Charlie

So we have a young bison who seems to have gotten lost from his mother.  The rangers and I have taken to calling him Charlie.  We all thought he would still need milk to survive, but he's been grazing and he looks just as healthy as ever
Charlie's kinda smart.  Instead of being on his own, he joined a small group of male bison and is hanging out with them.  This actually gives him a pretty good amount of protection from predators.  So far Charlie's survived for about three weeks, and the rangers and I are rooting for him.

Pic of Charlie by the Back-Country Office

When hiking in Yellowstone....

There are always a few things you want to check while hiking in Yellowstone.  First, you would want to check the conditions of the trail that you are hiking.  Ask rangers questions like, "Is the trail safe?  What will the weather be like today?  Is the trail accessible? (i.e. wet conditions, snow)"  If a ranger recommends a trail to you, you can assume that the trail is fine to hike.  They should know the conditions of the trail.  If a trail is dangerous or closed, the ranger wouldn't have suggested that specific trail.  But definitely always ask about weather conditions.

Bison Carcass

Another lovely day in Yellowstone.  Jan, one of the supervising rangers here at Tower, let me, Jim, Brady, and Brian (our SCA from last year who is visiting for a week or so) help out Travis and Lynn from Bear Management move a bison carcass away from the road.  Now some might ask, "Why would you go to all that trouble to move a stinky dead bison further from the road when its already 100 yards off the road?"

It's raining bears

I can't believe it.  I've already been here almost a month and only have about two left.  On one hand there's been so much going on, but it really just normal stuff for the Tower district.  We've only had about 3 EMS calls only one of which I've been on and that was just driving the ambulance.  There are a lot less calls than last year.  On one hand, its good that people aren't getting sick or hurt as much.  On the other hand, I am also not getting as much experience as last year.  But its for the best so I am okay with it.
The bears certainly haven't become less active.  Yesterday I was out on bear duty and had seven different bear jams.  Believe it or not, that is not considered busy.  None of the jams lasted more than an hour and a half which was nice.  When you're on a bear jam (traffic jam caused by bears) for more than 7 hours, it can be a bit frustrating. 

Marmots

So at Tower we have these things called Yellow bellied Marmots.  They are these adorable fat giant rodents, about the size of a small beaver, that waddle around the station chirping at anything that scares them.
They stay adorable until they climb into your car and chew brake lines and get caught in belts. 

Is this real life?

Sometimes I can't belive THIS (see pic below) is where I'm living for the entire summer.  More often than not, it just seems too beautiful to be real.

Updates: Beginning of June

At the beginning of June, Yellowstone feels like the end of winter.  There are still trails closed to snow as well as roads.  We did have a few days few days of summer weather though.  Last week it got almost to 80 degrees.  But about two days ago it dropped down to the 40's again and yesterday we had hail. It feels like winter again today.  It's always interesting to go from the hot humid early summer of Massachusetts to the end of winter in Yellowstone, and then a month later back to Summer in the dry climate of Yellowstone.

People I am working with--(2011)

Here's a new update of people I'll be working with at Tower.  This is going to pretty similar to last year's post (lots of copy and paste). 

Back in Yellowstone

May 31, 2001
Day one back in Yellowstone and I was awoken @ 6:41am by loud grunts outside my window.  Bison alarm clocks aren't so bad, plus there is an added bonus of very close up pictures. 

Road Trip

So I guess it's taken longer than usual to get the first post of this blog started this year, but better late than never.  I'm thinking of changing the theme of this blog (that means the background pic) so if anyone is familiar with blogger and has a link to a suggestion, leave a comment.
The road trip this year seemed longer than usual.