You Can't Roller Skate In a Buffalo Herd

Just wanted to include a couple of pictures of bison taken about 6 miles north of the JH Visitors Center on the Gros Ventres River road (that's pronounced "grow vant" and is French for big belly. Jackson Hole lies between the Gros Ventre and Teton mountain ranges. I guess the French got to name the mountains in the area.




Listen to "You Can't Roller Skate In a Buffalo Herd".

Good little road trip

Took a little road trip Monday and Tuesday. I wanted to go to Cody to see the Buffalo Bill Historical Center so made a little 500 mile trip out of it by going up through the northeast entrance of Yellowstone. What a beautiful drive. Went up through Cooke City and Red Lodge Montana on the way to Cody, two neat little old western towns now given in to a lot of tourists. Below are a couple of pictures from the Bear Tooth Scenic Byway on the way out of the northeast entrance. They are taken with my new phone which has an 8 megapixel camera, but I decided a real camera is still better for pictures.

Blue Tooth Scenic Byway

Blue Tooth Scenic Byway

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is a must see. It actually consists of 5 museums: Firearms, Western Art, Plains Indian People, Buffalo Bill and the American West, and The Nature of Yellowstone. You can spend hours in each one of them. The Firearms Museum contains a section on firearms by date and another by manufacturer. I have never seen so many guns of different types.

Buffalo Bill

On the way back thought I was going to be delayed by a 385 acre fire in Yellowstone, but it was more in the middle of the park and no roads were closed. There have already been 4 fires in Yellowstone this year, but that's pretty normal. There have been a few in the Tetons too.

Yellowstone Fire

There was a piece on national news today about a lady who got attacked in a parking lot by a buffalo. I had to drive by one with about 5 foot clearance in a parking lot Monday. If you saw the piece with the lady getting attacked, you'll notice someone threw something at the buffalo and ticked it off.

As most of you already know, they are not really buffalo, but bison. I don't think it would sound right though to sing "give me a home where the bison roam" and Buffalo Bill would not have been near as popular if he had been called Bison Bill.

It's been a while since the latest blog. Had a little trouble with my AC adapter for my PC so had to wait for friends from Holly Lake to bring another one. Had to use the library computers for email and time was limited on them. Not only do I have a new power adapter, but I also have a new phone that allows me to connect my PC to the internet. Really slick.

Activities have been a little curtailed recently. I was crossing a stream last week and a rock slipped out from under me and I hit the dirt. The only injury was to my big toe. It looks like a big purple onion and still hurts, even to wear shoes.

Have had some friends visiting lately. Mike and Miki King, old friends from Lake Highlands Church in Dallas, were up for a few days. We had a nice dinner together. Last week three buds from Holly Lake were here. We got in a little fishing, rafting, sight seeing and gab. Jim, Gerry and Mike's picture is below.

Mike, Jim and Gerry in front of my humble abode

The float trip

Where the buffalo roam

More friends, Couch's and Shewmaker's, are coming later on this month.

That's about it for now.

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.