Wyoming

We drove through Montana after our stop in Kellog. Highlight was re-viewing a billboard we'd seen on our way out to the Olympic Peninsula advertising a "Testicle Festival". No, it wasn't an advertisement for an "adult" bookstore - instead it was advertising a "Rocky Mountain Oyster" festival. For those of you not in the know, when cattle are raised for beef, most of the males are castrated (making steers) and the testicles are used to make Rocky Mountain Oysters. When I had a girlfriend in Colorado, there was a bar east of Ft. Collins that had all you could eat R.M.O. and good country music (and beer) on Friday nights. I indulged and they weren't bad (a little rich for my taste). They're cut into strips and deep-fried.

We arrived in Gardiner pretty late, but pressed on - taking pictures of the "Roosevelt Gate" on the way into Yellowstone. The ranger told us it would be probably 3 - 4 hours through the park to our destination (the Flagg Ranch located between Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. As it was pretty late, we stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge to call Flagg and change our reservations for the following night and Monday and then inquired if Mammoth Hot Springs had any vacancies. After a bit of shuffling, it was determined that they didn't, but they gave us a listing of motels in Gardiner, so we reserved a room there.

With that taken care of, we had a bit of time to explore the Springs. When we had arrived at the Lodge, there were a number of elk right on the Lodge grounds (with a couple of rangers stationed near by to keep folks from bothering them. As we walked up to the Springs, we saw an elk fawn calling for its mom. A little later, we saw an elk doe across the road on a hill - perhaps the missing parent. Saw Killdeer investigating the water for dinner. I initially thought they might be a different plover - maybe Snowy Plovers - but looking at the photos proved they were Killdeer.

A rain shower drove us back to the car and then back to Gardiner. Amazing sunset on the way back to the motel. Once settled in, I went out to take some evening photos over the mountains from the motel parking lot.

The next day, it was on to Yellowstone. Almost as soon as we got in the park, we spotted a Pronghorn Antelope pretty close to the road. These critters are hard to photograph as they usually run - but this one posed nicely for both photos and video. Not much further on, we saw a bunch of vehicles stopped - usually the sign of some interesting wildlife. Sure enough, there was a Black Bear near the road, gathering breakfast from the berry bushes. Got a bunch of nice photos and video of him before pressing on.

There were tons of Uinta Ground Squirrels by the roadsides (some on the road - permanently). We stopped at some ponds to check for waterfowl and spotted Ruddy Ducks and Coots, in addition to the ubiquitous Uinta Squirrels (one of which we photographed eating rose blossoms). A bit further on, we saw a hawk with one of the squirrels in its talons. We went to the petrified tree and photographed lots of flowers. A couple from Michigan were using their spotting scopes to look for woodpeckers. We talked with them and learned that they were watching Williamson's Sapsuckers - one of which flew to a tree nearby as we talked. I was unable to get a photo - but saw the bird pretty clearly. They were hoping to see the Red-breasted Sapsucker, what with all the dead trees, but hadn't yet.

We moved on over Dunraven Pass. Colleen was wearing a "Eureka College" T-shirt and when we stopped at the top of the pass, a man turned to us and said "I went to Eureka College for a year!" Turned out he was a roommate of a student we knew back in the '80's. I was distracted by a Hayden's Ringlet which landed in the parking lot, but Colleen and Peg had a nice conversation with him and his family.

We hiked a bit of the Washburn Peak trail, photographing Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, flowers and a couple of butterflies (Greenish Blues - my attempts to photograph a species of Colias - probably scudderii - failed because they never landed). We also saw a chipmunk and several Clark's Nutcrackers.

Then it was on to Canyon Village and lunch, then to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the falls. Buffalo were right next to the road, so Peg got some nice shots - and we all took tons of photos of the falls and the canyon. Again, only a few butterflies were seen, and none landed where I could get a picture. I did see a fritillary - probably Callippe.

On through the Hayden Valley, where a bunch of folks were stopped looking at a Grizzly. We didn't stop as the traffic was pretty bad there. A little further on, another traffic jam disclosed the presence of a coyote. We asked one of the people stopped what everyone was looking at and he said "wolf". I thought so too, but on reviewing the video and photos I'm sure it's a coyote.

Getting tired out, we moved on - stopping at Grant Village to refresh and observe a forest fire. We drove on to Flagg Ranch and settled in for our 2-day stay there with a nice view of the Tetons.