Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A Little Excitement

Doesn't take much to get the whole dorm excited. Just a big male grizzly wandering past the dorm will do it.

Yesterday, it was a sow with two cubs behind the dorm then later up at the employee RV park that had people talking. Someone even managed to get a picture of them (those cubs are pretty darn cute). This morning, while maybe a half dozen people were standing in front of the dorm, the big male came strolling past, twenty or so yards away from where we were standing. He never even looked our way (he'd have had to be deaf not to know we were there). He just wandered past and turned down the path that leads past the small RV park and disappeared.

Maybe an hour later, on the way to lunch, we saw an agitated cow elk trotting along the road and heard that the bear was sniffing around in the woods, probably looking for her newborn calf. She's started charging people trying to walk on that path to and from work today. She's pretty upset about something (maybe the bear found the calf?).

Needless to say, there will be many of us driving back and forth to work for a while.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Opening Day

Grant Village opened for the season at 11:00 a.m. today. I survived.

We were actually fairly busy this morning first thing, which really kind of surprised me. I never really thought that people would expect to check in anywhere that early in the morning, but with it being opening day, I guess they figured there'd be no problem with getting a room.

Of course on opening day with nervous desk agents, we had to have the opening day computer glitch. I was right in the middle of checking someone in when the computers froze. Not fun. But, we were quickly back up and running without any further problems.

It's an early day for me tomorrow...6:15 a.m. start. I'm hoping for a somewhat quieter morning so I can run all of my reports and do all of the things that a senior GSA is supposed to do. I felt a little scattered today. It'll get better. It'll get better. :o)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Pictures!

Betcha thought I was never going to say this, but...

There are now pictures available from Yellowstone! I posted wildlife shots this morning. Enjoy!

Monday, May 21, 2007

North America's Serengeti

Yeah, yeah.... I'm way behind in my posts already. I have to blame that on the inconvenience of internet access during training. I'm now settled into my room at Grant Village, and I have wireless access in my room. So now I can catch up.

Last week, Wednesday, May 16th, was my day off. I took off for the day with my camera and a friend from training, and we headed over to the Lamar Valley which is located along the park's northeast entrance road. This is probably the best place to see wolves. And guess what? We saw some.

We were lucky enough to see from a very long distance a grizzly bear trying to chase a black wolf away from a carcass the bear had on a sand bar. They ran all over the sand bar, or rather the bear ran, the wolf just trotted a short way out of reach of the bear, and while they ran, a coyote came in and got his fair share of the food.

We saw wolves close to the road no more than a mile or so away from the grizzly/wolf kill site. The gray alpha male had an elk carcass in the river that he kept coming in to feed on. There were two black wolves that refused to cross the road--the ranger identified them as yearling females from the gray's pack, but I never did find out which pack they all belonged to.

Grizzly bear number two appeared at Elk Creek--big, beautiful bear. He was wandering through the dead trees looking for good logs to use to scratch his back.

Lots of bison, lots of baby bison, but still no baby bears. Starting to get a little bummed about that.

Today was a trip through the Tetons into Jackson, WY. A very nice girls' trip into town on our day off. We're all glad we moved down yesterday afternoon instead of waiting until today. We saw two moose on our way back. Yay! They DO exist!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

I'm H-e-e-e-e-e-e-r!

Well, I made it. Easy drive on Wednesday, good weather until about Ashton, Idaho, when I started to get rain. Sometimes heavy rain. Off and on until almost West Yellowstone. I arrived in West about 4:30, stopped for a sandwich at Subway, then headed into the park. Seven miles in, there is (wait for it) Seven Mile Bridge over the Madison River. And at Seven Mile Bridge I saw my first elk. Looked like a good place to stop and have dinner. Of course, it started to rain. But not just rain. Thunder and lightening were to be had as well. And it rained until I nearly reached Norris Geyser Basin.

Okay, now everybody, go find your Yellowstone map. It's on the web. Don't worry, I'll wait for you.

Got your map? I saw my first black bear .25 miles above the Upper Terrace Drive at Mammoth Hot Springs. Yes, I said my first bear.

Thursday morning, I headed toward the Lamar Valley. Bear number 2 was located about four miles or so east of Undine Falls. Now, I have to tell you where this bear was. I have no idea how anyone found it. It was kind enough to be next to a wide turn out. Actually, it was below the turn out, down in the gully, sleeping under a tree. It was a really pretty cinnamon color--the first cinnamon black bear I've ever seen.

The first baby bison of the trip appeared at Phantom Lake. There were eight cows, and three of them had little orange versions of themselves practically velcroed to their sides. So incredibly cute! Haven't seen a lot of baby bison yet (maybe a dozen out of all the big herds I've seen), but there will be more and more of them over the next few weeks. No baby elk yet; it's just a little bit early for them, but the pregnant cows look like they're about ready to pop at any moment.

Saw two coyotes (one at the Specimin Ridge trailhead, one across the NE entrance road from the Lamar Ranger Station. Also saw about a dozen pronghorn antelope in Lamar Valley.

Bear number 3 was almost exactly half way between Mammoth and Norris. Another black bear, but this one was giving a herd of cow elk something to think about. I saw this bear as I was headed to the lake. But to get there, I had to backtrack through Mammoth to the road cutting across the center of the park because the east upper loop road was (and still is) closed. I think it opens Memorial Day.

Yellowstone Lake still had ice on it, but it was cracking, and I heard today that the ice had all washed under Fishing Bridge yesterday.

Checked in Friday morning to start work. Before orientation, I started meeting some of my future co-workers. Met most of the rest of them at lunch, and our cabins are all pretty close together. Five of us took off before dinner and went on a short hike to Wraith Falls (still have that map handy?). It's five miles east of Mammoth, and a quarter mile walk. We saw three bull elk well on their way toward a nice rack of antlers, two bison, I don't know how many Uinta ground squirrels, and two yellow-bellied marmots.

Training started this morning, and it is so far going well. The computer system is pretty antiquated -- AS400 systems, all menu driven. I'll be training in Mammoth for 10 days, though one day is a day off and one day we're taking a tour of the park: Yellowstone in a day, which is the same tour that the park visitors get to take. Moving day to Grant is May 21, but since I've found a place with internet access (high speed wireless, no less!), I should be able to make regular updates here. I do have lots (and lots) of pictures, but I haven't processed any of them to put on the web site yet. That might have to wait a little while. I now have to go do homework to prepare for tomorrow morning.

TTFN!

Sunday, May 6, 2007

The Adventure Begins

Well, here it is, my last few days before summer vacation. Ooops, I mean, my last few days before beginning my new job.

If you don't know, I'm going to work in Yellowstone National Park as a guest service agent (desk clerk) at the Grant Village Lodge. Yes, I am disgustingly excited. Who wouldn't be excited to have the opportunity to live and work in such an incredible place? Grant Village is located on the south western shore of Yellowstone Lake, right on the road to Grand Teton. I'll have so much to explore during my time off, both in and out of the national parks. I have several flash cards for my camera, a ginormous hard drive in my laptop, and lots of blank DVDs to write pictures to. I think I'm prepared.

I've sold my house, and though closing isn't scheduled until the end of May, it is pretty much empty now. My storage unit is pretty much stuffed. I just have a few odds and ends to pack up and cleaning to do, and it's ready for the new owner. I can't believe I sold it so quickly...only on the market five days when I received the offer. So many houses sit on the market for what seems like forever before they sell. I guess I'm just lucky (and having an awesome house didn't hurt).