Beaver Ponds Trail

Lori and I did this hike today after dinner. Beaver Ponds Trail is in our backyard and loops behind Mammoth.

Grouse:

Gardiner, MT:

Shooting Star:

Driving to Gardiner

The small town of Gardiner, MT is located 5 miles north of Mammoth Hot Springs. I drive here pretty often to buy groceries at the Food Farm, the only grocery store in town. Gardiner has zero traffic lights, only one stop sign, and only one chain restaurant - a Subway that is located in one of the 2 gas stations in town. There is a post office, 4 churches, and several gift shops and rafting companies.

However, the drive can be pretty exciting. You never know what you'll see.

On one trip, there were big horn sheep on the cliffs over the Gardner River.

Another time, I saw this wolf on an elk kill at the Chinese Gardens on the Gardner River.
As soon as the wolves are full and walk away, the birds descend. Just so happened that an EAGLE is in the area.

Mt. Washburn

Rebekah and I did our last hike together for the 2009 summer. :( It was Mt. Washburn, a peak I have wanted to climb since I did the Yellowstone in a Day tour at the beginning of the season. It was a beautiful day although cool...

There is a fire lookout tower at the top.

The lone ranger....
I made it!!!! 3 miles up, 3 miles down!!

Below is a picture of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (which looks tiny way up there) and Lake Yellowstone off in the distance. We could see off in the distance Grand Teton, 75 miles away!
These pictures and this blog DO NOT do the beauty justice. The view was amazing.
After we got back, I finished packing. Then a group of us went to The Raven in Gardiner for my farewell dinner. Below is a pic with Suzanne from Arkansas. She is one classy lady!

Me, Trish, Kim (roomie), Karen, Mary and Rebekah: Karen, Mary, Rebekah, Suzanne, Me, and Trish:

This and That

The internet is so slow here at Mammoth so I would go to Gardiner and use the internet here at High Country Trading and drink a mocha.
One evening this last week, a youth orchestra from Bozeman played in the Map Room:

The hallway of my dorm: (my room is right beside the fire extinguisher)

My room:I didn't like sitting in my room, so I would sit in the hallway beside the window to use my computer, read, talk, etc...
I had a good view of the General Store:

A few of my co-workers:

JJ from California: (love him - sat beside him everyday and listened to a lot of stories!)

Jenny from North Carolina on the left. Nancy from Florida on the right. They are so nice and friendly!

Happy Birthday, Denyse!

Today was Denyse's birthday. She, Rebekah and I went to Outlaw's Pizza in Gardiner for dinner. Outlaw's was great! We stopped at the ONLY grocery in town, Food Farm, only to find it closes at 7:00 p.m. This should tell you something about the size of this town!! We wanted ice cream really bad, but everything except the gas stations were closed. So we stopped at a gas station, bought a half gallon of Moose Tracks ice cream, and brought it back to Mammoth to devour it!!!!

We didn't walk tonight because it is quite cold here again. Instead, we went to visit our friends Ginny from OK and Megan from CT who will be leaving Monday. They are moving to Old Faithful Snow Lodge to work as Guest Service Agents (front desk). I will miss them, but hopefully we can meet up later in the summer for some hiking.

Old Road to Gardiner, MT

Tonight after dinner, a group of us hiked part of the Old Road to Gardiner. This was the original road used when the U.S. Army was stationed at Fort Yellowstone here at Mammoth Hot Springs. The road is 5 miles to Gardiner, but we probably only hiked 2 miles or so before turning back. We started seeing wolf tracks so we got a little chicken!!!!

Below is a partial view of the little town of Gardiner from the road:

We saw several different types of animals along the way. I didn't get a pic of the buffalo, but seeing a buffalo here is like seeing cattle back home! Below are some elk eating on the parade ground:

There were about 6 deer right above us on the trail. They couldn't have been more than a 100 ft or so but they didn't seem to be concerned or scared by us.

A pretty bluebird:

And a squirrel, I think: