#717 Exploring Yellowstone - the wildlife

When the snow flies in Yellowstone, animals outnumber people.

By far, we've seen more American bison (the US national mammal) than any other animal.  We've seen them at our cabin, on the roads, and grazing on the Gardiner High School football field.  Because the bison population is growing and the national park land is not, much consideration is given on how best to manage the size of the herd.

We haven't seen as many of the Yellowstone Elk but they are the most plentiful hoofed mammal in the park with 10,000 to 20,000 living within park boundaries during the summer. 

We've also seen many of the park's 450 antelope-like American pronghorn  during our daily commutes to Gardiner.

Of the 163 bighorn sheep known to be living inside the park, we are lucky to spot this band of six grazing near the Yellowstone River in the north.

There are less than a hundred wolves living in the park, so we are excited to see this one...

and to see several of his ancestors within the Yellowstone museum collections.  

As you may expect in mid-March, the resident bear population including about 150 grizzlies is not yet awake so we admire these bear statues outside the post office at Mammoth Hot Springs...

and the stuffed mama bear and cub in the Yellowstone museum collections on the bottom shelf (next to the siren).

You can be sure I'm definitely keeping my eye on Kelly just in case.     

We haven't seen a single dinosaur in Yellowstone yet, but they are plentiful over in Bozeman at the Museum of the Rockies.

Over four million humans visit Yellowstone each year, but fewer than 20,000 will brave the month of March this year.  We love being outnumbered.
 
Yours in enjoying the wildlife,
Mary Jo

#716 Exploring Yellowstone - Cooke City

After we spy the wolf on our drive across the northern range of Yellowstone, we continue our drive to the end of the road at the northeast corner of the park.

Charles Kuralt called the drive from Cooke City to Billings along the Beartooth Highway "the most beautiful drive in America," but the road ends at Cooke City in winter and so do we.

After leaving our lonesome wolf behind, we continue to follow the Soda Butte Creek, climbing as we head east toward Cooke City at an elevation of 7,600 feet. 

Sometimes we need to share the road, but rarely with other cars.

The snow is piled high on both sides of the road...

and eventually the snow starts to cover the road.

In Cooke City, we find the snow is piled even higher.  The annual snowfall in Cooke City is 202 inches.  Back at Mammoth (where we're staying) the annual snowfall is only 150 inches.  And in Gardiner (where we're working) the annual snowfall is a mere 25 inches. 

Wolf searching is hard work, so we look for some lunch before heading back.  We can't find our way to the front door of the Hoosiers Bar...

so instead we step inside the cozy Bistro Cafe.

A snow storm is coming, so we head for home after lunch.  

Not many folks are out this afternoon unless you count the snowmobilers.

The ranger station at Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance was built in 1935 in the rustic style with two traffic lanes passing through it.  (It may be hard to see with the snow piled so high.)  When listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1987, it was written "The building was not only the physical boundary, but the psychological boundary between the rest of the world and what was set aside as a permanently wild place."  The station is unstaffed as we drive through into the permanently wild place and back to the northwest corner of the park where the snow is not so deep.

Yours in exploring Yellowstone,
Mary Jo

#715 Exploring Yellowstone - A Wolf!

We spy a wolf!

The park ranger tells us that wolves have been spotted in Lamar Valley, so we grab our binoculars and off we go! The Rocky Mountain wolf (canis lupus) was listed as an endangered species in 1973 but according to Wolves in Yellowstone, there are now at least 98 wolves living in Yellowstone and 528 wolves living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

From Mammoth Hot Springs, we travel east through the park on US Route 212, the only park road that remains open during the winter. 

It's a gorgeous drive, but let's get back to that wolf.  After 20 miles, we turn northeast at Tower Junction toward Cooke City.

The park is nearly deserted at this time of year so except for the bison and a handful of wolf enthusiasts, we have the road to ourselves.  Soon after crossing the Yellowstone River,

 we drive into the Lamar River Valley.  Wait!  What's that to the right?

It's a wolf!  The northern range of Yellowstone is one of the best places in the world to watch wolves. 

How do we know that's not a coyote?   You'll just have to trust us.

Yours in wolf spotting,
Mary Jo

#714 Volunteering in our National Parks

We love to volunteer in our national parks.

When working full time, we would spend two weeks of vacation working in a national park library.  It is a win-win opportunity that provides the library with the help they need and gives us the chance to spend time in a beautiful place. 

In 2000, we volunteered at Rocky Mountain National Park library. (A photo of our work in the library doesn't exist, but I like this one of the Enos Mills cabin.)

In 2002, we volunteered at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore library.

In 2003, we volunteered at the Mount Rainier National Park library.

Life got busy after 2003, but we promised ourselves that we would commit a WHOLE MONTH to a national park when full-time work was behind us. I saved this 2006 article about the Yellowstone Research Library so I wouldn't forget.  We're thrilled to have the opportunity to keep our promise this year at America's first national park and to have my copy of the article signed by the two authors.

Volunteers in Parks are called VIPs and they sure make you feel special.  If you commit to working four days per week for a month during off-season, then Yellowstone will put you up in park housing - just like a VIP.  What a fabulous deal!

Are you interested in becoming a VIP?  Then find out more at Volunteers-In-Parks!

Yours in loving my VIP status,
Mary Jo

#713 Yellowstone reading

When I visited the Air Capital of the World last week, I read The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, a novel set in Wichita.  I loved the look into the life of Louise Brooks, the airplane industry's impact on Wichita, and the happenings there of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.   

So now that I'm here in Yellowstone, what novels should I next read?  Lucky for me I'm hanging out with park librarians. 

Jessi is an expert on the fiction books held by the Yellowstone Research Library.  (See Romance in Wonderland.)  So using my new Yellowstone library card, I check out some of the best: Bachelor Father, Letters from Yellowstone, and The Discovery at the Dragon's Mouth.  I'm particularly eager to get lost in the story of hunky Zeke Lonetree, the "independent, loyal, reserved, kind, idealistic" park ranger and hero of Bachelor Father.

Kelly's reading choices today are slightly more, shall I say, fact-based. 

Yours in Yellowstone reading,
Mary Jo

#712 Yellowstone commute

What a nature-filled commute we enjoy as volunteers here in Yellowstone!

Kelly and I have been lucky enough to experience two fabulous commutes during our working lives: walking to work in downtown Indianapolis and walking to UVA in Charlottesville.

Here at Yellowstone, we drive 6 miles losing 1,000 feet in elevation to travel from our park housing in Mammoth Hot Springs inside the park boundary to our work place at the Heritage and Research Center in Gardiner, MT.

Instead of seeing springtime azaleas in bloom, here we see bison strolling through snow...

while following the Gardiner River downstream...

north of the 45th Parallel...

until we see the Heritage and Research Center through the historic Roosevelt Arch.

After we finish our work day, we drive back through the Roosevelt Arch,

and retrace our steps up the mountain past the big rock. 

Sometimes we must slow down through the congested areas and...

take time to photograph the bison and...

wish the elk would come a bit closer...

 until we've reached our Mammoth home.

Yours in loving a good commute,
Mary Jo

#711 Yellowstone or Bust!

After 1,500 miles in one week, we've arrived in Yellowstone National Park!

Along our route, we visited two Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, two libraries, two art museums, and many hospitable friends.  We saw a handful of tumbleweeds and too-many-to-count hawks, antelope, bison, elk, and mule deer.  (Our trip photos are here.)

My favorite part of the drive was the Wind River Canyon in Wyoming - a scenic canyon made from tectonic plate shifting not carved by the Wind River.

We are now at home in our Yellowstone housing at Mammoth Hot Springs.

This morning, we awoke to more snow and a few bison wandering around the neighborhood.  After Missouri's non-existent winter, we're enjoying the Yellowstone winter and all that comes with that.

Tomorrow, it is back to work for us as we begin volunteering at the Heritage and Research Center in Gardiner.

Yours in transitioning from one cool library (at Crystal Bridges) to another,
Mary Jo