We made a point of going out for a long hike yesterday because we kind of figured we would be stuck inside all day today. But that may not be the case now. We'll see.
Yesterday, we were up early again and drove down from our beautiful free overnight spot down to the town of Gardiner and parked ourselves up opposite the library. The library is closed, but it's got nothing to do with Covid... it's normally only open Tuesday and Thursday anyhow.
The library is in the same single story building as the Sheriff's Office and there is some kind of municipal office as well.
We are also parked opposite a park with a shade structure and a few picnic tables... but there was nobody around. In fact, I figured correctly that nobody would mind if we simply stayed parked right there.
On our way down the hill we came across these two big fellows.
He looked like he was going to charge Sherman!
But he turned off to the side.
We sat in the motorhome for the morning. Ruth made some soup... it was a soup kind of a day! We planned a hike, but we kept waiting for the on again off again showers to stop. And around 12:30pm they did just that.
We set off walking towards the park entrance booth, and I spotted this colorful bird. We have never seen one of these before!
Maybe he'll turn around for us?
Yes, he did!
This is a western tanager.
We got about a half a mile when I noticed that our friends Bob and Denise were in town. We have each other on Google location sharing so we can see where each other are. They were right where Sherman was parked, so we turned around to go back. We had only gone a half a mile or so and we figured they might want to join us on our hike.
But we were too late and we actually saw them heading up the hill towards where our beautiful boondocking spot was.
There goes Bob and Denise!
So we turned back around and continued on our hike. We'll see them over the next day or two.
We planned to hike up the Old Gardiner Road. It's a dirt road that is only open in one direction... downhill from Mammoth to Gardiner. So we figured there wouldn't be much traffic.
Lots of bird noise coming from the grass, so I walked off the road just to try to disturb one into flying just so we could see what it was that was making the noise. Sure enough, I scared one away... right near where I was standing.
Lucky I didn't step on the nest!
I showed Ruth the nest and eggs and then quickly left it alone for the mom to come back and look after things. We never did see what kid of bird it was!
There are a lot of elk around.
Looking back at Gardiner.
Yellow rumped warbler.
Pine siskin.
Mountain bluebird.
Scenery along the way.
More elk.
And more elk.
Made it to Mammoth.
Mammoth Hot Springs.
We turned around and walked back down. We had done 9 miles (14.5 kms) and gained 1,000' in altitude. Never sat down the whole way! Despite being a little cool, the weather was actually perfect for the hike.
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And in Canada...
I had to pull off the road one year to see a rare sight...a coyote playing with an elk. The elk chasing the coyote round and round and stop with coyote hind end up and paws down wagging it's tail as if to say 'come get me.' I finally left after watching for 30 minutes or so. This happened as I left Yellowstone towards Livingston.
ReplyDeleteThat definitely would have been a great sight to see!
DeleteI can't imagine being in such a beautiful place and not going for walks. The wildlife is amazing.
ReplyDeleteWe think the same way! Yes, the wildlife is amazing. :-)
DeleteWe have a farm down the road that have 5 buffalo and I get a kick each time I see them. This is in NC, so a rare sight indeed. Every spring we have deer in our backyard when they come down from the mountain and we had our first two last night. It was two mamas, but the fawns will come soon.
ReplyDeleteThere is a buffalo farm a hour or so away from my Dad's house in Ontario and w always look for them as we pass by sometimes they are there and sometimes they are in a back field and we can't see them, like you we get a kick out of seeing them.
DeleteIt would be nice to see deer in your backyard as you drink your coffee in the morning, the only problem with that is that they like to eat your flowers, or at least they did at the campground that we used to manage. It will be so fun to see the fawns. :-)
Beautiful bird photos
ReplyDeleteThank you! This camera has a great zoom on it. :-)
Delete