Mike gets up much earlier than me, and that’s his blogging time. By the time I’m ready to face the world, he’s already shared our adventures! However, with a bit more time on my hands these days, I’m looking forward to contributing more to the blog. Here’s my take on some of our early adventures in Yellowstone…

On May 23, the Dunraven Pass opened, the final road in Yellowstone to open for the summer season. I was excited to check it out on opening day, so we took advantage of the opportunity to head deeper into the park. The pass at over 10,000 feet was still mostly snow-covered, but the browns of bare soil showed in exposed areas.

We paused at Canyon Village for our traditional ice cream stop. Then, since a close parking spot was available, we paid a quick visit to Artist Point. We continued on through Hayden Valley, which was just starting to green up for spring, and headed on to Lake. I was hoping Yellowstone Lake would still have ice, since some years it doesn’t break up until June, but our first view of the lake confirmed that this has been a warm spring — there was no ice left at all. We took a short walk out the Pelican Creek trail to a favorite spot where we’ve spent many hours in quiet reflection with groups of educators over the years. I shared a couple poems I’ve written there over the years with Mike, one that is particularly poignent given our move to Gardiner.

The Return

Knots in the thread of my life
Tie me to this place—
          To the sandy lake’s shore,
            To the unmarked trail
                        through a meadow of wildflowers,
            To the owl’s nest
                        in a tall fir
            To the small rise where
                        bison, wolves
                        also tread.

Moments spent here—
            Moments of reflection—
                        Moments shared—
Accumulate to tell
            but also to shape
            my life’s tale.

I return here
            as often as I can
To tie a new knot,
            to tie my spirit ever tighter
To this place,
And to myself.

Looks like there will be a few knots tied closer together in as we revisit the shore of the lake in the coming years.

As we headed back home, we pulled over now and then for quick stops. At one, we were delighted to find the western analogs of some of the harbingers of spring we’ve always loved in North Carolina.

Mike’s most recent blog described our walk yesterday to an aspen grove above Mammoth. I’ll refer you to that for all of the details, but I wanted to add a couple pictures of mine from our quiet time sitting there. I had the Merlin bird app running off and on to try to work on my western bird calls, and after it told me a Hammond’s flycatcher was calling incessently, I was fortunate to spot one moving between perches.

Mike also described how he discovered a three-toed woodpecker pair carving out a nest cavity. He had missed the exchange when the male flew up and took over for the female, so I’ll add it here:

Last night, we took an evening drive out into the park after dinner (a lovely thing to be able to do, and something we hope to continue to do regularly). It was a quiet night, with fewer visitors than we’ve experienced on most of our other trips. We had a lovely semi-private moment with a black bear munching on grass and watched a beautiful scene form as a few bison and calves crossed the river at the western end of Lamar Valley. But the highlight was a stop at a site where coyotes had denned in previous years when we saw a number of folks looking that way. The family is back, and we were fortunate to watch five pups and three adults playing, digging, wrestling, and feeding in the glow of the setting sun.

I’ll close with a promise to share more of our adventures and a favorite image from an earlier evening drive into the park of a cow elk silhouetted on a ridgeline.