amazing 62 feet high.
Few pictures of cavern features:
This one shows the some of the size of the caverns.
Looking across one of the rooms.
Ok, that’s enough. I still have 24 pictures I prepared to put into this post but I’ll control myself. Have a GREAT day.
How do you write a blog about Carlsbad Caverns. They are truly amazing. The size is beyond what will fit in a camera. They have mapped 138 miles of caverns. The main cavern you get to tour on the self guided tour is 750 feet below the surface and will hold 14 football fields, the ceiling is 200 feet high in places, one of the large formations is 62 feet high. The place is so big you just don’t have the feeling you are underground.
Today Jean and I walked the one mile trail from the natural opening 750 feet down into the mail cavern. Here is some of my pictures:
A flower from the natural entrance.
And a wasp.
I found this on the net showing a cross cut of the caverns.
Need to have at least one picture to show the bats are here.
The next amazing thing you experience is the trail down into the caverns. It drops quickly into the ground dropping at a plus 20% grade for almost a mile.
The ranger said it is an hour trip to the bottom, we took 2 hours and enjoyed every minute of the trip down.
We got here about 12:30 this afternoon and plan on staying here until the weather clears, that should be Thursday or Friday.
I just heard that if you are trying to head north from Arizona through Nevada or Utah you are out of luck. The three main roads are either closed ( 95 and 93) and I-15 through Utah may close or could be closed now.
Here are today’s campsite pictures, we’re in # 37.
This is our view.
Here is today’s drive.
We are just north of Carlsbad, NM.
Their was a sign at the visitor’s center saying the campground was full. We drove into the campground to find a site and than went back to the main road to the dump station.
We set up in site 36 by the tree in the center. I have the TV satellite dish on the roof of our RV and the tree was in the way to get a signal. While we were setting up camp the guy in site 37 left. We decided to move camp to 37 rather than getting up on the roof and taking the sat. dish down so we could get a signal.
Hank is really happy. We got out for a walk this afternoon, this campground does not seem to have any Goat Heads.
I’ll end today with some sunset pictures.
We stayed in camp all day today. It is supposed to get to 88 or 90 degrees and the park is going to have the electricity off for most of the day. Site 1 – 15 do not have working electricity and today is the day to get it fixed. With the power off we can not leave Hank in the motorhome all day with this kind of heat. We will wait and go to Carlsbad Caverns on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Just before dark the campground host came by and said the power will be off most of the day Tuesday. What they did Monday did not fix the problem and sites 1 – 15 still are not working and they are not really sure what the problem is. We decided to head for Roswell on Tuesday morning (10/13/2015) then to Fort Sumner, NM on Thursday morning and spend the weekend in the Fort Sumner area. We will come back to Brantley Lake and Carlsbad next week. We are getting really flexible.
