Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world.

~John Muir

A few days ago Melissa and I took our first long-ish hike in the park since we moved in. This is a follow-up to her earlier Facebook post about the hike. The original plan was to scope out an area for her upcoming educator trek that neither of us had hiked before. I was thinking maybe a mile or two to see how my back/knee issue would handle it after stressing all those parts during the move. We drove into the park a couple of miles and started at a trailhead above Mammoth.

Right away, Melissa spotted a few bull elk scattered on distant hillsides. I was busy keeping an eye out for interesting insects as we sauntered along taking it all in. The invertebrate photos were added to iNaturalist when I got home to start a record of what amazing small things can be found in this majestic landscape. Here are a few of my favorites (note – identifications on many species of plants and animals in the coming weeks/months may be tentative as we learn more about the diversity of our new surroundings).

We encountered a few people not far into the trail including a couple of hikers and two groups of horseback riders with outfitters. But for the most part it was just us and the scenery. We did run across a bull elk carcass that looked as though it might have been from this past spring/winter (still hair on the carcass, the contents of the rumen was scattered nearby and there are still insect larvae on the skeleton). It was an impressive animal.

At this point, we wanted to creep up over the next hill for the view and so one thing led to another and we just kept going. We made it a loop hike of about 6 miles that took us most of the afternoon and it was glorious.

We both love aspen groves and so we were thrilled to come upon a small stand of tall aspens. Our friend, Dan, taught us long ago that aspens are hot spots for wildlife activity, especially cavity nesting birds. We did spot a woodpecker in the trees but weren’t sure which species. More on that later.

The trail passed through so many different habitat types and the cool shade of the trees was welcome as the afternoon wore on. As we walked along a sloping ridge dotted with Douglas fir and sagebrush, Melissa saw something move as I passed a shrub. We stopped and I spotted a dusky grouse!

These birds are very tolerant of humans so I eased a bit closer to get a better view and just watched as she pecked at grass seeds and other bits of vegetation. Meanwhile, Melissa excitedly whispered that she had spotted our first elk calf of the season (this was the day before the one we saw behind our house from the last post). I looked and was once again amazed at her spotting ability. The calf had been hidden by her mamma in a tangle of shrubs while she went off to feed (elk calves stay hidden until their mother returns). But this little guy flicked its ears a couple of times and that gave its position away to eagle-eyed Melissa.

The last stretch of trail was along a ridge line with great views of the surrounding mountains. When we got back to the car, we took a moment to reflect on what a great hike we had just had only minutes from home and how lucky we are to be in our happy place. And it reminded us of how much we love to just walk in the woods (or fields or mountains…) and observe. If you get out of your car and take a stroll, you never know what you might see but we know you will feel the magic of this place.

Two days later we decided to do a short hike and go back to the aspen grove via a shorter section of trail that came off the loop we had hiked earlier. We walked in and sat down amongst the towering white trunks and embraced the silence broken only occasionally by the wind rustling the leaves and the sounds of insects and birds. We heard house wrens, ruby-crowned kinglets, and a pair of Cooper’s hawks. I started hearing some faint tapping so i looked around for a woodpecker at the edge of the grove since it sounded somewhat distant. I saw no movement but kept hearing the occasional tapping. At one point we spotted a woodpecker on the side of a trunk and it seemed to disappear.

I eased closer and could hear tapping and realized it was coming from inside the tree! The woodpecker was hollowing out a nest cavity making it sound like it was farther away.

Another woodpecker soon came into view and there was a change of duties. The first bird flew out and the second, the male, went in to add to the house cleaning routine.

Before leaving, I took a few video clips of this woodpecker cleaning house. I look forward to returning in a couple of weeks to see what they feed their young.

–The male American three-toed woodpecker throwing wood chips out of their nest cavity