A Reputable Journal

Before we get to the main topic of today’s post I need to add a postscript to yesterdays post. After I wrote it, we went (unsuccessfully) looking for wolves again, but when we got back to our campsite there was a mama bear and two cubs just across the creek from us!

What a great bonus to an already amazing day.

This morning we got up and headed to our wolf spot just down the road from our campground. It was cold and the rain was coming and there were no wolves to be seen. Our original plan was to do Hell Roaring and then do the trout lake hike in the afternoon, but the radar and the sky and our own senses were showing rain so we headed back to the camper to hunker down for a few hours.

At about 10:30 the rain stopped so we jumped in the truck and headed for Hell Roaring, a hike down to a suspension bridge followed by a hike back up. About a quarter mile into our hike we were totally shocked to encounter a black bear about 15 feet off the path just munching on berries! Of course we stopped and quietly watched for a few minutes (ignoring advice to make a lot of noise) after grabbing a couple of pictures we headed on our way keeping an eye in the rear view!

The hike down (about 500 feet) was pretty easy and the views were great!

By the time we were making our way back up to the trail head, the bear was gone, or at least not seen. We headed on our way to fill up with gas and go back to the camper for lunch. We had though about doing the trout lake trail, but I was against getting back in the truck and driving 15 miles to do another hike, so we compromised and went on the slough creek trail. It was a climb to start but very peaceful and nice. We happened up this pretty marshy area, both of us commented that there ought to be a moose standing in the middle.

I told Jane I’m going to stand here until a moose appears. And then this happened.

Thanks ChatGPT.

After the hike Jane said that she wanted to drive back to the Wolf spotting area. As a good husband I agreed, even though I thought it was a waste of time. A good husband knows to admit when he is wrong, and this is one of those times where I was clearly wrong. The wolves were out. Not very active, and they were about a mile and a half away. So even though our really nice spotting scope they just looked like black blobs laying around, until they got up and moved. That was impressive! There are at least five of them in this picture.

Here is a short clip (28 seconds) that should open in your browser Wolves in Action

We rarely set an alarm anymore, but this morning was an exception. Although we are normally up by 5:30 at home, we tend to sleep in when we are in the camper. However we had to meet our guide at 6:30 at the Tower / Roosevelt junction to go on our wildlife expedition. So we drove out of the campground in the dark. As we were headed down the gravel road we noticed quite a few people in place to catch a glimpse of the wolves. Chairs, coffee, tables, spotting scopes and cameras all ready to go before dawn.

Our first decision of the day with our guide Cat was what were our priorities. We agreed on Grizzly Bears, She said she could guarantee some bears but we had to leave the park. We agreed and we were on our way! We drove out through Gardiner and Yankee Jim Canyon and turned on Tom Miner road, quite a bumpy journey! But she made good on her guarantee, here is george:

George was a good distance away probably 200 yards, but we got great photos through the spotting scope with a special attachment for Jane’s iPhone! At this time of year the bears are just eating anything they can, grass, roots, worms, you name it, they are fattening themselves up for the winter!

A little less than a mile away we were treated to the sight of two mama bears and their cubs. They were all in a large clearing. Above the clearing was a small herd of Elk, and for added sound effects the coyotes hidden in the woods were howling away! Hard to beat that!

We decided to head back into the park after about an hour of bear watching. But along the way we saw George’s spouse with three cubs not far from where we originally saw him. Meanwhile George was not far away stalking a herd of cattle. We saw him stop and it looked like he and one of the cows were having a stare down! It would be very unusual for a grizzly to attach a full size cow like that so after watching them for a while we moved on. Seeing a total of 11 grizzly bears was quite a treat!

Once we were back in the park we saw a bonus of a couple of small black bears. We saw them with our eyes but our cameras failed to capture them.

Our next priority was to see some wolves or coyotes, unfortunately it was not to be today, although we now know where to go tomorrow morning and evening to try to see for ourselves. At one stop after looking for wolves we were treated to some great antics by some Pronghorn Antelope. They can really jump. The two locking horns were really funny, just teenagers wrestling. Then one of them got his antlers caught in the ground, he nearly flipped himself over trying to get free, then acted like it was all his buddies fault.

A little further down the road we saw this cute “red dog” bison. This little guy was born way after all the other juveniles.

It was getting to be lunch time, but we decided to spot some mountain goats before we had lunch at a spot where Cat often sees Fox. Again the spotting scope was amazing at turning tiny little white dots into actual pictures of goats.

We had our lunch at a really nice little picnic area, and watched the squirrels hoarding away all kinds of snacks for their winter food store. Unfortunately the picnic area was completely full, which kept the foxes hidden away. September in Yellowstone is time for all the grandparents to come without the kids, and that certainly seemed to be the case as we watched all the people.

Our final stop was to see the Osprey nest! These Osprey had four hatchlings this year.

Heading back to our campground we saw this cool bit of rain in the distance.

So many wonderful sights! Such a great day!

Today was a relatively short drive from Red Lodge to the North Entrance of Yellowstone. But lots of climbing and hair pin turns then lots of down hill with beautiful views at every turn! Here’s a great view from the Rock Creek Vista.

On the way down we stopped briefly for this beautiful mountain lake.

We continued on to Island Lake Campground, where we could hike around island lake.

It was so quiet and deserted, and the signs at the trailhead were sufficiently cautionary, that after about a half mile we decided we would not go all the way around the lake.

I also really like the contrast between the grasses in the open areas and the grasses back in the trees in this picture.

Our campground in Yellowstone, Slough Creek, is quite remote and has some similar bear signs, but all 17 sites are full so we are not alone. The campground also does not have water, and since we didn’t want to haul a full water tank over the mountains this morning we had to drive to the Tower Falls campground and get our water there. This involved sitting through quite a bit of road construction both was as Tower Falls was 8 miles past the turn off for our campground.

Our campground is at the end of a 3 mile gravel road, but it is well worth it! Here is the view from our campsite! We are right on the edge of Slough Creek, with beautiful views, although you can tell it was burned by a forest fire not too long ago.

Tomorrow morning is an early morning, we are meeting a guide at 6 to go in search of wildlife!

Mostly a day of driving… We arrived and checked in to the KOA just outside of Red Lodge. We headed down town to do some walking around hoping to check out a couple of breweries.

Instead I got a much needed new pair of sunglasses and we had margaritas at Bogarts. Cool place with good mexican food. There wasn’t as much to see as we thought, and a lot of places were closed on Monday so it ended up being a very early dinner and then back to the campground for some downtime.

We ended up in the camper watching The Thursday Murder Club. Great cast and fun story line. Tomorrow promises to be much more scenic with a drive over the Bear Tooth Mountains and getting settled in our camp site at Slough Creek in Yellowstone.

After about a six hour drive we arrived in Medora North Dakota. Home of the Medora Musical where our friend Marybeth performed. It is hard to imagine spending an entire summer this far away from everything! We camped at the Medora campground, right outside the national park. We took the scenic drive (about 34 miles) with many short hiking stops. We were amazed at how many Bison were close to the road!

We also saw a number of wild horses. I liked this one of a small group standing on a butte in the distance.

It was interesting to learn the history of this area. Teddy Roosevelt came here as a young man after losing his wife and mother on the same day. He bought a ranch (Yes he came from a very wealthy family) and then another ranch in the area. After a couple of very bad winters where he lost most of his herd he ended up going back to New York to get involved in politics again. After his death it was a long process to create the national park. He is the only president (so far - 😉) to have a national park named after him.

The views and the hikes were great. Here are a few of my favorites.

Back at the camp, I pulled out the Traeger Ranger to make some pork chops only to find out that at some point in the last two years mice had built a little nest in the firebox! If a new oak tree grows in Medora I guess I’ll have to take responsibility. I got it cleaned out and heated it up nice and high to make sure it was safe! It was also a good spot to experiment with the StarLink, which worked great and provided much faster internet than the campground WiFi! It was a beautiful night, the temps were in the high 50’s and we were able to sleep with the windows open.

Beautiful hike today around hidden lake at Lake Carlos State Park. We took the Hidden Lake trail from the lower campground, it was very pretty. Kaia has been brushing up on her mushroom identification skills and had tons of interesting species to identify on our walk. Maren alternated between delighted to be along, and stubborn almost three-year-old. It’s going to be a challenging year for Mom and Dad with that one!

Back at camp we tried to get Maren to nap a bit, but that proved fruitless so we decided to head into town to the Runestone museum. This is in the same building as it was years ago when Grandma Miller brought me. The original Runestone is still on display there. Of course the scientific and linguistic analysis of the stone have progressed a lot since the 1970’s! It seems that most of the modern research supports the authenticity of the stone today. That makes me happy as that is what my intuition has always been.

The museum contains quite a few interesting historical exhibits about pioneer life in the Alexandria including a one room schoolhouse that reminded me of the one Grandma Miller taught in. There is also a 3/4 scale Viking ship. As we were leaving through the gift shop, we saw a replica of the stone, and so of course I had to get one for my desk. The lady working in the gift shop was quite enthusiastic when I told her the story of Runestone Academy.

On the way back to the campsite we stopped at the camp store to get some wood. When I entered I said hello to the guy working the counter, he greeted me back and then immediately said 3 bundles of wood? I did a double take and said yes, three bundles unless you have a special on 4 (nope). How did you know I wanted three? Apparently I look like a 3 bundle guy, and this is a little game they play when they see people stopping! LOL everyone has to have a way to stay entertained.

Once the fire was going I got out my guitar and we all sang some camp songs. Starting with twinkle twinkle and ending with American Pie. It was quite a broad audience.

Dinner was especially delicious. We had some left over brisket that I had smoked earlier this summer, so we cut that thin, put it on a hoagie bun with some provolone cheese, wrapped them in foil and cooked them over the flames. Soooo good!

The kids didn’t last too long after dinner, so Jane and I enjoyed the campfire and the sunset until the fire burned down and the chill in the air started to outpace the warmth of the embers. Tomorrow we’ll have a quick breakfast with everyone and be on our way to Medora ND and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

It has been two years since our last big camping trip! So we are feeling a little rusty with our skills, and I’m feeling a little nervous about taking off just as classes are getting underway. Thankfully I bought a StarLink Mini to take along on our journey in case some emergency arises and I really need good connectivity!

We pulled out of Bone Lake at 8:00 and were on our way. Less than an hour into our trip we got a notification from the security system that motion was detected in the great room! Soon the cell phone rang with a call from them as well. The cameras didn’t show any sign of activity. A bat? Not in broad daylight, surely it was some kind of false alarm.

The wind was really blowing out of the Northwest, so we started our trip getting about 7 miles per gallon! The plan was to get to Alexandria and join our friends Kat and Loren for some golf! But with the temps only in the low 50’s and the wind gusting to 30 mph we decided to go bowling instead. We got our camper situated at Lake Carlos State Park and then headed into town for some lunch.

After bowling, my best was a 126, if you must know. We decided to try Axe throwing. Not real axes, and well the game didn’t seem to keep score very accurately so that was kind of a bust. From there we went to check out 22 Northmen brewery and Carlos Creek Winery. Kat had secretly ordered some pizza and pretzels for us, so that took care of dinner!

The finale to the day was lighting a campfire and waiting for Kaia, Tanner, Maren and Johannes to arrive. The kids were kind of hilarious as they kept trying to blow out the campfire.

It was very chilly but we are hoping that tomorrow will be a bit nicer.

Every Spring we arrive back in the midwest and say that we have to play more golf this summer to keep our games sharp. In the desert we play several times a week, but in past summers we have maybe only played several times. This year it will be different.

We got underway in good style today with a round at Keller in St. Paul.

The downside to playing more golf is that I think I’m not going to be happy using my really really old clubs that I leave here. It may require some shopping. I’ve always wanted to go and get fit for a set of clubs, so this may be my chance. It may also signal that we should bring our clubs with us when we migrate.