August 26, 2017

Changing Seasons

As we near the end of August we have 24 days left in Yellowstone. The seasons change very quickly here as we are now beginning to see signs of fall. The wild flowers are disappearing, the “red Dawgs” have started to grow up, the temperatures are beginning to cool and Christmas in August has come and gone. The change in seasons here reminds us how quickly our lives pass by and how we need to enjoy life and live it to the fullest every day. The sheer power and beauty of nature that we have experienced this year in Yellowstone has truly been a blessing for the two of us and helps remind us how small we really are in God’s creation.

Grand Prismatic Hot Spring 

No Longer a Red Dawg

August began with the Bison in “rut” which is mother nature’s way of ensuring the Bison herd continues here in Yellowstone. This is a really active time in the herd as the bull bison rejoin the herd in an attempt to court a young cow. It is truly amazing to watch these two thousand-pound mammals running at full speed 5 or 6 at a time chasing one cow trying to win her affection. These guys then without notice will stop on a dime and ram head first into each other with the goal of trying to eliminating any competition. This can go on for days as small little chases break out throughout the herd. These big bulls will also try another trick to show their strength and vigor which is they will lay down on their side and roll around in a dirt mound hoping to catch the eye on a young lady. All of the courting ritual is quite comical to watch but it also unfortunately is part of the circle of live. There have been several bison that have died as a result of injuries sustained in these dating conflicts.  This has led to increased bear and wolf activity in the valley’s as these predators have moved into to take advantage of the pre-winter meals.

Rush Hour In Yellowstone

Unfortunately, not all of the bison deaths have been to natural causes we have had several that have died as a result of impatient humans diving to fast on these narrow roads, epically I the dark. You see bison eyes don’t reflect in car head lights as those of deer and elk do. So these normally slow moving creatures with very dark coats and eyes that don’t reflect are sometimes hit and killed by cars. Most of these are from people in a hurry trying to do “Yellowstone in an hour” and driving way to fast.

August also brought a little excitement as I had a kidney stone that decided to join the adventure. This one was 14 millimeters long and would not pass. Now it is a state secret as to how long this stone had been developing (for most of the summer) but final on August the 8^th I paid a visit to the Northern Wyoming Surgical Center where Doctor Gregory Stewart and staff crushed the stone.  This was an outpatient procedure and was a successful procedure. We stayed in Cody for two nights just in case there were in complications as it is an hour and a half from the park.  My nurse took good care of me and made sure I followed Doctors orders to the letter.  After a week of passing remnants of the stone all is well again.

August 21 brought the great American Eclipse to us here in North Western Wyoming. Here in the park we were at 98% totality with Casper and Jackson Hole being at 100%. Paula and I got our glasses and went out to the area of Sedge Bay along the Yellowstone lake to watch this rare event in nature. We had a great view with not a lot of people around.  We were very intrigued by the animal reactions at the eclipse began to take place.  The birds got quite the animals started to bed down and the temperature really cooled. I was stuck by the hazy look the lighting had when we were at the height of the eclipse but also how much light was still present with 98% of the sun block. It shows how powerful and bright the sun really is.

Yellow-bellied Marmots Watching the Eclipse With Us

There were three major viewpoints around us that had 100% totality for the eclipse that is Jackson Hole, Casper and Rexburg Idaho. Now guess where all those people wanted to go after the eclipse. Yep you guessed it YELLOWSTONE.  The night after the eclipse traffic was so bad leaving these areas there were backups as long as 17 miles on mostly 2 lane roads trying to get to the park. That night we had 25 campers that couldn’t even make it to the campground.  The day after was even crazier as the traffic around the park was so busy that they had to close the parking areas at Old Faithful and West Thumb thermal area. The National Parks Service had to call in extra Rangers to handle the traffic issues. Now I have worked my share of full moon Friday and Saturday nights over the past 30 years but they didn’t compare with the day of and day after the eclipse. Wow there were some strange people who traveled from all over the world to see this eclipse and some even without reservations for camping. They could just not believe that there was no camping available in the park.

A tradition stated years ago here in Yellowstone to celebrate Christmas in August. Now the exact origin of this tradition is open for debate one such story is that a major snow storm hit in August and everyone was snowed in so they decided to celebrated Christmas. Another is that an employee day celebration took palace in July called savage day, but this celebration got out of hand as the “savages” (the employee’s) were to rowdy and the guest complained so savage day was change to Christmas in August.  Regardless of which story you chose to believe we decorated the office for Christmas and we had a large Christmas dinner for our staff on August 25 complete with turkey and ham and all the fixens. MMMM, MMMM, good…………We also had a gift exchange and Christmas music for the celebration.

As the season winds, down we sadly have made some last trips for the season. We made out last trip to Cowboys a local restaurant in Gardiner with BBQ and southern cooked food. We made our last trip to the Lamar Valley area where we saw two more grizzly bears.  We will soon make one more trip to Cody and a trip to Old Faithful during a full moon night the week of September 6. Three more weeks to work and only six more days off. We have done and seen a lot but we are already working on our list for next year for thing to do that we didn’t get done this year.

It’s almost time for the Ramblin Ruis to pack up and start Ranblin again…….Our next blog will lay out our next destinations.

On the top of the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance is this saying, ” For the benefit and enjoyment of the people”

Thankful there were people that had the foresight to save and preserve this place called Yellowstone because it truly is for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.

Until Next Time

The Ramblin Ruis

Allen and Paula

Time Is Zipping On By

Time Is Zipping On By

August 4, 2017

As the calendar has changed from July to August our time in Yellowstone is growing short.  July was the first month that we did not get any snow. Our temperatures have been in the mid-seventies and lows around forty at night which has made for some very pleasant weather for us. With the warmer temperatures, the west has started to dry out and at last count there were 287 wildfires. Fortunately, we have had some good rain fall along the way and the closest fire was about 25 miles east of the park but rain and cooler temperatures helped put this fire out. The National Forest services had about 275 firefighters set up in a camp for about two weeks on the road to Cody to help fight and control this fire. They also brought it a special plane to help fight the fire. We spent a Saturday afternoon along with a couple of co-workers sitting on Yellowstone lake watching and waiting for the plane to fly over and suck up water from the lake. But after about 3hours the rangers advised us that because of the improvement in the weather condition that the plane was not going to be used. Wild fires are part of life living in the west as most are started by lightning and some by careless humans.

July 13 brought my loving wife’s 56 birthday. For her birthday, I led our guests in singing happy birthday that morning at work and then again, a second time when our second shift came in to relieve us. Then  that night we went to the Old Faithful Inn and had dinner in the Inn. The Old Faithful Inn was built in !903 and is a beautifully designed building with a lobby which is 76 ½ feet tall. Again, I had the wait staff sing a very nice version of happy birthday to her again.  After dinner, we drove up to Belgrade Montana where we spent the night. The next morning, we got up and met my cousin Darcy and her friend for a kayaking trip down the Madison River. This was about an 8-mile trip and took us about 3 hours. The river and valley were beautiful and the river dropped through a rock canyon and wound down to a valley to the pickup zone.  Darcy and her friend were in tubes and Paula and I were in our kayaks.  I made one mistake as I put our cooler with lunch on Paula’s kayak and when she hit the river she took off and left the rest of us. Finally, she tried to wait for us so she tried to slow down but ended up running head on into a large rock. Thankfully she did not damage her boat but I was able to catch up and get my lunch. The day was beautiful with clear blue skies, temps in high 80’s and a light breeze which made it a very comfortable day on the river.  We spent Friday night in Belgrade and then got up Saturday morning and did our shopping and returned to the park. This marked the first two nights we had not been in the camper since March.

On July 22 Paula and I went back to the Old Faithful Inn where we went on top of the Inn and raised the flags on top of the Inn. This was a neat experience as we got to go into the crow’s nest in the upper reaches of the hotel lobby and then out onto the roof. I raised the Wyoming State flag and while we were up there the Bee Hive Geyser went off.  We left the Fishing Bridge area at 430 am to get there in time and it was neat being on the road at this time of the morning as no one else was on the roads. After raising the flags, we had breakfast in the dining room. Once we had breakfast we went to the Midway Geyser Basin where we saw the Grand Prismatic hot spring and then we hiked up to the new overlook that was just opened which allows an elevated look of the spring where you can really see the different colors in the hot spring.

Firehole River

After spending the morning hiking we headed off to Grant Village where we were to meet friends for lunch. On the way we picked up our second set of Harmless Park Employees who were hitchhiking to the Grant Village area. This couple had just arrived from Ecuador and were both working in the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. They spoke very good English and quizzed us on things that they should do and see while they were here. Once dropping them off we met up with Chris Eastwood and his family who were passing through on vacation. We had a very nice lunch with Chris, Jennifer and Emmie at the Grant Village lodge. Was so nice to see friends and catch up on Ringgold.  

On the weekend of July 28 & July 29 we traveled back to Belgrade to meet up with Darcy and her family and my Aunt Marcia who I had not seen in about 14 years.

On the way, up to Belgrade we took a detour and visited Quake Lake Mt. This is the location of one of the largest Earthquakes recorded in US history.  In 1959 a 7.5 quake hit the Hebgen valley and lake area of Montana.  In a matter of seconds, the side of a mountain came down and blocked the Madison river. This instantly created a new lake which is now referred to as Quake Lake. Unfortunately, 29 people were killed in the flooding and rock slides created by the quake.  It was amazing to see the force of nature and the amount of rock that came off the mountain is such a short period of time.  The next morning Paula and I got up to meet Darcy and her family for breakfast and spent an hour and a half visiting and catching up.  After breakfast, we headed off to the Hylite Canyon area  of the Gallatin National Forest where Marica, Darcy, Maranda (Darcy’s daughter) Paula and I hiked up to a beautiful waterfall called Palisade Falls. Then after the hike we stopped back along the river and had a snack. This was a great visit and time to catch up with family.

July also included an employee appreciation dinner which was given to us by Xanterra.  The meal was very nice and included a steak dinner in which our managers and supervisors served us our meal. 

We also spent our down time looking for wildlife as we have done for most of our down time here in the park. We spent several evenings out watching a grizzly and her white 3yr old cub. These two are real celebrities as they have spent a lot of time along the road from Fishing Bridge to the East entrance. The rangers have had their hands full trying to manage the excited visitors and keeping the bears and visitors safe during these up-close viewing opportunities.

As August rolls in we now have 45 days left here for the season. We have been blessed with our new friends which feel like new family members.  We had an office pizza party last night it was nice to be able to hang out with our coworkers in a social environment.

August is our last full month in the park and will be gone probably before we make our next post. We are starting to make plans for the upcoming months. We know you will find it shocking but it does look like we will be making a return trip for a second season in Yellowstone.

Hope all is well where ever you are and whatever you are doing.

Until next time

Ramblin Ruis

Allen and Paula