Follow Your Dreams

Some dear friends once gave me a sky blue wall plaque with a rainbow that read "Follow Your Dreams". The drive in Lamar Valley tonight reminded me of this plaque:

Trout Lake

Kim, Rebekah, Mary and I drove out to Lamar Valley to hike Trout Lake. It is a short hike, maybe 1 mile total. But, it is a peaceful area where the otters below like to swim:

Whew! What a day!

I woke up early this morning to go to church with Rebekah, Suzanne, and Carol. Then, we met Mary and Karen back at the dorm for a hike.
Suzanne, Karen, Rebekah, Me, and Mary. Carol was taking the pic.
We hiked the Old Road to Gardiner, Mt. Once we got to Gardiner, we went to the Town Cafe for chocolate malts. We rode back to Mammoth in Karen's car.

Rebekah, Suzanne, Carol, and I had a picnic lunch at Mammoth. Then we all went inside and watched the movie Amistad. After dinner, Rebekah and I rode with Suzanne to Lamar Valley. Lamar Valley is called America's Serengeti due to the numerous species that call Lamar Valley home. We saw a black bear, as well as two grizzlies, one of which had 2 cubs! Both grizzlies were too far away to snap pictures of.

Just after we turned at Roosevelt towards Lamar, we spotted some big horn sheep. The picture below is of a female: Here are the fellas:

Also snapped a picture of a female pronghorn antelope:

The snow has melted a lot in the valley.

Also spotted a moose near Pebble Creek:

The bison have been calving for several weeks. I hadn't seen one until tonight. They are soo cute!

Also saw some hawks, an owl, elk, geese, sandhill cranes, and mule deer that I didn't get any pictures.

First Week

So far, so good. I checked in Tuesday and then took Daddy and Aunt Carol Ann back to Bozeman so they could fly back home the next day. When I left Bozeman, it was snowing pretty hard. After I got off I-90 at Livingston, Hwy 89 looked like this:

At this point, I wanted to turn around and go back my Daddy!!!!!
If the snow flying wasn't enough to make me a nervous wreck, all the wildlife along side the road were:

It snowed all night, and I woke up this view outside my window:

From this storm, there was a total of 8 inches that fell in the area.

But today has been a beautiful day, and the snow is melting. The sun has been shining most of the day. The temps have been in the mid to high 50's. I walked down to the visitors center in a t-shirt!

I'm still in training, and today my trainer and my fellow classmate took a "field trip" and drove out through Lamar Valley and out the Northeast Entrance to Cooke City, MT. Lamar Valley is a "secluded valley" that has great wildlife viewing. We saw buffalo, elk, coyotes, and an otter today.

About 4 miles or so from the northeast entrance is Cooke City, MT. The snow plows go from the park through town and then stop at the end of town. The highway to Red Lodge, known as Beartooth Hwy is not plowed in winter and is only open to snowmobiles. Look at the huge piles of snow in Cooke City:

I do not have to work tomorrow or Sunday, so me and my fellow trainee Denyse are driving out to Old Faithful and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone tomorrow. The roads to these attractions opened today. I want to get some good pics of these places while there is still a lot of snow fall.