'Tis the Season

Happy Holidays from the Kucza household. It's been awhile since I've put up a post, so now is the perfect time. Because it's Christmas time, I will post this Christmas card that I created. Each image of the family members is from a different picture in the past year. With me being away for a few months and Jake living out of town, it's difficult to get everyone together for a family portrait. Of course we can't forget how busy Ma and Pa are. Constantly escorting the young ones around town and then filling up the gas tank (stomachs and vehicles) to continue on. We'll have to work harder to get that accomplished next year! I'll definitley attempt to start updating a bit more on here, but no guarantees...

Until next time!

Jake gets love from Big K.R.I.T.

Jake was spitting some K.R.I.T. like it was his religion and got a nice point from the artist himself.

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It's Almost Time

Wild beast found roaming the park

Yellowstone River

Bison in Hayden Valley

Grand Teton Sunset

Grand Teton sunset

Howdy. As you can see from my lack of posts the internet at Grant Village is dreadful. I am occassionally able to connect for a couple of minutes before losing signal. As you can guess, this makes it nearly impossible to upload any sort of photos or to even make my way to updating this puppy. My apologies. I feel like I've been apologizing all summer for the lack of quality internet connection. So, when you're disappointed about my quality posts, just think to yourself, "It sure would have been amazing had this kid updated daily...". Well, I didn't.

First off, I would just like to acknowledge Jake's posting of my web cam performance the other day. So tastefully put together, with great commentary. Thanks to him for taking time out of his busy schedule to watch a fool run around a delayed live stream of the world's most famous geyser. Except, I'm pretty sure his schedule isn't that busy. Whenever I talk to him it seems as though he just got done playing a game of FIFA or just got done running. Maybe I'm missing something... Oh yeah, he does have a full time job. Man, I hope I don't have one of those any time soon. (Dang, I sound like a responsible adult).

Presently, I'm coming to you live from the Bozeman Public Library. I thank them for the speedy internet access. As I mentioned in my last post, I receieved a new stereo unit for my beastly Pontiac Vibe from Ma and Pa for my day of birth. I made my way north this morning to get that puppy installed. It took them approximately 18 minutes to get the Vibe from the parking lot, to the garage and right back out with a new CD player securely attached to my dashboard. Props to Sound Pro for that. Not like I have many readers that reside in the Bozeman area, but if anybody comes across this page that needs any sort of home theater, stereo installation, etc. done I recommend these fellows. They were speedy, and did superb work.

Yesterday evening I went down to the Tetons to catch the sunset. I was mildly disappointed by the fact that a few of the prescribed burns in the area created a smoky haze that took over the mountain tops, making it difficult to get any good pictures. Don't worry -- I didn't get too upset. I just chose to work with what was provided. I was provided with a great view of some fall foliage and along the river providing some great color. Even if the photos didn't turn out too great, it was still neat to watch, that's for sure. There were loads of people stopping their vehicles to snap a shot of the beauty that was taking place as well. I felt like a chump when all the professional photographers showed up with their lenses the size of Texas standing like tripods. I decided to depart a little sooner than I wanted in order to make most of the drive with some daylight remaining. It's a lot easier to dodge animals when it's light, rather than sneaking up on the rear end of a bison's brown fur in the pitch black Wyoming night. Trust me. Well, my plan didn't work out like I thought it would. Within about 30 minutes I had to slam on my brakes as a young deer darted across Grand Loop Road and had to dodge the speeding silver bullet that was coasting along at 40 miles per hour. I missed him. He missed me. Thankfully. My biggest worry was the fact that my camera flew off the passenger seat along with my water bottle. Don't worry -- no harm done.

I'm not sure I have much else to talk about at the moment. The weather here is glorious, it's been well over 70 degrees for high temperatures for about a week and a half now. Usually there is snow on the ground by this time of the year, so no complaints there. The park has almost no traffic due to the end of the season coming, so it's a bit easier to drive from location to location without the fear of rear-ending a tourist.

I suppose I shall be on my way. I have a bit of a trek to make back to Grant Village. The drive is about an hour longer than coming from Canyon. So, off I go with newly installed car stereo with a direct USB plug-in allowing me to jam comfortably for hours on end. Thanks to the 'rents.

Until next time...

One Year Away from 1/4th of a Century

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

I've been working in Lightroom for the past few days. I'm far from an expert, but this is what I've come up with. I worked on a couple of photos to see if I could "bring back the color" and make it a little more vibrant. This is probably rookie stuff for all of you photo editors out there, but hey, I do what I can.

Other than working on the photos as of late, I've been doing a bit more running in the Grant area, which is nice with the roads and stuff. I did a little trespassing work and went down a service road that is only for the National Park Service, but it was a nice little incline and added some good time and distance onto the run. I'm hoping this running at 7,700 feet will pay off at some point!

I drove down to Old Faithful tonight to retrieve my birthday gifts that were so graciously sent by my family members. Thank you all. It is much appreciated. Mom and Dad, I've already began looking for an appointment to install the stereo so I can ride out from Yellowstone in style. This leads me to my next topic -- many of you have asked where I will be riding out to. That, I do not know. I would imagine I'll land back in Kansas for at least a few days/weeks. I would enjoy relocating to Bozeman for a little while as well. I think it would be great to experience the spring and summer up here. Anyway, I still have about a week and a half to figure that out. That's plenty of time, ain't it?

Back to the birthday goods. Grandma Linda, thanks for the book. It's mighty slow down here at Grant Village, so I will have some literature to keep me occupied. Bill Bryson is actually quite popular up here amongst my co-workers, which is kind of cool. I believe when I arrived in Canyon there were a few of us all reading a Bryson book. Susan, the lens filters are magical. This may make my pictures stop sucking. I'll work on getting some posted to see what kind of magic can be worked. Grandma, the cookies must have a little Kansas dust in them because I've already eaten half of the box you sent. Did I mention I also gained 8.3 pounds tonight? Oops.

What else? Paula, I'm still waiting. Don't you rush one bit. Also, tell Joe I'm sorry I didn't make the trek down south to Salt Lake City while he is there. The vibe needs to rest up for a journey to Billings, Montana tomorrow. I'm headed to a Tech N9ne concert as soon as I'm off work. It should be great to have a little bit of KC flavor in Big Sky country.

Jake, I've received a copy of NCAA Football 11. Don't practice too much, or else playing online won't be fun at all when I return to the world of high speed internet and flat screen, high-definition televisions. I appreciate your sportsmanship.

Oh yes, Sarah, I enjoyed the novel. I'm glad mom will cook any meal I desire upon my return. I will think of a glorious concoction that I can treat myself, as well as my siblings to. Noah, I have to be honest, I have no clue what I'm going to do with a zip lock bag full of coloring supplies. When I figure something out, you'll be the first to know! I am glad you were thinking of me and my artistic talents!

Alright, I really must head back to Grant so I am able to awaken from my deep slumber that now takes over my body at the ripe old age of 24. I will also then need to get my sweet Air Jordan's properly prepped in order to represent Kansas the right way when there is an insane amount of rap music taking over Billings, Montana tomorrow evening.

Until next time...

Death Canyon and Static Peak Divide

Top of Static Peak Pass (10, 790 feet)

Phelps Lake (7200 feet)


Static Peak Divide (if you couldn't read that)

Luke looking at some sort of fire. I still haven't figured out if it's a forest fire or something else...
Overlooking Phelps Lake

Autumn, have you arrived?

Death Canyon

Yesterday I had the day off and decided to go down to the Tetons to do some hiking. I don't know a lot of hikes down there, so I asked around the workplace and found that Death Canyon was supposed to be a pretty tough one. Needless to say, that's what I did. Luke, a co-worker from Canyon, also had the day off, so he met me down here at Grant early in the morning. We drove down to find Death Canyon not knowing much about it, other than we could hit up Static Peak Divide once we reached the ranger station located at the end of the Death Canyon trail. Were we rather under prepared as far looking at a map is concerned? Yes. But, we figured we could stay on the trail, and as long as we got back to the car by dark, we'd be a-ok. We were (otherwise I wouldn't be writing this...).

It is a 3.7 mile hike to the end of the Death Canyon trail, and then 3.7 back, obviously. I'd heard this hike was quite strenous, as I mentioned above, but I was surprised with the difficulty. It definitely wasn't a strenuous hike as all the websites I'd seen had ranked it. You start with a nice view over Phelps Lake before you head down into the Canyon to start coming back out. My photos probably do a poor job at portraying the beauty of the color changes of the trees and plants on the sides of the trails, but I did my best.

We reached the ranger station in 1 hour and 23 minutes, which was decent time, I thought. We figured we'd hike hard, to make sure we could at least attempt to get to Static Peak. Since we ended up not starting until 11:45am, we didn't know if we'd have enough time to make it that far. We packed our headlamps just in case it was after dark on the way back down. The ranger station had a sign next to it that said the divide was only 4 miles away, so we were feeling good about our chances to make it. What we didn't know was that it was 4 miles up hill, the entire way. Nothing like a little challenge, right?

It was a nice workout to get up the side of the mountain, and very challenging to say the least. We kept a decent pace for most of the way up. Once we had reached tree line it was getting a little tough to stay focused on getting to the pass because it felt like it was going on forever (kind of like my run-on sentences. Sorry to all the teachers in the family for that one!). At one point, right after realizing we were past the tree line, we stopped to overlook Phelps Lake again, and we were actually higher than the planes that were flying into the Jackson, Wyoming airport. We could see all of them below us flying in to land on the runway. That was a neat view.

Long story short, we made it to Static Peak Divide in just over 3 hours and made it back down in 2 hours and 45 minutes. The trail guides had said it would be a 10 hour hike, so we definitely made good time. It ended up being about 17.4 miles round trip because we parked 1 mile away from the actual trailhead. So, that comes out to just under 20 minutes per mile. Not bad considering most of the trail wasn't even on flat ground. I'd like to go back again and get to the stop of Static Peak which is over 11,000 feet. I think that'd be a great view from the top. The strenous rating I would say applied much more to the Static Peak Divide than the Death Canyon. The views and experience were definitley worth the struggle to get up the mountian/canyon.

Sorry this is a bit of short description of a great day of hiking, but as I've preached all season, the internet here is shaky, so I want to get this posted before something happens and I have to wait another week!

On a side note: I have to say, it seems like the Chiefs did well last week, but now they're trailing Cleveland at half time. They better get this figured out, because when I get back to having cable, I need to at least be in good spirits while watching them.

KU? Well, I don't think I'm going to talk about them. I do have a joke though!

Question: How many batteries does it take to beat KU's football team?

Answer: 1 double A. (A little crack at the loss to North Dakota State... and you might as well

throw Southern Miss into that mix as well...)

On another side note: The beard is making a comeback. Since my move down here to Grant the managers are less strict apparently on enforcing the "no beard rule". Thanks to the managers that I'll only know for two weeks, you have allowed me to continue to scare the ladies off with my mountain man apperance. I do appreciate it!

Until next time...

Welcome to Grant Village

Not much to post about today, but I'm going to post a few photos of my current living situation here at Grant Village. For those of you who aren't aware, I was told a week or so ago that I'd be leaving Canyon Village and finishing my contract (October 3rd) at the southernmost junction of Yellowstone in Grant. It seems alright so far. From what I hear it's very laid back for a combination of reasons. Here there are only about 300 rooms, where as Canyon had over 500 so the foot traffic is cut down from that alone. Also, the employee living quarters are well removed from the way the guests travel. The layout of the area is very spread out compared to Canyon, so it will take a little longer than two minutes to walk to work like I did at Canyon. Another reason it's much slower down here is just because it's not a central location. Being at Canyon, you are passed by all of the folks going around the upper loop, or even all the way around the park. Here at Grant, you'll only be passed by people who make an effort to come in to the area, even if they use the south entrance. You have to turn off of the main road in order to actually see anything.


My manager up at Canyon was down here last year and from what I've gathered it's 100 percent enjoyable. They have constructed boardwalks from the dorms/cabins for employees that go directly through the woods, so seeing elk and such on the way to work is not uncommon. We are only about half a mile from the lake, which is kind of neat. And as I mentioned above, the fact that we're so spread out makes it so guests aren't constantly around.

I'll be posting pictures of the cabin I've been assigned to, which they're actually trying to close. They were trying to put me in the actual dorm that is next door, but they're packed for the next few days while people leave as their contracts expire. Let me just say that the dorms here are luxurious compared to Canyon. Plenty of space, your own bathroom, own sink, two very large closets, no bunk beds, a wide open area on the floor to do your yoga, somersaults or pushups... It goes on and on. Anyway, they're wanting to close the cabins so they can shut off the water and all that before it gets too cold out here. The temps drop below freezing just about everynight, so I can see why they're in a rush, especially with these quality cabins they have provided! I know a girl through a couple of friends from up at Canyon and she also works at the front desk and she's leaving on Thursday. I've already created a plan to sneak into her room pretty much the instant she checks out so I'll get into the dorm. It's not really a huge deal, as I can easily survive in this rustic cabin, but if they're going to make me move, I might as well get in there sooner rather than later so I don't have to live out of my bags for the next 7-10 days.


They have an outdoor basketball court here. So beware, I'll be practicing my long ranger jumper to hopefully become a force in whatever pickup basketball game I decide to participate in. They've got an elliptical machine, I have yet to spot a treadmill, yet I haven't investigated fully. The running seems like it will be much easier around these parts because there are plenty of roads going around the village with limited traffic, so that's kind of exciting. I haven't done much running at all, so hopefully I can whip myself into shape here in the next couple of weeks and take advantage of the fact that I'm living at 7,700+ feet. That will make me a tough whippersnapper to beat come races down at elevation... if I can find some the weekend I come home. Alright, well, I think that's about all I've got to write home about. So, until next time...

Winter Wonderland

I haven't had any outrageous demands for blog updates, therefore I scaled back for a few days. Actually, that's not the case at all. I had some issues with my photos, and have been having trouble getting them onto the computer and in the correct format to post them here for you, my lovely followers. I apologize for that.


What has been going on? Well, I'll try to recall what all I've done that is noteworthy. I finally took a visit down to Grand Teton National Park. It was glorious. The only drawback was the fact that it was raining almost the entire time I was there. Welcome to late August/early September in the mountains, I guess. I was able to get a few photos, but it is a bit of a bummer because I wasn't able to see the actual peaks of many mountains due to the low cloud cover. I did one very short hike. I hiked Taggart Lake which is located in the southern portion of the park, and it was only about 3.5-4 miles round-trip. It did provide a spectacular view. I do have photos of the lake, but unfortunately they have fallen victim to my image transferring troubles. I promise, once I figure out that situation, you will see them!

A few days ago I was up in Bozeman and experienced the Bozeman Farmer's Market. That was a good time. I ran in to a guy I work with at the Market and he was up there trying to "hustle" his photos. He takes great shots and they really portray this area of the country well. I'll link to his page when I can find it... It seems like you can't go too long around here without a trip into town, being that things are a bit more expensive in the park it just makes sense (or cent$?) to go outside of the park to gather new things. Bozeman is usually the city of choice because it's the quickest drive. Cody is closer in terms of mileage, but the time it takes to get there is much longer.

Two days ago I hiked Little Gibbon Falls. It was a very short hike out to a 25 foot waterfall. I stopped to take a few photos of the Falls, and continued on the trail behind it which leads to Ice Lake, Grebe Lake and even Cascade Lake. I was a bit strapped for time, so I stopped at the junction and decided to come back after a short rest.

Last night it began getting very chilly, and the forecast was saying rain and/or snow. I woke up this morning to probably an inch of snow on the ground. Not a lot, but enough to make the trees look great. I headed out to snap some photos, but Dunraven Pass was closed. Dunraven Pass is the road from Canyon Village up to Tower-Roosevelt, which is the next junction north. It is a stretch of 19 miles that takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour to drive. The road has a lot of turns and curves and spinny-type action that make you have to be a cautious driver. It passes Mount Washburn and travels above Amphitheater Valley where many different types of wildlife can be seen. It's probably one of my favorite drives in the park. I headed out to a different trailhead than I usually take for Cascade Lake and took some pictures there. I hiked a little ways in, but I hadn't packed gloves, so my phalanges were a bit chilled and I decided to head back to the Pontiac Vibe for warmth.

I have yet to mention that it is now rut season for the elk in the park. Many of the bull elks have "claimed" their females for the rut season, so while driving around the park you will see a male with up to 20 females nearby which he will mate with throughout the season, which ensures that he will pass his genes on to another generation. This is different than the bison rut where each male pairs up with a single female to pro-create. Just some differences that are noticed throughout the park when it comes to the mating of the many types of animals that live here.

Anyway, I've posted some pictures from the snowfall last night. I also attached two pictures from Little Gibbon Falls. The one with me balancing my way across the log is just past the Falls. I set my self timer on the 'ol Nikon and scampered my way to the log about 15-20 feet away and jumped on hoping I made it in time for the snap of the photo. I did. My arms were out because I was about to fall off, but don't worry, I caught myself. I may not be able to hear with my ears, but at least they can still keep me upright!

Is Wilderness Safe?

I was browsing the 'net today and came across this article and thought it pertained to my current situation. I can say that you can see some of the things the author is discussing in the article. Trail signage here in Yellowstone is very limited. The heavy trafficked trails here in the park have decent signage, as well as being easy to navigate. In the trail book that many of my co-workers and I use they have each trail rated by difficulty, as well as by the amount of hikers classified by "seldom, moderate, or heavy". I have noticed once the traffic level is below heavy the signs and blazes on the trails are few and far between. Trail maintenance varies depending on the trail and the condition of the trail. If there was a massive tree that had fallen down and was blocking the trail, it would likely be cut to clear the path for hikers. However, a couple of weeks ago while I was hiking the Bechler River Trail we came to a situation where we needed to cross a stream and there had been a log that was set up to assist in the crossing for hikers, but it had been broken and was laying in the water.

Why wouldn't that be fixed? Wouldn't it much more logical to have people crawl over a tree trunk rather than wading through flowing water that may or may not be very cool temperatures? At least, I think it seems safer for people to jump the fallen trunk...

I know I haven't really organized this post too well, so I apologize for that. Basically, as you can see from the article (in hopes that you've actually read it), the Park Service wants to collect your money as visitors to all of the parks across the country, yet they don't necessarily want us using their trails and taking advantage of the beauty that is offered. This doesn't make sense to me if they want people to continue to donate money towards parks and be supportive of wilderness protection.

I can see where the Park Service is coming from in hopes of keeping wilderness as pristine as possible, but that can be achieved by helping people be safe. Hikers, for the most part, prepare adequately for their adventures by scoping out maps, preparing for the weather and packing proper gear but it is inevitable that occasionally there are mishaps on the trail such as following a game trail rather than the trail that was designated.

I guess my stance on the article/situation is this: I like the idea of keeping wilderness preserved and pristine, but in order to guarantee safety which ensures more support and visitors trail safety needs to be on the front burner for the Park Service.

Your Scent is Sweet Like Betty Crocker Bakes

Just a quick update. I haven't been doing too much hiking. I have to admit that. It seems like everyone I usually hike with (mostly work folks), and myself, have been in a bit of a rut. We were going and hiking all over creation, so the past week has kind of been a slow one in terms of more hiking. Which is a-ok with me, because I'm coming up on about one month remaining. This will hopefully give me a bit of a rest to get back on my game to get the rest of the hikes I want to accomplish done by the time I leave here.

Last week we went back down to Moose Falls to celebreate the birthday of a co-worker. It was definitley a bit more chilly that last time I was there! I only took one plunge off of the falls, and just waded in the river waters after that.

Today, August 25, is Christmas in the Park here at Yellowstone. There are Christmas decorations up everywhere, including the employee dining room. I went down to breakfast this morning and was impressed to see a Christmas Tree, lights and garland gracing the walls. We're only four months away. Get your lists ready! I have yet to be up to my place of work to see what kind of decorations are up there, and since I've been off for the past two days I was unable to assist in the decorating.
More information can be found here.



I think that's about all I've got for now. I'm currently trying to teach myself how to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3. If you have any pointers, you should let me know. I'm not familair with this like I am with Photoshop CS(insert version here). Ok, talk to you all later.

Union Falls

(Union Falls)

(Stream crossing... I was standing in the middle snapping a few photos)

Howdy.

The internet has been slow and uncooperative the past few days so I've been unable to update my faithful following on my trip backcountry. First off, it was great. The highlight of the trip was Union Falls, which I'll post a few photos of.

But, leading up to that trip I did Observation Peak (actually finishing it this time). It was probably 10.5 (out and back) miles and we hiked it in a rapid manner. We were to the top in 1 hour and 19 minutes, and finished in 2 hours and 36 minutes. My legs were feeling it the next day. Why so fast? Because we had to make it back in time for dinner! I can't help but get my priorities straight.

A friend of mine that I trained with had a friend of hers coming in to the park to visit for four or five days and since she had a few days off we decided it'd be a good time to go backpacking. Thus, we (they) decided on the Bechler River Trail out to Union Falls. We were feasted on by mosquitoes (Aaron, the lovely visitor, counted roughly 75 mosquitoe bites after our one night stay in the backcountry).

The hike itself actually wasn't too difficult other than the distance. It was very flat and fast. We had a couple of river fordings that got in the way so that took a little bit of time to change shoes and such, but it was pretty fun. The water was chilly, but not freezing. The water was deep enough to come up to my mid thigh, but not enough to get the bottom of my pack wet or anything.

Our campsite, 9U3, was the only one in the area that hadn't been reserved so we were forced to take it. It was difficult finding a spot near the place the hang our packs, but we got it taken care of. It was nice putting the Zolo 2 to use for the first time. It got a little dirty so it'll need a bath after another use or two.





Well, in other recent news, I shaved off my beard. It was getting a bit gnarly so I figured I'd start fresh. It took me approximately two days to upload these select photos, so I'm tired of looking at this Blogger page now. If you want to see other photos I took, feel free to check out my Facebook page. Until next time...

Bechler River Backcountry Trip

Coming to you live from the back seat of a silver Toyota Corolla:
I've told a few of you that I'm headed backcountry for a couple days. We just left Ashton, Idaho and are nearing our destination. I will be sure to give a full report upon my return!

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A Few Photos for my Fans

A shot of a meadow with the rain falling over Canyon Village from the Cygnet Lakes trail, which I hiked two days ago. Luckily we missed the heavy part of it while we were out on the trail.
If you look VERY closely you can see a black bear. I promise it was bigger in real life. But at least now you have evidence that I truly saw one. This is near the Cygnet Lakes trail ending point.
Just a shot of Observation Peak. I began this hike today but didn't finish it. Just headed out on the trail near Cascade Lake and began towards the peak. A nice hike, but 11 miles and I didn't have that many miles in mind, so I decided to turn back after a nice snack of peanut butter properly smeared on my wheat crackers.

Falling With Moose

Again, a few days have passed since I have gotten to posting, my apologies.

Since my last post I went on a hike, the Cygnet Lakes trail which travels through a lot of the forest that was burned by the fires of 1988. I've talked with quite a few people about the hike and none of them seem too high on it. It was a bit boring walking through nothing but fallen lodge pole pines, but still relaxing in a way. You also view a couple of good meadows during the hike from atop a hill. There are multiple ponds, puddles and lakes scattered throughout the 8.2 mile hike (4.1 each way) with many covered by leaves or lily pads. Really, a pretty neat view in my opinion. Coming up on the last bit of the hike, the trees seemed to get much more dense and we began to wonder where the lake was at the end that had presented itself so majestically on the map. The trail was quite flat, so we weren't exactly fatigued, but up against the clock as one person had a dinner date and it was also getting late into the evening.

After the slight confusion we were literally dropped into a meadow that really reminded me of Kansas in a way. You couldn't see the mountains above the treeline, so it seemed a bit familiar. As we were walking roughly half a mile to the lake (which was a bit swampy, really) I noticed a dark furry creature in the distance off to our right. What was it you ask? A black bear. It was all by itself and just cruising around with his nose in the ground. I don't think he noticed us because he didn't seem interrupted in the least. We were far enough away to feel quite comfortable, but close enough to get a good look. That was the first time I had seen a bear on a hike, so I was pretty pumped to say the least. On the way back it began to sprinkle and rain a bit, but we made it back before suffering any serious damages.

As some of you may have heard, weather here has taken a turn for the chilly type. The other morning I woke up to a temperature of 34 degrees. It warmed up, don’t you worry. However, that morning we experienced a slight rain shower along with some decent hail. It cleared up eventually, only to return later in the evening while I was out checking on the beauty of Artist’s Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It’s still beautiful, not even hail could harm that baby. Basically, summer is now over here in Yellowstone and I can only imagine that snow is right around the corner. So, to about 99% of my readers… enjoy your 100+ degree temperatures! (Enjoy responsibly, with water, of course).

Today was my off day. I didn’t have much of a plan other than to do something awesome. A few folks had discussed camping near Cascade Lake (which I think I discussed in a post a few weeks ago, if you’re interested). That ended up not happening. Probably for the better, as it’s been raining for about three days now. As I was sitting at lunch someone suggested I head down to Moose Falls. I’m about to give away a bit of a secret, so feel honored. Moose Falls is a place very few tourists ever stop at, so it’s a pretty big employee hang out. When we arrived down there, it was still raining and cloudy and a bit chilly, but that didn’t deter us one bit. There were a handful of people there and a guy and girl were jumping from the falls. Moose Falls is a 25 foot tall water fall that flows into the river just south of Grant Village and about 2 miles north of the South Entrance to the park.

I decided to put my waterproof Keens to the use and take a dip in the river. I didn’t want to get outdone by the muscular fellow with a cute lady friend while they were leaping from the rocks near the falls, so I decided to follow them. It was probably a 20 foot drop to the surface of the water, and a good time. The water was plenty deep enough, which I was a bit worried about. It was probably a good 8-10 feet deep because I would just barely touch the bottom and it was enough for me to push off the bottom to get to the top and do it all over again.

Here are a few shots so hopefully you can experience Moose Falls to the maximum!
(I'll post a picture of the bear later)

Avalanche!

(Poor quality, but I was using the self timer so give me a break. Thanks.)

Hello,

It’s been a few days since an update, which seems to be the way it goes. Not too much has happened since the last bloggerific post. I had a three day weekend and was hoping to maybe make it down to the Tetons for a little sightseeing. That didn’t happen, so maybe next week!

The most exciting part of my week was definitely my hike up Avalanche Peak. I did it a few years ago when we visited with Blake and Jacob. I remember it being tough, but I was certainly surprised with the difficulty of the climb. It’s pretty much a steep incline the entire way except for one little break after hiking 1.2 miles in. It was right as you reach tree line and you can see the amphitheater of the mountains. Usually this area is covered in snow and people will jump down and sled to the bottom. Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture, there isn’t enough snow to do this. There were enough rocks I probably could have made it happen , though. That may have been a bit painful.

The hike was great though. It felt good to get the heart rate up since I’ve been slacking on my running recently. Hiking through a pretty dense forest at the beginning and being rewarded with a great view at the top was absolutely worth it. You can see to the Shoshone National Forest, which doesn’t have a single trail through the park. So needless to say, it was an uninterrupted view of wilderness. To the other side of the peak you could see the never-ending water of Lake Yellowstone. The clouds were looking a bit like cotton from a pillow that was just torn to shreds by your cute and loveable puppy, and they were just floating across the sky. Unlike the last time I was atop this manly mountain, it stayed sunny for the entire time rather than thundering, lightning and raining on me. So, thank you Mother Nature for that one.

By the way, I’ve been looking into ways to get people out here for really cheap and have had much success…so if you’re interested, let me know!

The other night I went out to see the Northern Lights. I know what you’re thinking, “I thought those were only in Alaska?” Well, you’re right. Sometimes they (the lights, of course) make it low enough to where you can see them elsewhere. I haven’t had a chance to do much research on them (why? Read my posts where I’m complaining about internet access and you’ll realize why) but the other night they were supposed to be visible from this area. We waited around until about 2am and went down to Hayden Valley to watch for a colorful sky amongst our closest bison friends. You could hear them burping, growling, snorting and trotting by on the pavement right around car. It was a near experience to say the least. I wasn’t able to see them, but could hear every single thing they were doing. You can’t do that in very many places! (Jealous yet?)

Back to the lights: they weren’t constant like you might think, but a cool experience nonetheless. A couple of flashes of blue and red took over the sky for a split second here and a millisecond there, but it was worth it. Not to mention the high number of shooting stars that we were able to see, the late night and loss of sleep was made up for the next morning.

A few nights before that a group of around 12 of us hiked down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to hang out and watch the moon rise and such and just take in the Yellowstone air. I didn’t think to take my camera just because I figured it’d be too dark to capture any quality images, but I think I may have been mistaken. The moon lit the place up like crazy. I will have to make my way back down there to give it a shot and hopefully I’ll have something of decent quality to post to all my faithful readers out there.

Other news? Not that I can think of. Oh, wait. I did go up to Bozeman the other night with my extended weekend with a few folks from Canyon. I really only needed one thing from “the city” and that was the new Tech N9ne album, “The Gates Mixed Plate”. The album is an ode to Kansas City and the famous Bar-B-Que that is provided in the city. It’s a pretty decent album, as is anything that Mr. Tecca Nina decides to put out. The Kansas City King will actually grace Billings, Montana with his presence on September 23rd, so I think I will treat myself to a little birthday gift and enjoy a nice rap concert in the heart of Montana. If you happen to be free that night, please, don’t be shy and come on out. It shall be a good time had by all!

We tried to go to the Bozeman Brewery to get a bite to eat, but they sadly didn’t serve any food. It would have been a great place to hang out because there was a nice live band on stage singing some splendid tunes. That lead us to the Bacchus Pub on Main Street which certainly didn’t disappoint. It was located in the first floor of an old hotel which had been renovated into apartments. I’ll admit it: I ate an entire pepperoni pizza. So healthy.

Alright, I really think that’s about all I’ll waste your time with for tonight. I’m working the early shifts the next couple of days before my weekend returns. I’ll hopefully get in a couple of hikes and try to get a couple photos up for your viewing pleasure. If no photos, I’ll try to increase my writing creativity as I’m feeling a bit more confident about heading out for a run on the trails around here. I really need to get in shape. For some reason I just have to keep these fleet feet a-movin’!

Until next time…

Internet Does Exist

Yes, it's true, Yellowstone National Park does provide internet...sometimes. It's been down for 6 of the past 7 or 8 days. So, it's not necessarily the best internet in the world, but it'll do for now.

I'll try and make this quick. I don't have a ton of pictures due to the fact that the last couple of times I went out I didn't have my camera or I forgot to put my memory stick back in my camera and basically carried the extra weight of the Nikon D3000 for no absolute reason.

Yesterday we went up the North side of Mt. Washburn, which is a service road to the top. It was nice to see different views than what was on the other side, so I enjoyed that. I'm not sure which one I like more, but as often as I've been hiking this thing, it's only a matter of time before I make up my mind.

Yesterday afternoon me and a few other folks drove up to Bozeman to get a little bit of civilization in our lives. We just made a few of the important stops, such as Target and Wal-Mart. I wandered around on Main Street for awhile. I'm surprised they have a running store here, yet it has such a limited selection I'm still not sure how they remain open. I'm not complaining, just surprised. I'm tempted to apply for a job there anyway...

I've attached a couple of photos. One is the view from the top of Mt. Washburn looking north into the valley below us. The other is a picture I took a few weeks ago of tourists dropping their jaws at the bison flooding the road.

Anyway, I'm off to go run or hike or something. I'll hopefully have internet to keep you folks updated on my happenings when I return. Keep your fingers crossed!

I'm Still Alive

To my loyal fans:

I apologize for my absence. As I have mentioned a few times before, the internet here is "iffy" to say the least. It was out for the past two days so I was unable to do my technological updating. There will probably be a few things I forget to put in this recap of the past few days, so I apologize.

I had Monday and Tuesday off work, so on Monday I made the trek to Cody, WY which is 92 miles from Canyon Village. It was a pretty lengthy drive as it took me a little over 2 hours to get there, and over 3 hours to get return. I lucked out while I was in town and was able to meet up with a gracious softball family and they dropped off a box of hiking goodies from Mom, which is always a welcome gift. I'm now loaded on nonperishable goods for when I decide to hit the trail. I also made a pit stop in the glorious Wal-Mart which involved picking up a few more treats such as Clif Bars and Power Bars. It was much cheaper purchasing them there than coming back and buying them at the General Store here, which I'm sure you can imagine.

Last night was "Open Mic" night at the employee pub. I decided to grace the Canyon Village employees in attendance with a beautiful rendition of "Dirty Diana" by THE King of Pop, Michael Jackson. I think it's safe to say that it went over pretty well. I thought it would be amusing, but I didn't really plan on being the water cooler talk for everything the next day. Too late to change it now, I guess. Maybe I should just take this act on the road.

Earlier today there was a mule deer hanging out in front of my window for a couple hours. He comes by about once a day. It's nice to see him.

I've had some recent questions about my location compared to the recent bear attack near Cooke City, WY, which is near the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone. Just for the record, I'm about 2.5 hours from that place. From what I've heard, they captured the bear yesterday or early this morning and were awaiting DNA results to determine if it was the same bear who had caused the chaos. Sadly, it was. They euthanized the sow, and are looking to put her three cubs in zoos somewhere in the United States. They are afraid to leave the cubs out in the wild for a couple of reasons. First, they wouldn't be able to survive without their mother, and second it's possible the mother taught them the same behaviors of attacking human populations which could obviuosly become a negative situation. So, there's a little update on the bear situation.

More park rescue news: Last week sometime there were 16 hikers that had to be rescued from the side of a mountain down in Grand Teton National Park after a lightning strike. I believe all of them were okay, but still, a scary situation.

Speaking of the Tetons, I'm hoping sometime next week to make it down south to check them out. I believe that's the best place to see Moose currently due to the many lakes and ponds that are in that area. There's a tour that actually leaves from the Old Faithful area and takes riders down into that area, so I'm hoping to maybe catch a ride on that. If not, I may just take the 'ol Pontiac Vibe on a little road trip. We'll see...

As I've been typing this the internet has been cutting out multiple times. So, I'm sure there is more that I could say, but I'm just trying to get a post up. I will hopefully be able to get more up later, but until next time...

Dos Dias

Hello all! Here's my update from the past couple of days. Yesterday after working a grueling all day shift, a couple people from work and myself decided to hike Mt. Washburn. There are a couple of routes you can take to reach the summit. I think we took one of the shorter routes, which was probably a good idea being that we didn't start until a little after 5pm. It was 3.2 miles to the top, and we made it in about 1.5 hours. I feel like we could have made it a little quicker, but we took our time and just enjoyed the nice conversation and the great scenery. Many people claim that the best panoramic view of the park can be seen from the top of Mt. Washburn. I don't think I will argue with that. You can see the top of Avalanche Peak, as well as the beginning of the Teton mountains. It really was a great view.

As we were almost to the top we saw a few big horn sheep, but they were a little too far to get capture a good picture, so you'll just have to believe me that it was pretty cool to see them. Thanks.

I forgot to mention that as we were driving to the trailhead, there were mobs of people stopped on the side of the road to catch a glimpse of a grizzly bear. Well, needless to say, over three hours later on our return trip to Canyon Village there were still mobs of people. The view of the bears was a little better, so we decided to be a tourist and get out to take some pictures. I'll include one, but sorry it's not closer. You can see there's a mother grizzly along with two cubs. This photo was taken right before the cubs began to run ahead of the mother. It was a pretty neat sight to see. I'm glad I played the role of tourist!


Today I had to work the early shift, and went in at 6:30am. I got off a bit early and decided to head down to the Yellowstone Lake area. I didn't do quite as much exploring as I wanted to, but I did take a few pictures of the Yellowstone River, which I have uploaded.




While I didn't explore many trails or anything, I did however explore the general store of the area. I decided to take a bit of a plunge and bought some ice cream. "Buffalo Chip" ice cream, to be exact. I requested a double scoop which apparently translates to quadruple scoop. As much as I was enjoying the taste of the buffalo chips, I could only eat about half of it. I discarded the rest and climbed back into the Vibe to head north where I stopped at some rapids and was able to catch the picture of the flying pelican. Unfortunately I don't know the "proper" name of this feathered creature, so I'm going to stick with pelican. I wish I had a bit of a better zoom and the picture may have been a little bit more appealing. Oh well. I sat around for a little while photographing another bird that was just hanging out on an island in the middle of the Yellowstone River after I saw this guy fly away. Luckily I waited long enough that he came back to join another bird that was floating down the river to meet up with the lazy guy I had been stalking. That probably doesn't make much sense to you readers, sorry.

Anyway, I'm off for the next couple of days and I'm thinking of heading in to Cody to get a little "city life" under my belt. I'm not sure of my plans, but I'm sure I'll think of something to do when I wake up tomorrow. However, I also am in desperate need of clean clothes, so that may take priority. Again, I'll decide that in a few hours... Until then, hopefully you enjoy the pictures.