a land of dreams-- big, little and sometimes broken

by Rain Trueax

I wanted to write about the quail, with what I've observed and learned; but I want to do it when I have time to do the subject justice. We are getting our Tucson house ready to leave and packing the trailer for the long trek back north. I always hate leaving here but I also love Oregon. I wish the places I loved were closer together, but I have so many of them. 

To go north, our 26' travel trailer will mostly stick to freeways as the shortest route is through California. We don't have time for recreation with the four cats not liking their limited range. They can't go out, although i have had cats where I could use a leash-- not these four though. We do keep our driving days relatively short for their sake and ours with finding nice little RV parks each afternoon-- and hoping they'll be quiet ones.

I always hate leaving Arizona. This year it's  especially hard when I hope the babies do well with no one supplementing their diet, but haying season is almost here, sheep have to be shorn-- if the shearer ever gets the time for a small flock. So northward we must head and leaving this house well-secured, fortunately with neighbors who look out for it when we're not here.

In putting off the quail until I am back in Oregon, I happened across some photos from 2008, when we had a wonderful trip through Montana, Yellowstone, and Idaho. Choosing only a few is tough. It's a big country with a lot of variety in scenery. Loving the American West, which has been inspiration for some of my books, I can't say I have just one place that is better than the rest. Life for me would be simpler if I had one such place,

On these photos, I am not labeling where these are. They are not in any particular order. They represent to me so much of what I love about the Rockies and the American West. You can find places all across the West that look liked them. It's big country.

Yellowstone and Nine Mile Opportunities

In July, besides the scenery and animal watching, I learned more about what happens at the Yellowstone Institute in the Lamar Valley. It's an onsite lab for Yellowstone Forever. There are classes and clinics. Participants get to stay in the primitive cabins, which would be cool.

What got me interested in what was going on at what had been the buffalo Ranch, was in July, we saw students walking behind an instructor as they observed and photographed a wolf kill and the reaction of the elk to what had happened. We thought our new telephoto would capture it. It didn't help that it was getting dark but we need an extender and some shoot through spotting scopes. I'll share what we got but you'll have to take my word for it that besides the elk and kill, there are wolves hunkered down in the sage.

Elk are not helpless and wolves have had their jaws broken in attempting taking one down. We did not hear the lecture but bet it was worthwhile as the students learned improved ways to use their cameras. 

Here are a few links I came across on what the Yellowstone Institute is about.

Yellowstone Institute classes-- Summer

Yellowstone Institute Classes-- Winter

What is Yellowstone Institute?

Who can work there

Off the Grid in the Lamar Valley

So that was cool, and then we came across something else out of Missoula-- Nine Mile ranger Station. 

It was created out of a ranch as a Remount Station for the forest service. The buildings, like this residence, were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933-35. They were made to look like New England homes or a Kentucky horse farm. Today, when they need restoring, all has to stay in accord with their original construction. Besides housing, there is a bunkhouse, cookhouse, museum, and the barns.

It is lovely, but more than just pretty, it sponsors annual horsemanship and packing clinics where the trainees learn to and restore mountain trails. Stock continues to be kept there except when in the mountains. It's a working ranch where 4 pack-trains of mules await their next fire call.  

When we were there, the mules were out but the parking spaces were full of those who had gone somewhere, whether a fire call, since it has an engine, or on clinics, I don't know but was amazed how many vehicles awaited someone's return. 

Nine Mile Ranger Station could have been just another historic site instead it's both that and of continuing use.

Ninemile Wildlands Training center

The opportunities are cool but more for the young than me-- at least me at this stage of my physical capabilities ;).

Yellowstone's Denizens

Basically, when in Yellowstone National Park, we divide our time between the geyser basins and the Lamar Valley. The geysers are the predictable part... mostly. Animals in the Lamar not so much. On previous years, I've gotten good photos of grizzlies and black bears, more at a distance of the wolves (but did get to hear their howls, which seem like songs to me), and moose off and on. 

This time we saw the bears only at a great distance and likewise the wolves. We heard of others seeing them-- when we had just left a place or hadn't gotten there. Fortunately, we have memories of other trips to help.

There are photos but you have to squint to recognize their shapes without seeing them move. If we had had a bigger telephoto, we'd have done better with the wolves. We are not professionals; paying $10,000 for that kind wasn't on our shopping list. I've read that some photograph through a scope and that might be something we can try next time.

One thing that never disappoints are the bison. The first time, over twenty years ago, when I saw the Lamar, I was amazed at the sight of the big herds. There aren't words to express what it feels like to see even a bit of the sort of thing the first explorers and settlers saw. There aren't many places to see free, wild herds. Yellowstone is one of them. This time, they were more broken into smaller herds and maybe that was the doing of park service to be easier on the grass or maybe it's their time with the young calves and this works best. Some breeding was going on, which tended to take the usual lone bulls away from their haunts to join the herds.

So these are our photos from July in the park. Some were right alongside the road-- sometimes on it...

It takes some doing to see the animals in these next photos. The first is a black bear going over the hill. Watching it through binoculars was clearer. The next was at the second kill we'd see at such a distance that you had to know it was there to see the wolves around it. Later the wolves appeared circle a bison and the antelope herd. The potential prey didn't seem worried. 

I read about the alpha wolf in one of the packs having his jaw broken by either an elk or bison. He lost his position but was able to bring down an elk calf. He was unwilling to leave the carcass when another, more powerful pack came and they killed him. To live, some must die.

Second one taken with more powerful telephoto as were the following ones of the wolves, across the valley, trying to get their dinner.

To see wildlife in Yellowstone requires some patience, careful watching for movement, and luck. We saw a coyote pretty close also but couldn't get the camera up until it was over the hill. People share what they've seen and where. There is a lot of good feeling when in the wildlife areas. It's exciting to be even that close to wild things and their very real lives.

the skies

by Rain Trueax

 Great Fountain Geyser reaching to the clouds.. or trying.

From the waters, the skies seemed logically to be next. Yellowstone is high country and that often makes for spectacular skies. This time, we were  fortunate to be there at a time when thunderheads built up several afternoons. Off and on, we'd hear the crack of thunder and some rain would fall. Awesome time in the geyser basin and the Lamar.

 

In the high country, the light is ever changing and presents constantly shifting opportunities to get that one photo that speaks beyond the images to the energy. 

There are many things that draw people to Yellowstone, but the light is one that shouldn't be discounted as to why it feels so magical when there. That light draws photographers, painters, writers, and millions of people to this super volcano that someday may erupt and change the whole United States for centuries to come. I hope it never happens as knowing Yellowstone is there is one of those things that brings joy to those who have been there or shared its beauty with others. It's there even when we can't be...