Early May YNP Rambles

North of our Park location is the North Entrance or Mammoth Area.  We needed a nice lunch spot for my birthday so we found the Mammoth Hotel Dining Room. Nice!!!

Then we joined the photo mania on our journey east toward Roosevelt Lodge.  Here's a field of Bison.

And a bear looking for lunch!

Here's the Gibbon River Falls and the river meanders below it.

The Gibbon River and the Firehole River join just below our campground to make the Madison River that eventually flows into the Missouri River.  Here's the junction or 'confluence' as the Rangers say.

This is a late evening photo, our favorite time to walk along the Gibbon and gaze beyond it to the Firehole.  The evening we arrived a large herd of Bison surprised us as they grazed along the Gibbon welcoming us to our CG home.  The Madison River begins at the distant center of the photo.  Tomorrow the fishing season opens and the river banks will crowd with 'fly fishers'.  Change is constant.

" Where the Bison Roam"

After only 10 days of living in Yellowstone, we have learned the bison do roam everywhere and require drivers to pay constant attention as they frequently cross or walk the roads.  The roads are mostly along rivers and creeks that are pathways for the bison to travel.  Drivers are using the bison's natural pathways so it's a matter of sharing.  This is a busy season for bison with many cows and calves.  Within 2-3 hours of birth the calves can keep pace with the herd, but they do nap a lot.

Most of our job as hosts is to run interference between people and the wildlife.  Twice a day we check the campsites for food, utensils or other scented items left out.  We try to educate campers with notes and item removals to bear boxes or other safe storage.  We can be called at any time to help with traffic control at 'wildlife jams' in our district.  Terry worked a grizzly and cub jam that was repeated 3 times as the grizzly moved down the meadow.  We found and managed bison crossing the road at the Madison River bridge nearest our campground a few days ago.  It is very rewarding to help both people and wildlife as they co-exist here.  Each day is full of surprising encounters.

This is our site on Loop B # 30.  The NPS truck is available to us on our 2 days of campground duty.  We make 3 trips around the CG each day at about 3.5 miles each so it is great to have it.  We try to walk our first loop before the afternoon storms.  On our 3rd day of duty we are assigned a project or choose one.  There are plenty of clean up jobs that we have found to do. 

Yesterday's afternoon storm was late in arriving and gave us a most beautiful morning surprise.  This is the Madison River on the road to the town of West Yellowstone.  It is snowing like crazy and the CG has over 6 inches of snow.

We were toasty warm in our new 4 Season, super insulated, no slide out trailer and very thankful for it. The CG power went out, but our propane kicked in as back-up.  Since today is our day off we stuck with our plan to come to the library and came in a little early for a nice breakfast first.

On my birthday we visited the northern part of the Park for the first time.  We saw 2 bears, elk, moose and lots of bison.  Goggle Yellowstone NP and check out the webcams, one of Electric Peak is in this area and there is one of Old Faithful too (about 17 miles south of us).  You will see lots more snow!!!

All for now- so much to share!