The Sound of Silence

 Shhh... Hear that? That is the sound of Yellowstone National Park after the tourists go home and the children go back to school. Ahhhh...

We have been planning this camping trip to Yellowstone for quite a while now. Last year, we came down early in September to try to photograph the elk in rut, but we were a little too early. The woods echoed with the bugling of elk, but there was no "action"! So this year, we deliberately went later in the month. Annnd... we missed it!

I love this little footbridge at the outset of the Beaver Pond Trail.

Beautiful scenery,
but not a single elk in sight!

We arrived at Mammoth Campground just before noon and scored a campsite - barely. We got the camper set up and ate lunch, then set out for the area where we found elk last year. Walking past the hot spring terraces, we noted that there weren't that many people. We met one couple coming out from the Beaver Pond Trail, and saw only one other group of hikers going our way. They took the other fork in the trail, and we quite literally had the park to ourselves. The only sound was the wind. After a strenuous climb up through the pines and the beautiful yellow aspens, we broke out into the meadow where we expected to find the elk. Empty! We sat for a few minutes photographing the scenery and listening for an elk call. Nothing. So we got up and moved on. That is when Dan spotted four cow elk moving quietly through the woods. Well, at least we weren't going to get "skunked"! But, they really weren't what we were hoping to find.  

The wind was still blowing and the clouds were spitting snow, so we decided to head back in the general direction of town. Dan was walking slightly ahead of me when movement in the trees caught my eye. I got his attention and pointed out the cow that I had seen. We waited, because elk are rarely solitary. Sure enough, the bull was there with her. The wind was in our favor as we watched the bull watching us. The trees made it difficult to get pictures, but we were giving it all we had. The bull finally trotted off a little and we followed. He stopped again, but once more, not where we had a clear shot. From there, he melted silently into the trees, and when the wind shifted and carried our scent, he and his harem took off. Much more satisfied with our outing, we headed back to the camper and dinner. 

Not a peep out of this guy. 

The next morning found things a little more typical of YNP. We drove by the groups of photographers standing guard over a carcass in Lamar Valley and through a bear-jam on Dunraven Pass. As we drove, we saw two bears, antelope, bison, deer, and elk. Later in the day, though, the peace returned as we drove to the road closure near Indian Creek Campground. Here again, we had the area mostly to ourselves. Driving back to the camper, we decided that we had had another successful weekend in Yellowstone.

Unlike the rest of the animals,
this little guy was NOT silent.
He gave us quite the scolding!

Peace and solitude

Hiatuses Happen

 hiatus, n. A break where a part is missing or lost, as in a manuscript; a gap in sequence

Wow! Due to computer issues, my poor little blog has definitely gone through a hiatus. But with a new desktop computer purchased and Adobe Creative Cloud installed (for better or worse!), I think we are back on track!

Here are some highlights from "the part that is missing or lost, the gap."

Charity, Ashley, and me

August 24th was Dan's parents' 60th wedding anniversary, so we had family in town through Labor Day weekend. Our daughter Ashley and my sister Charity were here and wanted to "do" Montana. So, on Day One we hiked to Mystic Lake. 

Always scenic Mystic Lake

This little guy seemed very aware
that winter is coming. 

On Day Two, we took the atv's up in the Pryor Mountains to find the wild horses and the bighorn sheep. The sheep did not put in an appearance, but we did find part of the herd of horses. 

The very next weekend found Dan and me back in the Pryors. Due to a funeral, we were later leaving town than we wanted to be, but we still had plenty of daylight after dinner for an evening ride. We got off of the machines to climb up a high point, to see what was on the other side, of course! Coming back down, we spotted two mule deer does contentedly grazing in the meadow below us.

Mule deer are nicknamed "propeller ears." I doubt that
you need me to explain it. :)

We were happy just to sit and watch and enjoy the evening and each other's company. Dan softly vocalized exactly what I was thinking: "This is what I miss about hunting." Eventually, we got up to leave, annnnd...

then the boys showed up. A small bachelor herd of bucks came in from our right, so we were once again taking pictures. There were no monster bucks in the bunch, but they were handsome young fellows, nonetheless.

With the gap closed, and my readers back up to speed, I leave you with a couple of random photos that I wanted to share. 

My first-ever vulture picture. So very pretty! NOT!

I came out of work on the night of August 23 to see the red moon
rising. I took a couple of shots with my cell phone, but they were
no good. I was going to just forget about it, but then the moon was
just as red when I got home. So I just had to get out the tripod
 and the big lens and capture it. 

Tune in next time...

A Well-rounded Weekend

Hiking, riding, camping... We did it all!

While many people may head for their favorite campsite after work, for most, "after work" is not 1 am! But that is exactly what we did. Unfortunately, when we got to our spot near Nye, we discovered that somebody else was already there. (That has never happened before.) All was not lost, though, as the area is divided and the other side was unoccupied. Guess what? We may have found a new favorite spot!

Friday morning came a lot earlier than I wanted it to when my phone rang before nine. Since I was awake, I got up and dressed. I had hiking on my mind. Since the two popular hikes in the area, Woodbine Falls and Souix Charley Lake, are ones that we have done multiple times, we had someplace else picked out. We rode the ATV's to the top of Benbow and set out on the Wilderness Lake Trail. We knew we wouldn't have time to do the whole 12 miles (6 each way), but we did get almost 2 miles up the trail. It was a gorgeous afternoon with only a couple of quick, scattered showers. The meadows were filled with flowers and we ate our lunch on some boulders overlooking a tiny mountain lake far below us. 

Apparently, moose climb trees...
This one left his tracks behind. ;)

The lunchroom

We crossed that high peak on our four wheelers
before setting out on foot. 

So many colors...

Saturday was "Bring a Friend" Day, and we had a blast riding all over Picket Pin. We stood on the highest peak, Iron Mountain, where we could see for miles in every direction. We could even see the the Crazy Mountains, probably 30 miles away. We ate our lunch by a tiny "waterfall", rode down into a valley and climbed back up a hill (because it was there, of course), and rode to another high point, Chrome Mountain. From that point, we could see not only the Crazies, but also the Bridgers, and very faintly another range beyond. Then it was back to the camper for dinner and packing up. We finished hooking up just as the rain started. The rays of the setting sun created a full rainbow, a portion of which was double. It was the perfect finishing touch on a great outing. 

Bloomin' Antlers

Regular readers of this blog will know that we LOVE Yellowstone National Park. In fact, in the last ten days, we (in some combination or another) have made three trips into the park. 

Last week, we were joined at our church camp near Big Sky by my parents from Michigan. On that Friday, we made a quick foray into YNP and around the Grand Loop. On Tuesday (while I was at work, boo!), Dan and Daddy took a road trip. They went up the Beartooth Pass, through Cooke City, into Lamar Valley, and out at Gardiner. Sitting at dinner, Dan said to my dad, "Don't let me forget my hat." Yep... you guessed it!

This Friday morning found us headed back to Gardiner to retrieve the forgotten hat. A co-worker asked me Thursday night if we had ever explored the Tom Miner Basin. We haven't, and it was on the way, so we made the side trip. The bright morning sunshine highlighted the peaks, the flowers, and a beautiful doe and her twin fawns. 



The main goal for the day was a little hiking. Dan had taken a side road, Black Tail Plateau Road, on Tuesday, and he was itching to get out of the car and scale the high point. We were again photographing flowers when I spotted a shed elk antler among the blooms. Not too far away, its mate was poking up out of the grass. A few minutes later, we peered down into a ravine and spied three more pairs. We probably found a dozen more sheds of differing ages as we looped our way back to the car. 

I didn't place these antlers, just photographed them as they lay.
However, I don't think I could have done any better. 

We followed the one-way gravel road back to the pavement, then turned toward Lamar. From there, we proceeded to Cooke City and dinner (Dan left his hat in the car), and up over the pass and home. 

Just a thistle, but I thought it was pretty. 

Indian Paintbrush

Babies on the Beartooth

Because we didn't have an evening service this past Sunday, Dan and I took a drive. We had been looking forward all week to getting up on the Beartooth Pass. It is always beautiful, and a fun drive, and this trip was no exception. We did, however, have a specific photographic agenda for the drive.

We were looking for kids. No, not children... baby goats! We spotted a small herd near Twin Lakes and walked out to check it for babies. Nope, a bunch of rams. But look! Over on the other side of the lake, there were more goats. With the binoculars, Dan could see that the kids were in that group. So we jumped back in the car and moved up to the ski lift. From there, we had to hike a little more than half a mile to get to where we could see them. Once we had them in sight, we enjoyed watching the little ones' antics. We were delighted when the whole flock moved in even closer. (The best part was that we had them all to ourselves!)



Eventually, they wandered away from us, and we decided not to give chase. We headed back to the car, and lo and behold, several of the goats had beat us back and were in the parking lot! That's okay, we didn't want cars and people and roads in our pictures anyway. After snapping a couple of shots of a photogenic marmot posing in the rocks, we made our way back down the mountain and home. 

Black Hills Highlights

The view from Cement Ridge 

Let's play a little game of Word Association. I say, "Black Hills." Did you say, "Rushmore"? We discovered so much more! We spent four days in the region and never visited Mount Rushmore. (Been there... Done that... insert sigh and eye roll here, haha!) This is what we DID do:

We rode a vintage steam train.
I have been pestering Dan about taking a train ride for a long time now, so when he came across the website for the 1880 Train (Hill City), it became the first activity on the itinerary. We enjoyed the ride immensely, and when it was over, we played leapfrog with the train at several crossings to get pictures of it. 

When you are a steam engine, "taking on water"
is a good thing!

We explored two caves. (Neither of them was Rushmore Cave.) Since Ashley is "collecting" national parks, we visited Wind Cave National Park, near Hot Spring. This was definitely a different sort of cave. No bats, no stalactites, and no stalagmites. There were some very interesting formations, though. I was not familiar with a formation called boxwork. It is formed when harder substances fill cracks in the limestone. Over time, the soft limestone washes away, leaving just the filled cracks. 

Boxwork

This one reminded me of
the Leaning Tower of  Pisa.

The second cave that we toured was Wonderland Cave,near Nemo. This one was a much more "traditional" cave, with drippy stalactites reaching down for the stalagmites growing beneath them. But this cave also held something I don't remember ever seeing before - cave bacon. Yep.. a calcite formation that looks just like bacon. 

We visited two museums. One was the typical chronology of the growth of a new gold settlement (Deadwood) in the wild west, but the other was more intimate. The Adams House, definitely my favorite of the two museums, gave a glimpse into the lives of the rich and famous of the day. The house itself was beautiful, but even more interesting was the work of restoration and preservation. We were barely in time to catch the last tour of the day, but I am so glad that the gracious hostess let us join the group. 

Roughlock Falls

We found three waterfalls in Spearfish Canyon. Two of them were falls that Ashley located on a previous trip. The first one was beautiful Roughlock Falls, comprised of a lower and an upper cascade. We spent quite a while photographing the falls, as well as fish, butterflies, and flowers. The second falls, Bridal Veil Falls, was a bit anti-climatic, and even the mountain goat that I spotted on one of the high precipices lost its photographic appeal when I realized that it was tagged and collared. 

The third falls, Spearfish Falls, on the other hand, did not disappoint! We had to hike a short distance, but it was well worth the effort. We even had the place mostly to ourselves. 

Spearfish Falls

After saying goodbye to Ashley on Sunday afternoon, Dan and I came home the back (way back) way, hardly touching pavement until we came to Devil's Tower. Next time you visit the Black Hills, skip the "usual" spots and pick out something else. You won't be sorry!