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Published: September 14th 2011
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I’m sorry to say that there was no more coyote activities last night. I did hear some grunting from bison but that is about it. I am amazed at the quiet in the campground at night. Quiet hours are 10pm to 7am and you could literally hear a pin drop. No traffic from roads, no airplanes, nothing,, it is comforting to me. Even when you walk in the woods and stop if there is no wind, there is no sound but maybe a bird. What have we done to our planet?
So it’s time to head out today for the north end of the park and we are on the road by 9 am. There is fog in the air but you can see the faint outline of the sun now and again promising a bright day. The temp was 35 last night with the moon bright. As I left the lake region and headed uphill I caught sight of a beautiful male mule deer with some girls. He was in his fall splendor and looking very proud but very illusive. The road was narrow with no pull offs so I couldn’t get a picture to share but hopefully that will
happen sometime on the trip.
I headed for the Yellowstone Falls and canyon area hoping the sun would be out when I got there. I passed a geyser basin I hadn’t seen so I stopped there. Rule here is don’t expect to see anything on a cold morning. The steam and bubbling mud made such a cloud it was hard to see what was there. The noises they made were interesting, hiss and bubble bubble. Pictures
No bison jams this morning, are they sleeping in?
By the time we got to the falls the sun started to burn through so the colors on the canyon walls did show up better. There was one tour bus after another so it was people intense, I thought this way MY park! I took pictures from every angle offered, south rim, north rim with several along the way. There was a park ranger with a spotting scope pointing out an osprey nest with 2 chicks in it. They were almost ready to fly away and head south. Their nest was on a pinnacle in the canyon so those birds better be ready to fly when they go.
As I headed north the road was
narrow and curvy as we ascended to Dunraven Pass at 8859 ft. Fires have ravaged this area too but nature is rebuilding and gives the wild flowers a chance to show off. Picture.
There was no where to pull off the road, lucky we had a road at all, so no pictures from this area. I was looking for a lunch spot where Oscar could walk a little and we could have a nice view and we found the perfect spot. I got my chair out, made lunch, and sat and watched the fluffy clouds travel across the valley. There were a few bison way down the valley but not much else.
We got to Mammoth Hot Springs about 4 and I checked out the campground and decided to stay in the campground in Gardiner, MT if I liked it. The only thing Mammoth camp g offered was a herd of elk to watch. Picture The Mammoth cg doesn't accept reservations so you wait in line in the morning hoping someone checks out. I opted for a full service cg with hot showers and wifi just 10 minutes down the road. It is just outside the park and I'm in
a different state!
So off to Gardiner we went and were there in 10 min. This is the north entrance to the park and the main one. Picture of the archway.
The campground is very pleasant, along the Yellowstone River so I took my chair and cocktail (first one of the trip) and sat and watched it roar by. Picture My intention was to walk the dog then walk to town to get some pizza, about ½ mile away. Well that didn’t happen. It started getting dark and I didn’t want to walk around alone after dark because of the 4 legged critters so I opened a can of soup, posted my past blogs, and went to bed.
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Kat
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fires
I remember on my trip thru Yellowstone our tour guide gave us a map of all the areas devastated by forest fires, with the years they happened, and the acreage destroyed. Very impressive, mind boggling, isn't it?