And the rains came
August 15, 2017

After being out in the trailer for seven weeks through some pretty rainy regions, we have gotten our first precipitation.  To paraphrase the Carpenters: Rainy days always get me down.  In this case, however, the blessing in disguise was that that the storm dissipated the wildfire smoke that had settled over Paradise Valley.

The view from our front window changed dramatically from day to day.  Clear as crystal when we moved in to completely obscured a day or so later and back to distant views following the storm.

Same scene above and below - one with wildfire smoke and one without.

We had a goodly amount of rain for two nights and a day, which brought about changes to our ideas for a final day at Yellowstone’s Edge.  There is a whoppingly huge amount of countryside in the region - it called to us for exploration, but of course our first journey was to “do” Yellowstone and that is what we did.  We are in a agreement that the RV park and the area are high on the return-worthy list.

Lest we while away our final day without putting the boats on the Yellowstone and without backroading and hiking in the surrounding mountains, neither of which seemed very attractive in drenching rain, Chris did some weather research and got us out of Dodge.  His calculations of radar maps and weather patterns proved accurate and bought us another day in Yellowstone.

Bison and such . . .

It was Julie’s query after my last blog post that got me to thinking about the park’s wildlife and why hadn’t we seen the much-touted bison.  Then of course there was the continuing quest to view grizzlies or at the very least black bears, so armed with our curiosities and the hope of clear skies,, we set off once again, this time into regions we hadn’t yet traversed.

The more nouthern and eastern portions off Yellowstone have very little geothermal activity and are known habitat for huge bison herds.  The park is the only place the U.S. where bison have ranged continuously since prehistoric times.  Nearly extinct a century ago, numbering only a couple of dozen, the Yellowstone herds have increased to about 5,500.  Historically, there were 50 million or more of the animals!

For many miles, we saw great numbers of the beasts in grassy valley bottoms with smaller groups and individuals ranging up into the hillsides and forests (Thanks, Julie!).

While we were filing in our wildlife dance card, we totted up several other species and thoroughly enjoyed the incredible landscapes before us.  Scene after scene after scene spread across our vision: incomparable perfection, achingly beautiful.

and of course more waterfalls . . .

Undine (correction from last posting: we called a waterfall Undine in that one, but it was not, and now we've seen so blasted many waterfalls that neither of us has the foggiest notion of what that one was) . . .

. . . and Tower, clearly called so because of the towering pillars at its head.

Those regions are not nearly as crowded with sightseers as are the “hot” spots.  We even managed to increase our solitude with one six-mile dirt road byway where we saw only four other vehicles - unheard of in Yellowstone.

During that side trip, I spotted a red-tail hawk high in a pine evidently intent on devouring his early meal.  He was wet and scraggly from recent rain and was not happy at our intrusion.  He kept giving us the stink eye over his shoulder as he continued to tear at his prey.

One place we found a crowd gathered was by a river crossing where a buffalo carcass had attracted predators near the road.  We were told a bear had been by earlier.  We stopped there twice and saw a wolf that was mostly secreted in the tall grass but occasionally got up to feed on the dead animal.  We saw it well through the scope, but got mostly unsatisfactory photos.  It was quite a scene to experience, at any rate.  Rangers were posted there to keep people from approaching too closely; they said wolves do not typically remain so near to humans, surmising that one had special challenges that made it more desperate.

If I could just figure out how to take a photo through the scope, I could have shown him more clearly.  We tried doing just that but ended up only with nice shots of the lens.

Hovering storm clouds created misty sights around mountaintops.

One place we stopped was below a long escarpment of high rocky cliffs where a few other folks appeared to be taking photographs.  We walked out through the grassy slope and discovered that they were watching mountain goats far above.

They pointed out the ones they had spotted; we joined them in scanning the cliff faces and found quite a number more - small groups resting in various places, one goat in an overhang peering out from beneath a cave mouth.  We retrieved the spotting scope which allowed all of us to get some very good looks at the animals.  It quickly evolved into an international event with Germans, Japanese and others flocking for a turn at the scope.

In order to see what we could see over the lip of a rise, we hiked out through the sagebrush.  Just as we topped out before the descent to a creek, I came face to face with a pronghorn, startling both him and me.  Very quickly, shock turned to action: he looked me in the eye, huffed loudly and disappeared.  We were in grizzly country there, so I am grateful that was not the creature I surprised.

Later on the walk, we saw the pronghorn, much subdued by then, grazing along the creek bottom among a large flock of Canada geese.  We again saw sandhill cranes and since have spotted them several places, always in pairs of trios.

We found a nice perch above the river for a lunch stop.

Nary a bear . . .

Despite going to all the places that bears are said to habituate, we saw nary a one.  I had to send off Trinity’s bear postcard with the admission that we failed as bear finders, but she will be thrilled that we saw a wolf - that’s her favorite anyway.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or RV park), our neighbor told me where he had seen grizzlies outside the park along a back road we had thought that we would explore if we had more time there or returned another year.

Chico . . .

A return jaunt over to Chico Hot Springs was just as pleasant as the first time except for that consarned lightning storm that necessitated a hiatus from the pool for safety reasons.  I'm so impressed with the entire resort - historic & charming - seems a lovely lodging place in an awesome area.

 

 

 Livingston . . .

The one jaunt we took for shopping over to Livingston ended with our wandering through commercial and residential areas because we were so enchanted with the town.  There are extensive neighborhoods of both.  If you removed the cars from the streets and replaced them with much older models, it would not seem out of place.   If I should ever decide to relocate to Montana, Livingston just might be the place.  I was charmed by it.

Following the signs to get to Sacajewea Park and the statue honoring her proved to be fruitless; however, I was not willing to concede defeat, so we finally found the tribute to her with her son Pomp.  She was the only female on Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery expedition, and was said to be an important asset to the success of the party.

Chris entertained the neighborhood to great appreciation on the one evening: 1. We got home early enough, 2. The wind was less than gale force, 3. It wasn't raining, 4. We weren't exhausted.

 Best business name . . .