Wildlife

So Yellowstone is known as THE place in the country to see wildlife in its natural habitat, and last year I thought I was pretty lucky in terms of seeing stuff. Multiple grizzlies, a wolf pack, moose, etc.

Aside from the wolves, this summer summer has completely eclipsed last summer in terms of animals. The bears are especially out in force this year. I've seen multiple bears all four weekends I've been in the park so far, though luckily I've been able to continue my streak of never having seen a bear while on foot. A coyote while biking to Lone Star Geyser last summer is the only predator I've seen outside of my car.

I saw 3 grizzlies in one afternoon without even trying. On the day I went skiing in the Beartooths (i.e. not trying to see wildlife, just driving across the park) I saw elk, bull elk, bison, bighorn sheep, coyote, pronghorn, deer, marmot, pika, moose, 3 different black bears, and a grizzly bear. I even saw the grizzly chase one of the black bears.

My parents managed to see multiple bears both days they were in the park last week, again without really trying to see wildlife. They were either just driving to Mammoth or driving to the trailheads for our hikes. I've been taking advantage of finally having a camera with a working zoom lens. It even takes HD video, a feature I will be showing off in future posts with a couple ski videos I made.

In other news my job here continues to go well, and I am finally going to get paid tomorrow. The delay is because it took forever for my background check to go through. Actually, I still doubt it has, I only got cleared because I cleared the FBI criminal record check. So if you still have a form from the government asking about me, please say nice things and return it promptly.

Also went on a hike to Pine Creek Lake near Livingston this past weekend. One of my top five glacial valleys ever. The other four would probably be Zermatt, Cascade Canyon/Solitude Lake in the Tetons, Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park, and Cascade Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Boulder, CO.

Speaking of Top 5's, Electric Peak two weekends ago is probably in my top 5 favorite mountain climbs ever. Other 4 would be Longs Peak, Crestone Needle, Schwarzhorn near Grindelwald, Switzerland, and der Shlern in the Italian Dolomites.