TravelingMel

A couple weekends ago I went down to Yellowstone with the intention of skiing the Pebble Creek trail near the east entrance of the park. When I got there I read the description of the trail and decided it was too steep and avalanche-y for me to ski myself.

I checked out a few trailheads and ended up skiing the (closed) road to the Slough Creek trailhead, through the campground and across a meadow.

It was pretty.

The beautiful Beartooth mountains.

Downy woodpecker.

Soda Butte Creek.

Bannock Creek ski trail, obviously.

Coyotes mousing.

A herd of bison at Slough Creek. They were not that happy to see me ski by.

Nice photo, Mel. Thanks.

More pics here.

For the third year running we took a little ski tour with our friends from the Sacred Mysteries Bookstore. David, the owner, gets a group together and I act as the unofficial guide (really I just ski...).

Last year we skied around the Mammoth Terraces in 0 degree weather. The year before, we skied to Tower Falls.

This year we skied to Tower Falls again. The weather was lovely, the bison were present and the falls were frozen over with running water behind the ice.

We started the day at the Boiling River and then met up with the other 6 folks at the Mammoth Hotel. From there we caravanned to the Tower Falls trailhead. Even though it hasn't snowed in forever and there wasn't much snow on the drive over, the trail was surprisingly good. it had just been groomed that morning and was lovely.

On the trail to the Boiling River.

Enjoying a steamy soak.

Finn is a naturist.

Bison along the trail. Skiing past them may have been the highlight of Anders trip.

Looking for grass beneath the snow.

Big mountains and basalt columns.

Armando skis past a frozen spring.

Richard, the Aussie massage therapist, coming down a hill.

Finn takes a break in the sun at the Tower Falls turnaround.

Anders, happy to get out of the Chariot.

Tower Falls.

David coming down a hill on the Campground Loop that was steeper and longer (and more fun!) than it looks in this photo.

Erin makes it down the hill.

Armando descends.

Passing the bison on the way down.

The boys watch bison.

Almost back to the truck.

So sleepy from the ride.

Hotel building. I just threw that in for fun.

In case you were wondering what it sounds like when the boys sleep...

If you don't already know, H is in Churchill filming polar bears right now. He'll be up there for two more weeks working for an organization called Polar Bears International. Once he gets some of his stuff posted I'll link to it here.

But, until then, here is another video produced for PBI. It's science, folksy music and environmental issues all wrapped up in cuddly polar bear fur. Right up my ally. I even tear up when they talk about the ice pack retreating. It's unbelievably sad that we will probably lose all this in my lifetime.

I posted about PBI and how you can help slow climate change (the polar bears' biggest enemy) at my other blog. And I posted the video here. (I'm just plugging my other blog, you can watch the video below.)

On that note, here's the video (It's more upbeat then I let on. Anders likes it.)

Catch the whole weekend:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3 (morning)
Day 3 (afternoon)

After Heather left for Cody, I decided to take a little walk up the Rescue Creek Trail. I only hiked for a couple hours, but saw plenty of wildlife, big gorgeous views and some lovely flowers.

Rescue Creek trail is pretty exposed for the first few miles, probably for the whole trail. It was cold and a bitter wind almost dampened my enthusiasm. But it didn't.

Watch out for bears and rattlesnakes. Tough to keep an eye out for both at the same time.

Looking up the Yellowstone River canyon (Black Canyon).

Looking back towards Gardiner and the Gallatin Range.

Watching sheep from the trail.

The Gallatins, again.

See that snake at the top of the frame? It rattled at me while I was looking for bears.

Zooming in on the rattler.

Trail heading over to Rescue Creek.

Bright lichen.

Pronghorn spied from the trail.

Right now you may be asking yourself why there haven't been more pictures of plants. Don't you worry, they're coming up.

Gardner River near the trailhead.

Fall colors for you.

Lots of bluebirds on the trail.

There are going to be a lot of pictures in this post. A lot. Don't look if you don't like pictures of majestic animals in scenic splendor. Don't look.

So, you're going to look? You were warned.

Car thermometer as we got ready to leave our motel in Cooke City.

Fuzzy bison.

Wolf food.

Immature red tailed hawk. We think.

Slough Creek

Sage above Slough Creek.

Heather glassing for wolves.

Another hawk in a tree in front of a lovely mountain.

Mules on the road. Not the wildlife we were expecting to see.

With their escort.

Reunited with the wrangler they ran away from the night before.

Fox or coyote tracks.

More elk. Where are the wolves?

Heather learns something.

Elk above the Huckleberry tuff. When the area blew up long ago a lot of ash covered the area. It was compacted and turned into these rocks.

Hairy woodpecker, or perhaps downey.

Hairy or downey? Hairy woodpeckers have bigger bills, but I have nothing to compare it to.

Warmed up and time for a little walk.

Big boy.

Fall colors. Nice to see a little fall this year. Seems like it went from summer to winter overnight.

Chasing girls. Still no wolves.

Cute calf.

Bighorn sheep.

Climbing rocks.

We decided when it hit 20F it was warm enough to get into the Boiling River.

Grass.

Steamy.

Above the Boiling River.

Getting ready to get into the water.

Getting in...quickly.

Yeah! Soaking in the warmth.

The Boiling River

The pool we spent 2 hours soaking in.

Dainty little coyote.

Mailbox in the wilderness.

Fox.

Finally we saw a couple wolves through this guy's scope. They were a couple miles away and we didn't even have time to set up our scope before they slipped over the ridge.

Soda Butte Creek.

Heather takes a photo.

Chuck.

Catch the whole weekend:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3 (morning)
Day 3 (afternoon)