Vacation Journal
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Weather and Wildlife
When you live in an oven, you don't expect to wake up in a refrigerator. After the 100 degree days in Oklahoma, I left on our Yellowstone trip without a jacket in the car. I have several in the motor home, and it never occurred to me that I would need one before we got to Dubois. It was 60 degrees on Sunday morning when we woke up in Laramie. That wasn't too bad. However, when we got to the Snowy Range where we sat and watched birds, it was probably 55 degrees. It was chilly, but I made it. Monday morning when we got up in Dubois, it was 45 degrees, but now I had a jacket.
Tuesday in Greybull it got up to 97 degrees, but fortunately the humidity was below 20%. We spent most of the day exploring the Big Horn Mountains and Big Horn National Forest where it probably only reached 90 degrees. We never felt like we were in the oven like you do in Oklahoma. By 7:00 in the evening, Greybull had cooled off below 80 degrees, and it was very pleasant outside. We sat in the lawn swing on our patio and read.
Wednesday it was hot (90+ degrees) and humidity (33%) when we got to Gardiner, Montana. The air was filled with smoke from forest fires in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. The smoke arrived on Wednesday as we did, because the wind had shifted. It cooled off fast in the evening. We are at 5,200 feet at our campground with the cold Yellowstone River running immediately behind our RV (about 15 feet behind us and down about 20 feet). We have a nice view of the river out our rear (bedroom) window. Wednesday evening we walked back to watch the river and got to see an Osprey catch a fish about 100 yards upstream. I wish I had a house with a view like this.
Thursday the high was under 80 degrees and is expected to remain below 80 until next Tuesday.
Thursday morning we watched a lot of birds our our bedroom window when we got up. We had lots of Brewer's Blackbirds, a couple American Robins, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and an Osprey. We drove into Yellowstone to check out the road to Dunraven Pass which has been closed for the past three years. We stopped at an overlook above Blacktail Ponds because we decided the windshield needed to be cleaned. While there, a coyote decided to stand in the road about 100 yards behind us. It stayed on the road for a couple minutes. Then it began creeping into the grass like it was stalking something. It stalked for a couple hundred feet until it reached the edge of one of the ponds. Then it just jumped in and climbed back out and shook itself. I guess it decided it needed a bath. After shaking, it took off running straight towards us and then it turned and went between us and the ponds. It ran until it was out of sight over a small hill. Meanwhile, we saw a couple bluebirds flying into and out of a pine tree. There were a dozen or so American Coots on the ponds. There was one Cormorant which flew from one pond to the pond closest to us. There was one other kind of waterfowl which we didn't identify. There was one bull bison laying down about 1/4 mile away. We ended up spending 20 minutes just watching all the wildlife at a random spot where I stopped to wash the windows.
We stopped at a known Osprey nest in the Tower Falls area. It had one Osprey on the nest. Later, when we stopped again, there were two Osprey on the nest and three flying around overhead. Apparently the family on the nest had a good year. We also discovered a new (to us) Osprey nest in the Lamar Valley. It had one Osprey on the nest making lots of noise which is typical of a young Osprey expecting one of its parents to show up with food. When we stopped again on our way back, it was still there calling. A second Osprey was sitting on a dead tree about 300 yards away on the other side of the river. I guess it was one of the parents taking a break.
As you may have gathered, we come to Yellowstone to mostly see the wildlife. We hope to see lots more while we are here.
A friend from Bartlesville, Gary Gompf, just showed up while I was typing this note. Gary and his wife, Karolena, will be staying in the same RV Park for several days.
Tuesday in Greybull it got up to 97 degrees, but fortunately the humidity was below 20%. We spent most of the day exploring the Big Horn Mountains and Big Horn National Forest where it probably only reached 90 degrees. We never felt like we were in the oven like you do in Oklahoma. By 7:00 in the evening, Greybull had cooled off below 80 degrees, and it was very pleasant outside. We sat in the lawn swing on our patio and read.
Wednesday it was hot (90+ degrees) and humidity (33%) when we got to Gardiner, Montana. The air was filled with smoke from forest fires in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. The smoke arrived on Wednesday as we did, because the wind had shifted. It cooled off fast in the evening. We are at 5,200 feet at our campground with the cold Yellowstone River running immediately behind our RV (about 15 feet behind us and down about 20 feet). We have a nice view of the river out our rear (bedroom) window. Wednesday evening we walked back to watch the river and got to see an Osprey catch a fish about 100 yards upstream. I wish I had a house with a view like this.
Thursday the high was under 80 degrees and is expected to remain below 80 until next Tuesday.
Thursday morning we watched a lot of birds our our bedroom window when we got up. We had lots of Brewer's Blackbirds, a couple American Robins, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and an Osprey. We drove into Yellowstone to check out the road to Dunraven Pass which has been closed for the past three years. We stopped at an overlook above Blacktail Ponds because we decided the windshield needed to be cleaned. While there, a coyote decided to stand in the road about 100 yards behind us. It stayed on the road for a couple minutes. Then it began creeping into the grass like it was stalking something. It stalked for a couple hundred feet until it reached the edge of one of the ponds. Then it just jumped in and climbed back out and shook itself. I guess it decided it needed a bath. After shaking, it took off running straight towards us and then it turned and went between us and the ponds. It ran until it was out of sight over a small hill. Meanwhile, we saw a couple bluebirds flying into and out of a pine tree. There were a dozen or so American Coots on the ponds. There was one Cormorant which flew from one pond to the pond closest to us. There was one other kind of waterfowl which we didn't identify. There was one bull bison laying down about 1/4 mile away. We ended up spending 20 minutes just watching all the wildlife at a random spot where I stopped to wash the windows.
We stopped at a known Osprey nest in the Tower Falls area. It had one Osprey on the nest. Later, when we stopped again, there were two Osprey on the nest and three flying around overhead. Apparently the family on the nest had a good year. We also discovered a new (to us) Osprey nest in the Lamar Valley. It had one Osprey on the nest making lots of noise which is typical of a young Osprey expecting one of its parents to show up with food. When we stopped again on our way back, it was still there calling. A second Osprey was sitting on a dead tree about 300 yards away on the other side of the river. I guess it was one of the parents taking a break.
As you may have gathered, we come to Yellowstone to mostly see the wildlife. We hope to see lots more while we are here.
A friend from Bartlesville, Gary Gompf, just showed up while I was typing this note. Gary and his wife, Karolena, will be staying in the same RV Park for several days.
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