6/21-6/26

It's been a busy week. I drove up to Yellowstone NP Monday, spent the night in West Yellowstone and came home Tuesday. Two days is a minimum if you really want to to see the park good and maybe take a hike or two. It's really crowded; major traffic jams with wildlife watchers, especially if a bear happens to come into view. It's hard to find a parking place at some of the points of interest, and I bet there were 5000 people gathered around Old Faithful to see the eruption. Even with all of the crowds, I would like to go back before I leave the area -- maybe in September. I've included some pictures of Yellowstone.

Old Faithful

I found out an interesting tidbit about Old Faithful - it's not so faithful. I always thought it went off every 60 minutes. One of the regulars in the visitor's center said it went off every 90 minutes. The fact is that the interval between eruptions varies from 55 to 95 minutes based on the duration of the last eruption.

Bubbling Hot Springs

Steaming Hills

Mystic Falls

Today (Thursday 6/24) was a fun day. I went on patrol with one of the Forest Service employees in the fire department. We went around to some of the remote areas in Bridger-Teton National Forest in 4-wd fire (brush) truck checking on back country campgrounds, people cutting firewood in the forest and other patrol activities. I actually got to pull some hose, operate a pump and squirt some water. It's amazing how people will go off an leave a smoldering fire. That is a real no-no to the Forest Service. If we found an unattended fire that was the least bit warm, we would give it a good soaking. If you could determine who has left the fire unattended, they would be given a nice ticket. It was really a great day, the weather was perfect, we went into some beautiful country and I definitely plan on doing it again. The ranger is also trying to get me a day with the river patrol. That would be neat also.

Back to work tomorrow.

California Weekend - 6/14/2010

Just got back from California this afternoon. It was a quick weekend. I left Jackson last Wednesday after work, got to Grass Valley Thursday afternoon, went to Rex's change of command and retirement ceremony Friday, to Kayla's graduation Saturday, left Grass Valley Sunday morning and got back to Jackson this afternoon Monday). It was a long drive (nearly 800 miles one way), but I really enjoyed it. South eastern Idaho and northeast Utah are really pretty and some of the other country is interesting as well. Of course the area of California west of Reno where Rex and Pam live is real pretty too.

I really am blessed to get to come to Jackson and do all of this stuff this summer and to be surrounded by such beauty. But, there is nothing as beautiful and as much of a blessing as your family. To see Rex stand up and give God credit in his retirement speech and to have seen Kayla grow up to be the person she is and prepare herself to go off to college in Abilene, sure makes an old man proud. Of course all of my kids and grand-kids make me proud, but it was just Kayla's and Rex's special days.

This is the crew in California this past weekend:
Me, Pam, Holly, Rex, Courtney, Kayla, Rhett, Carol and Norm Culp (Pam's parents)

Rex already has his USAF Retired cap on:

The Graduate

I thought this was a neat picture. As I drove past the Bonneville salt flats, the mirage made it look like the sides of the mountain were suspended.

Update 6/8/2010

It's been pretty uneventful around here lately. The place is getting more crowded every day. Finally am getting my mail - General Delivery, Jackson, WY 83002.

The Forest Service had a cook-out Saturday for all seasonal employees. Got to meet some new folks. It's interesting some of the jobs the forest service has up here. There are guys and gals that go out for 8 days working on trails, fire fighters, river crews and folks that go out on horseback for days just patrolling the park. If you like camping out, there's a job here for you.

I took a trip down south of Jackson this past weekend to Pinedale. There is a good Mountain Man museum there. I can only remember a couple of books I read in junior high: one was about this kid that bought an old MG and fixed it up and the other was "Jim Bridger, the Mountain Man." It really made an impression on me even back then because of what those guys faced when they came out into this country. That book is still in print and available in bookstores around here. I think I will reread it when I finish the ones I'm already working on.

The weather has been nasty around here this past week. Rainy and cool. Too muddy to do any hiking. The sun is finally out today and it is about 63. Wasn't my day to work, but had to go to CPR and first aid training -- what a bummer. Will be leaving tomorrow after work (if you want to call it that) to go to California for Rex's retirement on Friday and Kayla's graduation from high school on Saturday.

Am attaching a few more pictures - not as interesting as the previous ones. In an earlier blog I think I mentioned a tree in a campground just out of town that has an owl's nest with a couple of owlets in it. . Click here to see a neat picture by Tom Magelson of last year's hatch.

A little white water rafting on the Snake river. Wet suits and booties recommended.

This is the entrance to the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

A lone bison. There are plenty more around where he came from. They have the right-of-way on the roads.

I'm going to sign off for now. Will be updating blog when I get back from California.

5/3

Not much happening lately. This week has been wet and cool, high in middle 50's. I think I prefer this weather to what I hear is going on at home. It has hindered some of my hiking plans though.

What's happening now!

I've been running around trying to figure out where I should tell people to go, eat,sleep, etc. Man, it's pretty up here. The weather is still a little on the chilly and wet side, but it's not bad enough to keep you from doing things. I've included some pictures from my adventures, but they really can't capture the beauty of this place, at least not with my Kodak QuickPic.

This one is of the Snake River. There are scenic float trips above Jackson going through Grand Teton Park and more white water trips down below Jackson. Haven't done either yet. I had included a picture of the Snake earlier, but thought this one was better.

This is a picture of the most photographed barn in the world. It's what is left of an old Mormon farm out east of Jackson. I don't know if you can pick them out or not, but there are some bison off behind the barn.

I loved this place. I just got off on a dirt road in the Bridger/Teton National Forest and ran across this lake. I was the only one there and it was so quiet and peaceful. All I could hear were a few birds chirping and a loon out across the lake.

It's Wild West Days in Jackson this weekend. Had a big parade this morning, music all day on the square and a beer fest on the square. I should have gone in the tent to see if they had any non-alcoholic beer. I might do that later this afternoon. I'm going back to the square later for the big shoot-out.



There is also a mountain man rendezvous at the fair grounds and some of them got in the parade too.

Well, the library is closing in 15 minutes, so I'll wrap it up. I need to go to the store and buy some bear spray so I can go hiking next week.

Y'all come see me.

First day at work

Thursday, May 27

Yesterday was my first day at work. I felt pretty stupid. I would be standing behind the counter watching the veterans answer questions and people would come in, see me just standing there and ask me questions about what to see, where to go, where to stay, where to eat, where to see elk, .... Guess what my answer usually was -- "I don't know". I had actually driven around the park Tuesday and from listening to answers from some of the old hands, by the end of the day I was able to make some visitors think I knew what I was talking about. It's really interesting meeting so many people from so many different places. It seems that there are as many foreigners as US citizens. That will probably change when schools let out and people start their summer vacations.

Yesterday after work I took a short trip out of Jackson to look at a campground and see if I could see any wildlife. I really wanted to see this campground because as I was leaving work and the visitor's center had already closed, these two guys from Calgary, Canada came up and met me in the parking lot. Since I was in uniform and looked important, they asked me if I could direct them to an isolated campground that was close. Well, I had my little map that I was taking home to study so I pulled it out, we looked at it and I pointed them to a campground that was close. I drove out there later just to see if it was even open. It was and I'm sure they would be completely satisfied. It was isolated and on the Gros Vontre river. There was a big tree in the campground that had an owls nest in it with a couple of little fuzzy owlets. There were a couple of people set up taking pictures of the owlets with telephoto lenses as long as my arm. These Ansel Adams wanna be's make me feel bad when I get out there with my little Kodak QuicPic.

To get to the campground I had to slow down to a crawl as bison were all over the road. A few miles further down the road was a herd of 100 or more elk. I probably saw no more than 5 cars on this short drive. I hate to go back to work tomorrow and tell people what's out that road. It will get congested.

Right now is really a good time to be here because it is not yet crowded. The downside is that the weather can get bad, but in general it has been great. A lot of places, stores, campgrounds, trails and roads are not open yet. Most around Jackson will open this weekend while some of the facilities up north will not open for another couple of weeks.

I took some more pictures, but left them in the car and don't want to shut down, pack up and come back into the library. I will attach them next time.

My new home