Home Away from Home

Here we are at our home away from home for the next 5 months.  It sure is different than last year.  Last year there was snow everywhere and that was on June 8.  It's not even the end of May and there is hardly any snow.  Hope this is not an omen about the weather this summer.  Check out the pictures.  We will be in West Yellowstone today for orientation and then back for a wonderful summer of meeting people from all over the world and enjoying every minute.

This is our site this year, see no snow.

All set up and ready for 2012

Just for comparison June 8, 2011, a lot of snow.

 

First Day In The Park

We got into West Yellowstone on Monday 14, two days ahead of schedule.  The weather has been great and we not encountered any delays.  So we decided to play tourist and go into the park on Tuesday.  We got up early, pack a picnic lunch and headed out to Lamar Valley.  Dave had read on several blogs that there were bear sighting in that area.  We were hoping that our luck would be better than last year.  On the way our first animal sighting other than bison was none other than a chipmunk crossing the road.  We continued on our drive and came across a traffic jam.  When we saw the rangers along the road we knew it had to be a bear.  There off in the distance was a black bear and her cub.  You can tell from the picture we weren’t very close.

We drove all the way to Slough Creek and still didn’t see anything but a couple of prong horn, nothing earth shattering or worthy of a picture.  On our drive back to Yellowstone Picnic area at the Roosevelt Junction we saw a small herd of prong horn that where going up and down a slop by the road.  We moved further down the road and saw a herd of big horn sheep galloping down the road, what an awesome sight.  They seemed like they wanted to come down the road, but the cars seem to scare them.  Check out the pictures.

When we got to the picnic area we had eaten our lunch and were sitting there when a man came into the area and told us there was a grizzly and her cub just below the ridge.  They thought she might be moving up our way.  We put everything away and had the doors to jeep open just in case.  However there wasn’t any need, she did come up ridge but immediately went back down and near the road.  We decided to get in the jeep and head out to the road.  There were lots of people standing outside their cars and along the road.  We watch the bear walk along the road and eventually she crossed the road right in front of us.  What a site she was less then 100 feet in front of the jeep.   On our way back we did see another grizzly but I couldn’t get a shot.

All and all it was a great day; we saw 5 bears (2 black and 3 grizzly’s), several bison, and pronghorn, big horn sheep jams.

Check out the tiny black thing in the middle

One of several bison jams of the day

Lots of red dogs (newborn bison) in this crossing

When the red dog is slow the momma's nudge them

Can't decide what they want to do

Pronghorn right next to the road

Running off the road

Big Horn Sheep

Big Horn Sheep running around

Coming off the ridge

What a site to get mom and cub

I guess he was impatient to get across the road

Lazy Elk by the Mammoth Admin Building

Check out the reflection in window of the jeep, I put the camera out the window

Bison Parade

First Snow Sighting

We’ve been staying at the Colorado Springs KOA for the past couple of days and are heading out tomorrow morning for either Rawlins or Lander, WY, won’t be long and we’ll be in Yellowstone NP.  Yesterday we went for a drive out Highway 24, which goes around Pikes Peak.  It was a beautiful drive until we ran into snow about 25 miles outside of Colorado Springs.  Not sure if my pictures do it justice.  We went from 5400 feet to 8500 feet during this time.  The snow was coming straight at us and appeared it might get worse, so we turned around and headed back down.  We were heading to Cripple Creek to check out the casinos, guess that will have to wait for another day.

This one is from the drive before we ran into snow

Accumulation on the windshield

The gas station we pulled into to get gas before we turned around

Starting to stick to the ground, Texans don't know much about snow

 

Today we were driving thorough Colorado Springs on our way to lunch when we saw two small deer right by the side of the road, not 5 blocks from downtown.  Dave stopped and they ran across the road.  We didn't really do a lot here, basically ate out and drove around.

Sure were small

Dave grilling our steaks on Thursday

Our site at the KOA, patio with furniture

Here We Go Again

Here We Go Again:

Well, we’re on our way to Yellowstone National Park to spend another summer working at the Lake General Store.  We have been so looking forward to this summer.  It’s very uplifting to enjoy a job for what is worth and not look at it as means of support.  Working in Yellowstone makes you more aware of how awesome it is, it’s one of the most special places one earth and being able to be there all summer is like a gift to us. This year Dave will be a floor supervisor and I’ll work in food services.

We are currently at Fort Amarillo RV Park in Amarillo, TX and the trip took 10 hours.  We left home at about 7:45 (after the rain) this morning and pull into our spot for the night at 5:30.  The temperature here is very mild, no need for air conditioning.  It’s already nice to get away from the heat.  Tomorrow we're heading to Colorado Springs for 3 days.  I’ll post again from there.

                                               This is our site at Fort Amarillo RV Park