Flowers

All the flowers are blooming in the park. They are quite pretty too!

Oh, if you don't see the screaming monkey. It's a profile of a monkey's head leaning back with its mouth open. Hope that helps...

Tourist Trip

Well this year has apparently had a record number of visitors to the park so far. And I can believe it, the place is packed! The Boss and I don't spend too much time on the trails, but recently we have been seeing a lot of tourists... or "tourons" as some people affectionately call them. Now I don't want to appear egotistical, but I don't really consider myself a tourist any longer. Maybe it is because I am a researcher now or because I feel as though I have more intelligence than the average tourist. Either way, I don't associate myself with the tourists of the park and also feel as though I can make fun of some touron stupidity.

This past week I have had some entertaining interactions with some tourists in the park. I talked to one lady who was amazed at how close she saw a bison earlier in the day and couldn't believe that it would just walk on the road. She exclaimed "I just know it wasn't real! It had to be some person dressed up in a buffalo costume walking on the road!" I assured her that what she saw indeed a living animal, but I am not sure she was convinced. One of my favorites is when we happen to see a tourist on the trail and they ask us what we are doing. This happened one time when Boss and I were scoping out some aspen with our binoculars from the trail. They were convinced that we had seen something very exciting and were disappointed when we told them what we saw, maybe a little confused too. By the look on their faces I am sure they were thinking Why would anyone waste time looking at trees through their binoculars... Or maybe when we say we are looking at "aspen" they think Ass-pin? Did they call me an ass-pin? I don't really know, but I am pretty sure they were expecting something besides some trees.

Now generally this lack of knowledge about the park is sad, but not really doing any harm. However I have seen some other things that are just dangerous. I saw one family hiking and somehow got off the designated trail. Soon the father yelled "Oh the trail is over here!" At this point I look over to see the family hiking through a thermally active meadow area, completely off the trail. The kids weren't too happy about stomping through the wet meadow, but I imagine they would have been even more upset if they would have ended up stepping in boiling water. Later that week I saw a bison near the road that attracted quite a crowd. He was sitting about 30 feet from the road, which was now packed with vacated cars. All around the bison was a ring of tourists taking pictures. The result was a bison that was completely encircled by cars and people. At the time it wasn't that big of a deal, but I can only imagine what would have resulted if the bison decided he was tired of his nap and wanted to leave... and had a crowd of people blocking his way.

I don't have to deal with the tourists too often, but when I do I sometimes find myself a little annoyed. At the same time, however, it still makes me pleased to see that so many people can appreciate the wonders of Yellowstone. So I think from now on I will try to be polite and helpful to the tourists I come across, despite their lack of intelligence.

It Has Been a While

Well I haven't posted in quite some time. Sorry. I got busy on my days off taking care of things around Bozeman and got a little behind on keeping the blog updated. The past two trips to the park have been fairly laid back compared to work before. We have been spending just about every day sitting around looking at aspen and not as much time hiking. It was a nice change of pace for a bit, but I think that in this last month the hiking should pick up again.

Right now I am in Kalispell visiting Miss Doe. We went and visited Glacier National Park yesterday. It was a lot of fun, but I was yet again amazed at how diferent it is from Yellowstone! Glacier is really steep and has real mountains that you don't see as much of in Yellowstone. This makes it harder to see a lot of the big wildlife that is seen in Yellowstone so much. However, we did see a Screaming Monkey (first picture) which was pretty exciting. I felt like Glacier is all about taking in the scenery and looking at the mountains. Which are fairly impressive. We also took a little hike and got to see a few waterfalls. I was amazed at how clear and clean the water was. There was one spot near a waterfall where the water was a deep turquoise and I really had the urge to jump in for a swim. It's too bad I couldn't.

Well I think I will be adding some more posts later about some of the things going on in the park. Probably some stuff about the crazy and abundant tourists that are visiting this year.

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures from this past week in the park. I am not sure if I can get more uploaded because the internet seems slow at the library.

I am off to work tomorrow again for another 10 days in the park.

Close (okay not that close) Encounter

I had a pretty heart-pounding animal encounter during this last work week in the park. While in the field one day I encountered a grizzly bear. It turned out about as perfectly as you can hope for a bear encounter, but it still had me a little nervous.

I guess I should start with a little background for this whole story. One thing that I had never really thought about is what happens to all the roadkill in the park. You never see anything beside the road, and if there was that would be a massive problem because it would attract a lot of scavengers closer to people. Well this past week I found out what they do with the roadkill. If you go down a service road, through a locked gate and past signs that read "Closed to travel due to bear danger" you come to the "carcass pit". It is just a little clearing in the woods that is now littered with bones, and sometimes a fresh carcass when an animal is hit on the road. Naturally this area attracts all sorts of scavengers hoping to get a free meal. Including bears.

Part of the study area is near one of these carcass pits in the park. In order to try and safely access the areas around the pit, Boss called the head bear biologist in the park and asked what he recommended for us to do if we needed to work in the area. He said to stay at least half a mile away from the pit and we could hike in the area. So we took his advice, planned to stay well more than half a mile away from the pit and we would do our work. No big deal. Right...

Well we had some park workers take us on the road and through the gate and past all the signs that say closed to travel. The plan was to keep driving on the service road till we were well past the carcass pit and then start hiking. Before heading out, Resource Management (division in the National Park Service) told us that there was no fresh carcass in the pit, that the last one was there two weeks ago and was already completely clean of any meat. Well when we arrived at the carcass pit in the car we were a little surprised to find a fresh (and I mean like that morning fresh) bison in the pit. Apparently someone dumped a carcass... and didn't tell anyone. I was already a little nervous about this whole thing, this didn't really help any. I started thinking about how far a half mile really is. Hiking quickly in the backcountry I can maybe hike half a mile in 15 minutes. Figuring a bear can move quite faster than me, say he could cover half a mile in 10 minutes. Awesome, bears are being fed at a distance they can cover in 10 minutes away from me. This didn't make me feel to great. But we were actually quite further than that half mile and that was further than the bear biologist said, so everything should be fine.

That entire day I made sure I was extra loud, yelling much more frequently and louder than usual. I also found my hand drifting to my bear spray more often (which isn't used like bug spray if you didn't know). Boulders, logs, trees, stumps, shadows, and the ground all pretty much looked like a bear that day. So I was a little jumpy. However after a full day of hiking, no bear! I was quite happy to reach the car and drive back home. However passing the carcass pit on the way out we find a large pile of bear scat on the road and a new meatless bison skeleton. So a bear had been there.

The next day I was a little disappointed to learn that we would be working in a nearby area, still close to the carcass pit. We didn't drive by it this time, but were soon hiking in the area, although still quite far from it. Again I was doing a lot of yelling, but was a little more relaxed than the day before. Near the end of the day, I hiked out of the thick sapling forest and found myself in a little meadow area. I cautiously looked around, since bears like these types of areas, and made a few extra loud bear bellows. I continued across the meadow, walked through a little patch of forest again and dropped down a hill back to the meadow. As I looked up this thin, finger-like projection of the meadow into the forest I saw an odd, reddish lump at the end. I paused and thought "that looks like a bear". But after looking at it for a bit I concluded it must just be a big rock or maybe a log. And that's when it moved and I thought "Holy $#!%, that is a bear!"

It didn't see yet. Later I realized the wind was blowing in a direction that meant it wouldn't get my scent. And this probably had something to do with it not hearing my yells. That and the little hill probably didn't help either. I started backing away slowly, I made a little noise to let it know I was there and hopefully so I wouldn't surprise it too much. When it heard me it looked over and just sort of stared at me for a few seconds. Then it stood up on its back legs and put its front paws on a standing, dead tree. This unnerved me a little. Okay, a lot. But I think it was just trying to see and smell me a little better, but at the time it was a little intimidating to see a grizzly bear stand up to its full height. It dropped back to the ground and just stood there watching me as I continued to move away from it. I got on the radio and let Boss know what was going on. He was on a hill overlooking the meadow and scanned around till he found me and the bear. The next thing I hear on the radio is "Wow! That bear is really pretty!" Yeah, that made me feel better, it was a good-looking bear that I was in danger of being charged by.

The bear just watched me move away. I met up with Boss and we hiked the rest of the way out. Part of the time we had our bear sprays drawn because we were on a hill and weren't sure where the bear had gone. Looking back on it, I wasn't really that close to the bear ever, but it still was closer than I wanted to be. I was scared at the time, I think it was pretty amazing to see a grizzly bear like that. A little intimidating, yes, but also amazing. And Boss was right, it was a really pretty bear. It was a reddish-blond color. That is also pretty much as good of a bear encounter can go and what I thought of as intimidating actions from the bear, were really just it trying to figure out what I was. Boss got tired of listening to me go on and on about how I saw a bear. But seriously, it was a pretty memorable encounter.

Back in Bozeman

Well I have returned to Bozeman for a few days off and am finally able to make another post, much later than I had planned. We had internet in the park for a little while, but our neighbor took it away after someone (not us) downloaded when they weren't supposed to. So again I am completely cut off when in the park, but I am starting to like it.

The research is moving along pretty well. We are still running into a few snags here and there, but overall we are working through a lot of things and making some good progress. The weather was splendid this trip! Hopefully the full days spent in the rain gear are gone for the rest of the summer. It has been warm and sunny, with a few early morning or late afternoon thunderstorms, which are pretty nice at times. I would say that the only condition that could have been better this last week would be the mosquitoes. They are absolutely horrendous. Sometimes I find myself basically drenching myself in bug spray, and that doesn't seem to work for very long. They are so bad if you stop moving you soon find yourself engulfed in a cloud of them, and no matter how many you smash and squish, there are still always more! One day I got so fed up with it that I just started running through the woods, yelling the whole way, to try and get away from them. Unfortunately I couldn't keep this up very long and they soon caught up and surrounded me again. They are extremely frustrating and distracting. You can't even focus on looking at a map to figure out where you are when they are all buzzing around your head. And I think that's all for my rant on mosquitoes.

I am really enjoying doing field research. But it isn't always that fun. Boss told me early on that field work is a love-hate relationship, sometimes you are miserable and other times you feel like you have the greatest job in the world. I think I am starting to see what he means. When I am hiking through the lodgepole pine saplings that are pressing in on me from all sides and constantly hitting my shins on stobs and logs as I climb over deadfall, it's torturous. Yet even after all this, I usually get to see something that just makes it all worth it. Sometimes it isn't even anything big, but I still find myself able to appreciate it. It's the things like hiking through a meadow and hearing a red-tailed hawk scream as it soars above you. Or having a bird fly from a tree right infront of you and pushing apart some branches to find a little nest full of eggs. It's hiking along and following a set of wolf tracks in the mud as they circle around a lake. I think another part that makes these experiences so special is the fact that I am out there away from everyone else, seeing the things that no one else ever sees. Most people in Yellowstone see it from the car and the boardwalks. Some people see it from trails, a little further from the road. I am seeing it away from roads, boardwalks, trails, and just about everything. And I think that is pretty amazing.

I have some more stories and stuff to post on my next few days off, which will happen this time. I also have some pictures which for some reason I can't upload right now... so hopefully I can get that figure out soon.

Pictures and Stuff

Well we have completed our first full, regular work week of 10 days. We got quite a bit done, but not really as much as Boss would have liked I guess. The 10 days were full of rainstorms and hiking through some steep terrain with a lot of deadfall and Lodgepole saplings thrown in there too. Which apparently is going to be the usual for this study area. I have a few good stories and things to post, but I have been busy working on repairing some gear for the next trip back to the park. So for now I thought I would add some pictures and maybe get in a few more posts in the next few days.

The first picture there is our original base camp, the public campground at Madison Junction. We brought along a small bear with a ribbon on its head as our mascot. Some of the campground workers thought that this was pretty funny and wanted to warn people that a bear was in the campground. However this probably would have caused mass chaos and confusion in the campground. The next picture shows what our campsite looked like a few days later... after we got about 5 inches of snow in just a couple hours. Apparently snow during summer really isn't that uncommon though. To round it all off the next picture shows some of the hail we got. It might be hard to see, but I assure you that is indeed hail.

The last two pictures are from when I was driving around with the Fam. There is a scenic picture from a pullout in Hayden Valley and a picture of some bison, including a calf, that almost trapped us on a boardwalk at some thermal features. Most of this stuff is a little old, I have been getting behind on my postings and uploading pictures. But the good news is we have internet in our trailer now, so I should be able to make some posts more often if the connection is fast enough. I should have a few more updates for here sometime today as well.

The First Week

Well I have returned from the first week of my new research job in Yellowstone, although we weren't even there for a full week. However it was still quite an exciting time, with some very interesting weather. I also got to spend some time with the Fam since they came up to visit the park.

Boss and I didn't end up leaving Bozeman for the park until Thursday morning. More delays on the logistics of the research project. And there would be a few more logistical problems to come soon enough. We got to the park and checked into a campsite because Boss was still working on getting a trailer for us. We spent the rest of the day running around talking to park officials. Nothing really too spectacular.

The next day we started doing some research. I guess I should explain what we are doing. This project is examining aspen growth in west-central YNP to examine recent browsing pressures from elk in order to determine if this pressure changed when wolves reinhabited the area. Essentially we do a lot of hiking through the woods looking for aspen then measuring some of them. So the first day we started hiking. Then we hiked some more. And after that we kept hiking. The terrain was pretty rough. Basically lodgepole pine saplings that were so dense I could only see about three feet in front of me and dead trees crisscrossing my path forcing a lot of hoping, crawling, climbing, and balance beam-walking in order to get through. Very slow going... and no sign of aspen either. A little after lunch a storm blew in, bringing a short spurt of hail, lightning and thunder followed be a steady rain for the rest of the day. I soon learned two important lessons on my first day in the field. One: dead, wet logs are very slippery and it is quite easy to fall off of them. Two: that when companies say "waterproof" it is an approximation.

So the first day in the field was sort of rough. We ended up going back to Bozeman for a few things we left... and I was happy to get a warm shower. We headed back to the park, made a stop that resulted in finding a trailer and started working out some of the kinks with actually sampling the aspen stands. So the next few days weren't too exciting. I guess unless you count the five inches of snow we got one morning and the repetitive afternooon hailstorms. We basically spent a lot of time setting up the trailer and talking to more park officials. Other than that we spent some time in the field and determined that the methods we planned on using needed to be rethought. So we cut the work week a little short and headed back to Bozeman.

I didn't stay too long in Bozeman though. The Fam was visiting Yellowstone, so I headed back to the park to visit with them after one day in Bozeman. We had quite a good time wildlife watching and checking out some of the thermal features of the park. The first night I went out with them we spotted four wolves in Lamar Valley. They were just meandering through the valley, not paying any attention to the herd of bison around them, at least thats what we thought. Before we knew what happened they took off towards a lone bison, alone except for her calf. We then watched as the four wolves and the two bison fought for their lives. The wolves constantly diving in towards the calf only to be repelled as the bison mom charged at them. It was pretty remarkable to watch. The calf was forced to essentially run between the front legs of its mother in order to stay away from the wolves while the wolves would attempt to distract the mother long enough for another to run in from behind her to get the calf. The wolves were unsuccessful and the bison was able to fend them off, although we found out the next day that the wolves ended up killing a bull elk that night.

The next day, the wildlife viewing peaked at the very beginning of the day. Alongside the road, and I mean right next to the road, there was a great gray owl. He was in the company of about 50 photographers and tourists taking picture after picture of him. We stopped and quietly approached, although I have the feeling he didn't really care that all the people were watching him. He might even have enjoyed it! He was getting a ton of attention and seemed to know exactly what all the photographers wanted. He had his back to everyone the majority of the time, but every once in a while he would turn and look straight at the cameras. Which caused a flurry of snaps and clicks from all the cameras in the area. Then he snapped his head away again. Every time he moved to a new rock to perch on everyone jumped up and migrated to a new spot with a better angle. We ended up watching him catch a small rodent in the field then fly off into the woods. I still can't believe that he stayed so close for so long with all of the people there. But I think it is more unbelieveable that the majority of the photographers there, and I mean the ones with the big, expensive cameras that sell the shots they get, didn't even seem to be enjoying themselves. They were so concerned with what angle they were taking their shots from and the lighting in the area that they couldn't even appreciate what they were seeing. I was so excited and couldn't stop grinning at the sight of him, yet they only seemed to care about getting the perfect shot instead of marveling at what was before them. I couldn't believe it.

The rest of the day was fun, but I don't think anything really topped seeing that owl. We hoped that he would be hanging around the same area later that day, but we didn't spot him. That was the last day in the park(for the vacation that is) and this morning the Fam headed back for home and I headed back to Bozeman. Tomorrow I go back to the park, this time for work though. Hopefully we get a lot of work done and everything goes smoothly, but we will see. I have a lot of pictures that I will try to post on here later. I figure this post is already long enough.

Starting the Job

Well today I should be leaving Bozeman and headed for Yellowstone to start my job. I guess it should be called a research position, but whatever. I am pretty excited about it and will be updating later about what the research is and what I am going to be doing all summer.

I will be in the park for the next week, so no more posts during that time. But I plan on keeping a journal while in the park so I can be sure to get all the exciting happenings of my week on here. And hopefully I see a Pika!

The Return Trip

I left my sweet abode of Missouri and started the trip towards Montana on Thursday, May 28th. Traveling with me was my girlfriend, the wonderful Miss Doe, who flew to Missouri to visit last week. The plan was to go from Missouri to Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Thursday. Then drive across South Dakota, making any stops and side trips that seemed exciting, and stay in Rapid City on Friday night. Then Saturday we would make it back to Bozeman. The drive to Sioux Falls was fairly uneventful, but the next day proved to be quite interesting for Miss Doe and I.

For those of you who are unaware of how boring driving across South Dakota on I-90 is, let me try to shed some light on it. The interstate is lined with billboard after billboard for the entire way. Many of these describing various popular stops that can be made throughout South Dakota. This includes amazing attractions like Wall Drug, the Tractor Museum, and the Corn Palace. However the cluster of billboards doesn't block too much of the flat farmland spreading alongside the interstate. Don't bother resorting to the radio either, scanning the stations in parts of South Dakota will yield a total of two stations, neither very entertaining. Since the driving was boring and we had time to spare that day, Miss Doe and I were "corn-vinced" by the endless billboards to stop at The Corn Palace... what a mistake.

Many of the billboards proclaim that that its the "World's Only Corn Palace". I have decided that is because it is a horrible idea. The whole thing consists of a big building (normally used to house basketball games and concerts) that has murals made out of different colored corn stapled to the outside. Once inside, you get to walk around a basketball court that has been turned into a giant gift shop. And that is about all of the Corn Palace. So my advice is don't get "corn-fused" by the signs. Skip the Corn Palace. Maybe try the Tractor Museum if you are desperate.

Severely disappointed, we continued the journey across South Dakota and decided to take the scenic byway through The Badlands National Park along the way. I think this is a much better side trip for South Dakota, even though it receives much less advertisement. In the Badlands Miss Doe and I went on a few hikes and saw some wildlife, but no black-footed ferrets like I was hoping for. We did see some rabbits, a couple bighorn sheep, a bunch of prairie dogs, and an unidentified snake (rattler?).

I really wanted to spot a black-footed ferret since they are one of the rarest mammals on the planet. They were thought to have become extinct during the 1900s until a small population of them was found in Wyoming in the 1980s. Captive breeding programs and reintroduction of the ferrets in suitable habitats have greatly increased their numbers. The whole recovery program sounds like it was an excellent job by conservationists. I think it is always good to hear remarkable stories like this, and it shows the positive impact people can make on the planet if they are willing to put in the effort. But since I didn't get to see one, I think I am going to have to make a trip back to the Badlands sometime to find a black-footed ferret!

After leaving the Badlands we continued towards Rapid City only to find that there wasn't a single hotel room in the whole city... and somebody didn't make reservations (oops). We had to keep driving, but luckily were able to get a room (thanks to Mom) not too far down the road. The next day we had a nice drive through Montana to Bozeman.

First Post

Well I am back in Bozeman. For those of you who haven't heard, I will be spending the summer in Yellowstone National Park assisting a graduate student at Montana State University with his research. Since I am going to be gone all summer, I decided to make this blog and keep everyone up to date on what is going on in my life. Hopefully it will be filled with fun and exciting adventures in Yellowstone and Montana!

Currently I am unpacking and repacking my car and getting ready to head to the park, but I do have some stories and photos to share about the trip from my lovely home in Missouri. I will try to post those later tonight.