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.