This is typical as you look at Old Faithful in July.  People 5 or 6 deep waiting for her to blow.  (Please note, I always refer to this geyser as “she”–but many folks think of it as a “he”–I’ll leave it to you to decide).  I try to get out to watch an eruption every other day or so.  Each eruption is different and unique.

I enjoy watching the crowd reactions as eruption time approaches.  Old Faithful is really almost like a strip-tease artist.  There are these little hints of whats to come; that the crowd reacts and then says “that was it?” not knowing that the real show is yet to come.  For about 10 minutes before an eruption, OF giggles and burbles. The rangers call it “pre-play” but I frequently forget their term and call it fore-play instead.

During this time I love talking to folks in the crowd helping them understand what they are about to see.  22 feet down from the opening that they can see there’s a constriction in the “pipe” that’s only 4″ wide.  It’s that constriction that causes the pressure to build and eventually burst.

When it finally goes, for a lot of the crowd there’s an almost roller coaster like squeal; at the end most of the crowd usually bursts into applause.   One  little girl even called it “fireworks” and another young gentleman speculated what would happen if you put a hollow rocket on top of the water stream.  Even the bored and tired never fail to be amazed…my one recommendation is that you put down your cameras and just watch.  The water and steam interact as if dancing and the sound is dynamic.  The camera reduces that experience to just a picture.  If you want pictures, it will go off again in about 90 minutes.  Take your photos then.

I am surprised at how few people bother to pick up the 50 cent brochure that explains all about the entire geyser field and individual geysers.  They just walk and look without understanding.  Once you know the “how” the entire thing is even more fascinating.  I really think all parents should be required to take a course in “how to engage your children and activate their thinking”.  Some parents do it naturally; most that I see here don’t seem to know how to begin to encourage their children to think about what they are seeing.

So, a little bit of a rant, and a wish for a great week for each of you.

It’s definitely July–the temperature is getting up to the mid-70s each day, sometimes thinking about 80, and the afternoon thunderstorms proliferate.  The flowers are the focus for the moment, as the park is bursting with spring-like colors. As  you look at the colors, however, sometimes other things catch your eye.  I couldn’t resist the grizz and her two cubs on the hillside (even though the light was fading)  ( Please note that this image is as close as you are legally allowed to get to a bear–with a 400mm lens and a small camera sensor.)

The ranger informed me that I was 112 yards away when I took these.  The maximum fine for getting to close to an animal is $5,000 and 6 months in jail–plus a federal felony on your record. The typical fine is $100 for a first offense.

I’ve seen more complete rainbows in the past three weeks than I have in my entire life and hope to get another one tonight as the clouds are rolling in.  Right now they are fluffy white, but I can’t imagine that we won’t get a little rain.

We have a 3-day weekend on T/W/Th are are trying to figure out if we can make it up to Glacier and back–but it doesn’t look like it.  I do know that one of my goals this week will be to take that perfect “field of flowers shot.  This one doesn’t cut it–but I think I know what I have to do now.  It will give you an idea of what the hillsides look like.

Please know that I think of all my friends and family on a daily basis and wish you could be here to share this addictive place with me.

As always, full size images are at my flickr site.

Wednesday and Thursday is our “weekend” and we usually spend at least 1 day driving around the park.   The park is huge (2.2 million acres) and only 1% of it is developed in any way, so there are long stretches of round to cover.  This map shows you where we went on Wednesday (click on the map to see a larger version).  (and I apologize for the formatting of this post–it’s driving me crazy)

The very first “jam” we ran in to involved a bear less than 2 miles south of Old Faithful.  Tim and I have gotten very good at what I call “stop, drop, and roll”  (SDR) where we stop in the jam for 30 seconds or so, I roll out of the car with a camera and he rolls on to find a legal parking place”.  We got to watch this lovely griz play in the water for about 10 minutes before he disappeared over the hill.

The next stop was at a unique place on the continental divide.  The pond there, when it’s at its fullest, actually allows a raindrop to choose whether to go to the Atlantic or the Pacific.  The water lillies were beautiful, and then one of them flew off–and we realized it was a Western Tanager.

As we approached the lake region, there was another group of stopped folks who cried “wolf!”  A quick glance out of the car proved that they should have been crying “coyote!”  The coyotes here are so large that visitors frequently mistake them for wolves, until they’ve seen a real Yellowstone wolf.

We stopped at LeHardy Rapids to watch the cutthroat trout jump (that red streak in the horrible middle photo is a cutthroat (they are being pushed out of Lake Yellowstone by an invasive species, the lake trout).  We also spent time watching the pelicans fish and, as is inevitable this time of year, admiring the wildflowers.  (The bluebells were blooming in Virginia when we left home in April.)

We ended up in several bison jams along the way–at one point the bison was directly in front of our car and moving towards us.  I’m definitely not comfortable around bison anymore-I really have no desire to send the car back to the repair shop again.  Traffic stopped in both directions for more than a mile.  On our side because of the bison, on the opposite side because each car stopped for 15 seconds to take a picture of the bison (sigh).

We then ran in to an “otter jam”  (yes, an otter jam).  After another  SDR we got our first chance to see an otter in the wild at Alum Creek and admired yet more flowers.

A quick stop at the Lake Hotel EDR (employee dining room) for dinner was followed by  a free scenic cruise around the lake (employees go free on a space-available basis).  The air is so clear here that you can see the Teton mountain range more than 50 miles to the south.   One more bison jam on the way home, a quick stop to look at specs in the distance that folks said were 2 wolves and a bear and then back at Old Faithful just after the sun set (right around 10 pm).

Here’s a link to all of the photos in this posting.

These are tourists  (“Guests” as we are told to call them).  They come to Yellowstone in droves (3.2 million last year).  This weekend will be the busiest weekend of the year.  Many of them are very nice people.  Unfortunately, as the ranger said, some of them tend to leave their brains at home when they go on vacation.  They ask stupid questions (such as “can I have the geyser predictions for tomorrow…or the rest of the week”  when it’s hard to predict a geyser more than two hours in advance). We could make a “top 100” list of stupid questions visitors ask.  (and, of course, they come without doing any research and are surprised when the temperature goes down to 45 at night–and all they brought was a pair of short-shorts and a spaghetti strap top.).  They also question the truth that geysers and thermal areas are dangerous….there were a couple of unsupervised 10-12 year olds playing on the geyser field the other night.  I want to sit them down and tell them the story of Andy Hecht or make their parents read Death in Yellowstone, all 240 pages!  (watch the brief video here).  Not to mention that the opening that makes Old Faithful work is only 4.5 inches  once you get down 20 feet–and almost anything dropped down it has the potential to change it permanently

This, as you have heard before, is a bison.  Note the VERY large horns (VERY VERY large horns).  Note the size (up to 2,000 pounds) Note the continually ornery expression.  Note that bison OWN the park.

When a bison approaches you ( as it is doing here) you should slowly move AWAY from the animal,  not stop and try to take it’s picture (sigh).

So…here are the animal adventures for this past week in the park.

-A group of folks on the Fairy Falls trail were approached by a bison;  rather than doing the smart thing and moving away, they stood still and let the bison come quite close.  At that point (from seeing the pictures) it looks like one of them actually tried to pet the bison….needless to say the bison wasn’t very happy and knocked the woman to the ground.  He then stood there over her glaring at her for about 5 minutes.  That is one very lucky visitor.  She’s lucky he didn’t use that very large horn on her.

-Four days later; same trail.  You’ve all seen those big wooden park signs, right?  A group of folks apparently decided that the park sign was enough protection to get close to a bison and ended up playing “ring around the rosie” around the sign as they tried to take pictures of the bison.  Clearly they were totally unaware that, with one flick on his horn a bison can flick those signs right out of the ground.   Far too many visitors think that the park is as safe and controlled as a zoo, or even a petting zoo.  Yellowstone is NOT a zoo!

These groups were lucky;  no one was hurt.  On sadder notes, a young black bear was killed in a hit-and-run near Mammoth and the park service had to capture and euthanize a black bear that had become too friendly with people.  Late last week it entered a tent  (apparently the occupant of the tent thought that granola bars weren’t enough to tempt the bear).  This wasn’t the bears first run-in with people…but I blame visitors for the final result.  They think “it won’t hurt to give the bird/squirrel/coyote/deer/elk/bear one little piece of food”….but that one little piece of food teaches the bear that humans have good things to eat…and then, inevitably, the animals looks for more human interaction.  On an average year more than 100 animals die as a result of human interactions.

This weekend is the Fourth of July–

It will be weird not seeing fireworks on Sunday…it always reminds me of the days just before my youngest son was born (we went down to the fireworks on the mall with some faint hope that it might induce labor–no such luck).  As today, he does things on his own time and on his own schedule–and I’m extremely proud of him (as I am of both my sons–they are wonderful people).

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s pictures and reading your stories.

With that said–be safe, have a wonderful time, and celebrate the fact that we are the originators of the concept of National Parks..something of which Americans should definitely be proud.

The visitors make the job  more than tolerable  (a low-wage, no responsibility, “peon-type” job)  They make it interesting, fascinating and enjoyable.

Yesteday Bob Ballard checked out. (yes, THE Bob Ballard–from the Jason Project and  the Titanic and all sorts of other fascinating projects!).  What a nice man, and a nice family; so unassuming and sincere–we just talked briefly about the park–and it wasn’t until we were minutes into the conversation that I realized who he was.  Jenna Bush Hager was here with the Today Show today—and, while I didn’t check her out, the GSA right next to me did; again a very normal person, and she looks in person  just like she does on TV. The Today Show did a broadcast from Black Sands basin today.  I miss the Today show.  It’s really weird to know they were shooting and also know that there was no way I would be able to watch it  (No TV in the park).

Celebrities and famous people are the exception in the park however.  The vast majority of our guests are just “normal” folks.  I love it as they rediscover “sitting and talking”  The Inn is the perfect place for that, will lots of lounge chairs, a fabulous fireplace for chilly evenings and great architecture.  They are experimenting with adding Internet Access to the park; I just hope we won’t end up with lots of chairs full of laptops instead of chairs full of people playing card games and laughing and talking.

Each guest has their own story and reason for coming to the park.  Some are “addicted” to the park and return year after year;  for some this is their first visit–and the thing that most folks don’t realize until they get here is how big the park is  (2.2 million acres!)

Some of my favorite stories include “Ms. B”–at 80+ years old she and her husband were regular visitors to the park.  Now that he’s gone, she’s revisiting all of their favorite places–and Yellowstone was a frequent stop for them.  She’s lucid and “tough”…one night of their journey she fell…the next day when I saw her she was battered and bruised–but did that stop her?  Not in the least!  She even took one of the special tours up all of the steps to the top of the inn.  I want to be like her when I’m 85;  alive, vibrant and unstoppable.

Last week we had a wedding at the Inn.  This was not an official planned wedding.  The couple decided to get married someplace hot, and Yellowstone is the hottest spot around–since it actually sits in an active volcano (last explosion 640,000 years ago).  So they checked in, she asked for an iron so she could touch up her dress, they brought a minister and a photographer with them and walked out to the geyser and got married–no hoopla–just doing it “their way”…..

The park also attracts it’s fair share of groups–this week it seems to be a “Morgan owners” group meeting…not a big affair, just a few folks who own morgans who get together at different cool places.  Later in August we know that we will get lots of visitors who are riding Harleys as they pass by the park on their way to the Sturgis SD motorcycle event.

As always, additional pictures are at my flickr site (these pix are not on the flickr site as they were taken with my Droid, not my “real camera”)

I now understand why so many “summer in Yellowstone” blogs have so few entries. The park calls each and every day…you get off work at 2 or 3 and it seems criminal to spend any part of the daylight (and the light doesn’t fade until 10 pm) not out in the park…or, if you’ve been out in the park you collapse into bed..especially if your next shift starts at 6;15 am.
When your choice is writing about moose or seeing moose there is no choice.

It’s as if writing about things interferes with experiencing them. The same thing can happen with the camera. Old Faithful is much more impressive when you just sit and watch it then when you look at it through a viewfinder. The viewfinder really inhibits the view.
With all that said, I shipped 30+ dvds home this weekend as a backup of all the raw, unedited images…so we start again tomorrow with a “spring shoot” on the Beartooth Highway
http://www.gorp.com/weekend-guide/travel-ta-scenic-drives-red-lodge-cooke-city-montana-sidwcmdev_052607.html

Tim says I whine about not seeing enough bears–at least enough to get good pix…and that typically, right after I whine, we see bears  (how’s that for reinforcing the whining!)…well, this morning changed all that  🙂  I couldn’t sleep in…so around 8 I abandoned Tim and went off on my own.  Needless to say, bison are making me a little skittish, but I stopped to take a few bison pix.  I went up as far as Madison–and then turned around–less than 12 miles from the Inn, what do I spy at a convenient turnoff, even–but this wonderful subadult grizzly….clambering on the hillside and even stopping to munch on a few flowers.  I had to shoot fast, didn’t even have time to turn the car off….but this is the result.

As always, if I forget to hyperlink the images–the full size images are always on my flickr site.

Sunday is Tim’s birthday–but we both have to work–so we’ll be doing something calm tomorrow evening–a quick trip to West Yellowstone and a really good pizza or some barbq.

Ok, I admit it. I cry at Hallmark commercials; I cry at that Folgers commercial..the one where the parents realize their son has returned because they smell the coffee he’s brewing; I cry when Kate Smith sings “God Bless America” and apparently I cry when I watch baby elk finally succeed in standing on four very wobbly legs.  How on earth do they ever manage it….and how do they know?

The park never fails to provide and amaze…we went out at the crack of dawn to check out an elk carcass is hopes of seeing bears or wolves…nope, no luck. Instead we got to see Mammoth become a maternity ward as not one but two elk gave birth out among the buildings within an hour of each other. Apparently it’s not an unusual occurrence there….as the elk have learned that it’s a “wolf and bear-free zone.” Out in the rest of the park you will not see it happen as it’s just too dangerous for the calf to be exposed…they are a favorite bear food.  50% of elk calves do not survive—I’m certainly hoping for these two.

On Wednesday we watched a bison…thankfully on the opposite side of the road.
Five baby bison, four mommy bison traveling leisurely down the middle of the road..followed by 51 (at last count) cars moving very slowly.
Bison are amazing…snow doesn’t melt on them, they give birth wherever they want (including in the middle of the road), cause visitors to panic when they roam the parking lots and have the most astounding and serene self-confidence. They have a life assumption that they may do as please; other beings are irrelevant with the exception of an occasional wolf or grizzly. In addition, Tim does an excellent bison imitation complete with snorting, head swaying and grass chomping.

To give you an idea–here’s a sampling of local police reports from West Yellowstone:

• May 25:  A large bull bison was disturbing traffic in front of a local hotel
• May 26: A crowd of people were gathered to watch a large bull bison in the town park
• May 28: A large bull bison was in the school parking lot.
• May 29:  A large bull bison was seen in the city park
• May 30:  ispatch received a report of a driver slapping a bison on the rear as he drove past  (This personis CRAZY!)
• May 31: A caller requested to speak with the Chief of Police concerning a bull bison in town
• June 1:  An individual expressed their concern to the WYPD that tourists standing too close to a bison would be hurt.

On another note, we had our own run-in with a bison late last night.  We were coming back from Bozeman at about 11 pm…and suddenly there was a bison in the middle of the road  (it’s amazing how hard they are to see in the dark.  Tim did was we have always done, slowed down and gently passed him  (he was on the opposite side of the side–but heading in our direction.  Apparently there was something he didn’t like about us–do he decided to head butt the car—we now have a nice bison-sized head dent in the left rear quarter-panel…and yet another trip to Bozeman–but at least this time is will be for the card and not for me.

All in all, the entire event was somewhat scarey….but I’m hoping the bison was OK.  One of Tim’s co-workers last year apparently killed a bison in a head-on collision….she walked away from it…..but the bison was no match for her truck.

I can’t believe I’m writing that–but my attitude towards visitors has changed a little.  I still love meeting them…I love helping them..but they are just an inconvenience  out in the park;  they talk while I’m shooting video, they drive with their eyes at right angles to the steering wheel and they stop in the middle of the road for bison.  BISON?!?…..I know baby bison are cute–but there are about 1,000 of them around.  As the ranger said the other day “folks seem to lose all of their good driving habits when they cross the border into the park”.

Before Memorial Day, if we wanted to travel at a leisurely 25 MPH through the park it was not a problem; if someone was behind us who wanted to do 45 mph we would just pull over and they would wave as they passed us.  Now we are stuck between the folks who want to do 60  (the speed limit in the park is 45mph) and the ones who stop in the middle of the road….don’t they know it’s a FEDERAL crime to stop in the middle of the road! (We were also informed, during our first week of work, that a “critter jam” is not an accepted excuse for being late…unless critters are blocking both the front and the back doors of your dorm–which has been know to happen.)

OK–enough with the rant..this is the time of year when employees start to share all the off-road places to go…and the visitors seem to think they need to stick to the roads to experience the park…so we will let them have the road–but we will reclaim it starting in mid-August!  The park continues to be a source of amazement, wonder and renewal..even with all the guests.

(on another note….much more positive discussion with the docs…and, after 3 MRIs, looks like we get to stay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Happy Friday! (it’s raining here–but June rain means fewer forest fires in September!)