Intro to Whitefish Lake State Park

Today, I took a hike on the Whitefish Trail. It goes on for long distances, but because this is my first real day of hiking, I took it easy. Here's a picture of one part of the trail:

While hiking, I saw a lot of pretty flowers. Here's one.

Here's a picture of my truck, trailer and site at Whitefish Lake State Park. That little bald hill in the background is the railroad track. It can be quite loud, but it doesn't seem to wake me at night. Thank goodness!

I took a picture from the end of the dock. It shows the Whitefish Mountain Resort, where there is skiing during the winter. There are a lot of houses located in the lower hills in front of the mountain. The lake is beautiful and cold. Just a tad too cold to swim in right now.

From the end of the dock, I took a picture of the picnic area and the parking area for the park. Just a tad hard to see, but it is there. No business today, which is nice, considering that in a couple of weeks it will be wall-to-wall people.

This is Whitefish Lake State Park. Gorgeous and quiet, except when the train goes by (many times during the day and night). But it isn't that bad!

Next time, it will be back to Glacier!

May 12, 2015 Whitefish State Park

So, I have arrived at Whitefish Lake State Park. I arrived Saturday evening and set up in my semi-permanent spot. Semi-permanent because it is only until September 20. I will be taking pictures of the park and my trailer location later when the weather gets nicer. Right now it is cool and cloudy with a potential for rain.

Yesterday, we had the intro meeting for new and returning camphosts from all over Montana's Region 1 district. Apparently, all of the state parks in Region 1 are near or on lakes. Our little 10 acre park has one of two public boat launching ramps on Whitefish Lake.

More will follow as things progress. I will also be making trips into Glacier during the summer, so I'm excited about being here. I can also breathe, since the altitude is only around 3200 feet (instead of the 5600 feet at Heber City and 6700 feet at Deer Valley. It is so quiet and the air is so sweet smelling, it is incredible that a train runs within 50 feet of my trailer. About once every two hours or so, even at night, but I'm beginning to not even notice. I haven't been awakened from sleep by a train, so I'm not even sure the trains run at night. I was told they do.

Right now, I'm sitting at my little desk playing on my computer. A couple of days ago when I was sitting here playing on my computer, I looked outside and saw this:

 That pedestal is around 10-15 feet away from my front door. I took this picture through my window, and my movement caught his attention. A few minutes later, he took off after his momma. I was told that these two were probably last year's babies, since about now the new babies are coming. They are smaller than the larger doe that was with them, but walked across the road to the left.

I've been told that there are bears around here and do visit on occasion. We have bear-proof garbage dumpsters, since I guess they like people food.

I've also been told about the mountain lions. They aren't as populous, but to my right is a mountain called Lion Mountain, apparently for a reason. I don't want to see them and I really don't want to hear them!

I'm off to training on the state park reservation system tomorrow and if I'm a good girl and learn it quickly, I don't have to go back on Thursday. I hope so. Three days off before I have to start work would be wonderful!

Butte to Kalspell

During my time in Butte, I went to two places. The first was Phillipsburg. The sole purpose of this little wide spot in the road is mining. Sapphires. So, I decided to do some "mining." You get a bucket of gravel and a place to check the gravel for sapphires. The washing is done by one of the employees. After looking through my bucket, I found a whole bunch of little sapphires in the rough. I got a total of about 8 carats of cutable gems, so I'll probably get them done. Here's a picture of the total stones I found and the cutable stones.

These will be heat treated and cut. The bottom stone is a white sapphire with a bit of yellow. It won't be heat treated but will be facetted.

All the stones I found that are too small to be cut. They may be heat treated (which improves the color).

Large stones that are fractured and can't be cut. The one on the right is a "pink" sapphire. But too small.

The second place was Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park - not for the state park part of things, but for the caverns. I'd been to Lehman Caves and this was similar except for the huge number of stairs. The hike was 3/4 of a mile to the entrance, 3/4 of a mile into the cave (mostly down stairs and one "slide" that was shaped like the many butts that had slid on it) and 1/2 miles back to the visitor center. Other than the up and down shape of the cave, the formations were essentially the same as at Lehman Caves. So I didn't take many pictures. There were only 3 of us since it was so early in the season. The guide says the usual is 30 (up to 47) and it takes FOREVER to get through the cave with that many.

I left Butte and drove to the Flathead Valley (past Flathead Lake). It was an easy drive and pleasant to view. It is one of those places where I wished someone else was driving. There was a lot to see and 70 mph makes viewing difficult, if not dangerous.

Made it into Kalispell and after parking I made a quick drive over to Whitefish and found the park. The road construction near the entrance is HORRIBLE. A train also wanders by the site at least once a day, maybe more. It is still a beautiful place. More pictures will come later.

One of the mountains in Glacier National Park

One of the small drops in the McDonald Creek leading to Lake McDonald

Today, I drove to Glacier National Park. Very few people there. I met a ranger who had told me that a bear had been browsing close to one of the turnouts. She said it headed off into the trees, so I didn't see it.

I drove to the road closure, took lots of pictures and turned around. On the spur of the moment, I decided to drive to Polebridge (or as far as the pavement went). On the way toward Polebridge, I saw a momma bear and her baby. I thought she had one baby with her. Then I noticed the second baby. After a couple of minutes, I heard a lot of noise in the trees and thought it was a large bird. Turns out it was baby number 3. Babies 2 and 3 got into it a bit before they all went back to grazing.

One Baby

Two Babies

Babies Two and Three Getting It On!

Three Babies

 By the time I returned, the bear family was gone. And the clouds were really piling up like it was going to rain. I left the park and drove home.

Can't wait until later in the season when the road is open and the shuttle runs up and down the mountain. Save the truck!

Going to Butte

Did I ever mention how much I hate driving the trailer in the wind? Well, double that. It was windy all the way from Rexburg to Butte. Very in some places, less very in others. Wasn't fun. Especially when the trucks passed me because they were going faster that I was going.

Most of the week before I left, the weather was gorgeous. Until Saturday. Then it clouded up. So, of course, it had to rain on Sunday, the day I left. Not a real serious rain, but enough to be annoying.

And then it rained the whole way, except over the Continental Divide where it decided to snow and hail. Apparently a winter storm has moved into the area, so it is cold, snowy and now only slightly breezy.

Oh well, at least I am here in Butte for a week.

Back to Yellowstone

On Wednesday, I went back to Yellowstone. This time, I went to the geyser part of the park (Old Faithful, et al). I had worked at the Old Faithful Inn (a very large log cabin) which is at the side of Old Faithful.

The first place I stopped was at Midway Geyser Basin. I tried to take pictures, but the steam was so heavy, I couldn't see the pools and small geysers. It was almost cold out, so the steam was probably heavier than usual.

The runoff from the geysers/pools went into the river (Gibbon I think) and made gorgeous patterns. Here's one.

In the pools that weren't covered with steam, gorgeous growths showed. There were miniature hoo-doos (different from the real hoo-doos) and lily-pad shapes floating in the pools. All in that gorgeous iron color. Comes from the various minerals/chemicals in the water.

While walking along the wooden boardwalk leading around the area, I saw a bison. Took his pictures. I must have made an impression on him, because he started following me, as if asking to have his picture taken.

After I walked away from him, he stopped and climbed over the walkway to get to the other side. Glad he didn't do that when I was at that spot!

When I got to the Old Faithful area, I walked around the trails to the various geysers and other water features. This one is called Grotto Geyser. There are holes throughout the structure that water comes out of. All these geysers are very noisy when they are spitting and sending out steam.

By the time I had gone a couple of miles around the circle, my left knee was almost non-functional, I had a blister on the bottom of my foot, and my left hip didn't want to work very well. I was going from bench to bench to get to Old Faithful with about 20 minutes to spare before it went off.

I am so happy that digital cameras have come along. When I got home, I saw that I had taken 208 pictures. If I had to buy that much film, I would be broke!

Although the day started out without any clouds, by the time I left, I looked like it was going to rain - cold, cloudy and windy.

But it was good to get back to semi-familiar territory. I guess things do change (not necessarily for the better) in almost 40 (!) years. On the boardwalks, they are replacing the old, worn-out, chemically eaten wooden boards with either manufactured "wooden" boards or concrete "boards." Much sturdier and longer lasting, One of the places I was visiting had a couple of broken boards (wood) or the boards were totally missing.

One thing about going to visit in the "off" season is that there were much smaller crowds. The parking lot at Old Faithful had enough parking space that a couple of football stadiums would envy. And probably 50 cars in the whole area.

Jackson and Tetons

I drove to Teton National Park today. I left early in the morning so I could make it there and back in a reasonable amount of time. It was an easy drive and most of the way, I could see the back side of the Tetons. 

The sun was just coming up, so the view is like my bleery eyes were able to see it.

I drove through the town of Jackson and got a picture of the antler gates. Typical small touristy town. Lots of souvenir shops and eatin’ places.

Teton National Park’s main road was closed to motorized traffic. Bikers and hikers were allowed, but that’s it until May 1. So, I didn’t get very far in the park.

I drove the main highway up to Oxbow Lookout (near Moran). I remember this view from 1978 when a group of us from Yellowstone drove here to climb Grand Teton. A thunderstorm and snow shortened that trip.

I drove back down the highway towards Jackson. At the Snake River Overlook, I took another picture. The scenery was gorgeous and I saw several elk near the road nearby.

I took lots of pictures of the Tetons, but this is the one I like the best.

I’m trying to decide if I want to come this way when I go back to California. That decision will have to wait until September.

Revisiting Yellowstone 2015

On Friday, April 17, I drove to Yellowstone. That was the first day that the West Yellowstone gate would be opened. I left early and got to West Yellowstone around 9:00 am, which was my goal. There were probably 30-40 cars in line already, and it took ½ hour to get in. Thank goodness I already had the Senior forever pass, so it was easy to get in. The one person price was $25! The pass was the best deal I ever got. $10 for eternity or until the world ends, whichever comes first.

Along the way to Madison and then on to Canyon, I met some buffalo (actual bison) on the road. Not too many on the way to Canyon. Just enough to get people to slow down.

I went to Canyon first. My goal was to hike the North Rim trail. The road was clear and dry, so I drove to the parking area. The major trail was still covered with 2-3 feet of snow, so I wasn’t able to walk the trail. So, I drove to the South Rim. The parking area overlooking the upper falls was open so I took a couple of pictures of the upper falls.

Then I drove to the site called “Artists Point.” From there, you can see the lower falls area and it appears that this is where the iconic pictures of the falls were taken from. As you can see, there is a lot of built up snow and ice around the falls. The trail was mostly open, with only a few areas covered with snow (like the walkway up to the highest level).

I left Artist Point and drove back to the North Rim where I was able to find a trail to hike down to get a view from the other side.

I also met a bird watcher from Bozeman who has been watching a pair of Osprey for several years. She had a very large telephoto (drool, green eyes, etc.) lens and was watching an osprey nest.

While we were watching, the male met the female in the nest and proceeded to mate with her. He then flew off (typical male) and she started straightening up the nest. I left and drove back towards West Yellowstone.

I stopped at Artists Paintpots area and hiked the (a lot of up and just as much down) trail around the Paintpot area. The various colors in the various paintpots explained exactly why it was labeled as such. Here are a couple of pictures of the colors, the springs bubbling, and one of the paintpots close up. Some of the pots were just holes.

Here is one of the large mud/water pots bubbling up. (05)

Also saw some bear tracks on the path I was following.

On the way back towards West Yellowstone, I met up with some more bison. I stopped to take pictures before they got out of my lane. This is a not very wide two lane road. I was on my side, the bison were on the other side. A couple got very close.

The last time I was in Yellowstone was when I worked at Old Faithful Inn in 1978 (that long ago?). Things have changed since that time. But I’m glad I was able to make the trip. The trees that have grown since the huge fire in Yellowstone many years ago made the hillsides look like green carpets. The geysers and hot spots were chugging away and the steam spread across the road in some places. I’m almost sorry I’m not working there this year!