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