Yellowstone National Park. You’d expect to see the usual bison, bears, elk, and moose.
Yellowstone
Funny weather here in Yellowstone. Highs in the 70s and 80s, but lows the last two nights in the 20s. Frozen hose last night. Who thinks about unhooking the water hose at night when it’s 70 or 80 degrees during the day? Oh well. We had plenty of fresh water in the tank to hold us over until the sun hit the hose and thawed it out. It’s not very high here: 6,500 feet. We’re right next to the Continental Divide, though. It’s only at 7,000 feet here. That seems so odd. You have to go to 12,000 feet to cross the divide in Colorado. That’s a mile higher. Took a day-trip in the jeep. A five state day: Montana, Idaho, Montana, Idaho, Montana. We’re in Montana. Straight west of here is Idaho. Get to the other side of Henry’s Lake in Idaho, and you cross back into Montana on a fifty mile long dirt road headed due west. Montana hangs down into Idaho right there. Halfway through that dirt road, in the Centennial Valley, is Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, perhaps the most remote wildlife refuge in the country, home of the rare trumpeter swan. We were hoping to see one or two. We got 45! Forty-five trumpeter swans. That was a great surprise. We also got pelicans, ducks, grebes, hawks, bald eagles, sandhill cranes, coots, gulls, kingfishers, three kinds of woodpeckers, flycatchers, swallows, magpies, nutcrackers, nuthatches, robins, bluebirds, waxwings, warbling vireos, warblers, spotted towhee, and sparrows. We looked hard for the MacGillivray’s warbler, a life bird for us, but didn’t get him. No problem. We got forty-five trumpeter swans!
Property update
The Roosevelt house sold. Nice guy. One kid. Already in town. Loves old-town. Loves old houses. Walks by the house every day on the way to the park. Moved in over the weekend.
Madison river
A good day on the Madison with Rick. Warm weather. Flashing silver leaping rainbows. Some browns. Not as fishy as sometimes, but good enough. If we seem to hook fewer fish, there might be other forces at work than the quantity of fish available. We’re getting older and slower, but the fish aren’t. No matter. We catch enough to hold our interest. A great day on the river.
yellowstone
A little warm-up fishing on the Gallatin in the very northwest corner of the park. Small water. Small fish. Tomorrow, the all-day float on the Madison with Rick.