Wild Memories Photography Tours

Burrr, it was cold this morning – down jacket type of cold that should have been accompanied with hat and gloves.  But, who thinks about wearing a hat in August?  Not me, obviously.

I left the trailer way early this morning, while the stars were still twinkling in the sky.  It looked like it would be one of those bright, sun shiny days, with no clouds to be seen.  But, that did not last long.

First thing I nearly hit a bull moose right outside of Cooke City.  It was completely dark and all I saw of him was running out of the road and the outline of his paddles.  Cool beans!  I have not seen many moose for awhile so despite the darkness it was nice to see him.

I went to Soda Butte Valley in hopes of seeing the family.  I can’t get over how many people talked about seeing a whole pack of wolves on the road yesterday.  I have never seen wolf pups up close and it is hard to wrap my mind around “A whole pack.”  Yes, two became a whole – how wonderful is that?

But, the hill was dark and we waited and waited.  But, no wolves came to greet us.  Rick had a great signal on Spitfire from Hitching Post but did not see her so we never knew if she was coming or going.

I kind of wandered for a little while before reading some messages that were better left unread.  Kind of wanted to go somewhere else for a moment but instead went to my house for shower, laundry and a little internet for getting tasks done.  Spent most of the day there and by the time I left, the restaurant and propane place had closed early!  Dang.

The clouds and rain came, along with bursts of wind.  The rain was pouring.  We had snow on Blacktail this morning and when I went back through it was rivers of water running everywhere.  And there was mudslide near Phantom Lake.  I sure hope that no one got hurt trying to go through there because it looked dangerous.  Yesterday it rained so hard in Lamar that we had mud slides at the Confluence.  Rangers were out shoveling in pouring rain and boy were they soaked.

The rain was coming down all of the way to Slough Creek but it did not dampen people’s enthusiasm for the bison.  I could not find the dying bison cow this morning and am hoping that she was able to move further away from the road.  But, it is possible that she had already expired and been picked up – though I saw no signs of a heavy object being drug to the road.

Five or six bison jams in Lamar and I got smart and let someone else drive around the parked cars and just followed them, with a whole line of cars behind me.  With the wet weather not too many folks were wanting to hang out on the road.

I did stop and look for the Lamars but did not see anything.  And, so I decided to head on back to camp, nice and early for a change.  But, stopped to post this first.  I feel very fortunate that the Cooke City Chamber of Commerce is providing us all with free, fast internet because it works out well for me to stop while going in either direction.

Soda Butte Creek was running muddy, apparently from the torrential rainstorms in the mountains that are sending the soil down stream.  Got my fishing license today – $40 for the park – but will have to wait for the waters to clear some.  Then I will go fishing and taking photos!

Have a great night!

Bison images were from yesterday and the day before.