Beautiful Sights along the road

We scan the roadside as we travel around in this wonderful part of the country. Quite often we are rewarded with wonderful sights.

We first spotted this large grizzly bear as he tried to cross the road 2 vehicles ahead of us. We turned around and watched him in the brush and trees along the road as he seemed pretty anxious to get across. We got this great shot, shortly before he finally got across behind our truck. This was just 3 and a half miles west of town, which is not within the park.

Since we have had quite a bit of rain lately, we see waterfalls, such as this one, where it's usually dry.

The following are a couple photos of wildflowers we saw along the road.

Snowy June Day

Awoke to a blanket of snow this morning, June 7. Since it was a day off, we decided to take a short ride into the park.

By the time we went out at 11:00 AM the snow was starting to melt off the truck.

Snow is still falling on the mountain tops.

The female elk are finding new growth to eat.

What an awesome day.

Tiny flowers (about 1/4 inch each) suspending a water droplet.

Early wildflowers buried in snow.

YNP Spring 2009

Over the last few weeks we have revisited the National Park. Even after three years, it's always an amazing experience. Here is a small sampling of the many pictures we always end up with.

A bald eagle who likes to pose at the top of this dead tree.

Happened upon this eagle in another section of the park. The ravens want their share.

This young grizzly has an injured right front paw. The rangers were sure to keep all of us a safe distance away.

The young grizzly taking a break.

This black wolf is stalking some small prey.

He turns to have a look at us.

It's wonderful when the animals who are hard to see in the park, cross the road right in front of us and then stop so we can get some shots. This big horn ram is in great shape. In the spring, most of the wildlife looks a little ragged.

If you look carefully, you can see the new trees growing at the bottom of the dead wood left after forest fires.

Great scenery abounds.

Bison are starting to gather in the Lamar Valley, where they spend the summer.

Mom and baby having a meal.

A very young bison calf.

Picture Postcards in Yellowstone

Even though this is our third summer in West Yellowstone, we are in awe each time we visit the National Park. On this particular day we both had the feeling that we were driving through a picture postcard. We can always count on beautiful scenery and if we are fortunate enough to see wildlife, it just adds to the experience.

This trumpeter swan seems to glide across the surface of the Madison River.

The Madison River framed by snow covered mountains.

Don't think we'll go hiking up in the mountains today.

A pair of sandhill cranes on the frozen surface of Swan Lake.

A postcard view at Swan Lake.

The mountains touch the sky.

First black bear we enjoy watching today. It's a safe distance away, so we sit on the side of the road and observe it searching for tender morsels to eat.

Must be tired of posing for photos, as it decides to wander back towards the woods.

Second black bear we spot today. It's pretty close to the road, so we observe it from the truck.

Looks so soft and cuddly.

It posed for a few photos, before something startled it and it showed us how fast it could run. Would not want to get in the way.

Saw many bison today. This one must not like her picture taken, she's sticking out her tongue.

West Yellowstone - spring?

We arrived in West Yellowstone yesterday for another season working in town. We had some piles of snow in the campground, but the ground was bare except for some mud puddles. We awoke this morning to a fresh blanket of the white stuff, about 7 inches. Quite a change from the 90's and 100's we experienced just a few days ago in the Lake Mead area. Here are a few shots we took at about 11 am.

Spring Mountains NRA

These pictures are from a week ago when we visited the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area. We had originally planned on spending that week in Death Valley, but during a heat wave with temps well into the 100's we left that for another time. So, since this lifestyle allows flexibility, we moved from Pahrump to the Red Rock Canyon Campground on the west side of Las Vegas. With the temperatures so warm we took advantage to visit the higher elevations. When we arrived at the Spring Mountain NRA visitor center we were informed that most of the trails were still closed because of snow, but there were two which were open. We chose the Mary Jane Falls trail, which starts at 7840 ft elevation and climbs over 1000 feet. The trail is 3 miles round trip. It was unseasonably warm here for this time of year, with temeratures from the mid 60's to low 70's. A great day for a hike. We were not acustomed to the elevation and decided not to go all the way to the falls. We hiked about 2/3 of the way.

View from the trail head.

Strange to be hiking where there is still snow in shorts and t-shirt.

This Steller's Jay caught our eye.

The many layers of bark on the trees make interesting patterns.

One of the magnificent scenes from our trail.

If you look at the bottom left corner of this shot you can see the trail.

This huge, dead ponderosa pine, seen in the last picture, reaches for the skies.

This log was a great place to sit for a spell and have lunch. Notice the piles of snow.

A wonderful, old ponderosa pine. If you smell the bark on these majestic trees, it smells sweet, like vanilla or butterscotch.

The size of this tree is representative of many we saw today.

Back at the trail head. It's hard to believe this house and it's setting is so close to Las Vegas.

On our way back down to the valley, where it's considerably warmer today, highs in the mid 90's.