Spatter

Open Wide

I came upon this turtle while on my first visit to Green Cay Wetlands this season.  I'm not sure if he was welcoming me or chasing me off...

 

 

Snake River Osprey

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Flying By

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Grazing In The Grass

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Woods Gap Pasture

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Bison Meet-Up

"So", I said, kneeling and putting my arm around Merle's shoulder.  "That's a bison...Bison, you leave alone. Bison will kill you." Making a wide circle, I climbed the barbed-wire fence that surrounded one of the ranch's horse pastures, holding the bottom two strands apart for Merle.  He jumped through the opening, but kept looking back at the bison as we skirted him.  Eventually we recrossed the fence and stood on the dirt road, a hundred yards away from the huge animal.  As we had walked around him, the bison turned to face us, wheeling as steadily as the arms of a clock.  ''That's how you get around a bison,'' I told Merle.

This quote from Ted Kerasote's book Merle's Door pretty much sums up how you should handle bison encounters:  keep a wide berth!  My friend and I kept that in mind when we met up with a bison on the trail we were hiking.  There he was lying smack dab in the middle of the trail:

We respectfully left the trail, walked into the field.  It was only after we were well past him that we got back on the trail.  He was no surprise..we could see him from afar.  His herd was grazing near by and I guess he just decided to get some "alone time".

The trail soon took us into woods with Yellowstone Lake to our immediate left.  We crossed a stream and were going at a good pace when suddenly around the bend I came face to face with a bison.  Now THIS was a surprise!  So much so that I didn't linger to take a picture.  Here's a shot I had taken earlier and elsewhere that gives you at least a sense of what I faced. 

The dilemma: how to get out of his way.  We were sort of trapped.  The lake was to our left and to our right were thick woods...which we figured may have other bison. Since he was coming in our direction, running back on the trail didn't seem like a good idea either.  We didn't want to mimic a frightened animal for him to chase after.  We ended up scrambling into a thicket of some downed trees.  It was unnerving.  He didn't seem threatening, but we were unsure of how to keep it that way.

It worked.  He continued his stroll without giving us a second look.  He did linger in the stream a bit...keeping us from immediately high-tailing it out of there. Yes, our hike was over.  We figured there might be more of them coming. Eventually, he did move on and we were able to follow him back out of the woods...at a safe distance, of course!  The bison lying on the trail was still there, but his herd had moved from grazing in the field to drinking from the edge of a basin that bordered on the trail.

They were preoccupied, so we felt little danger as we walked by them. And sure enough, that's where our bison was headed.  We headed for the car.

Kelly Dog

This dog was seen in Kelly, Wyoming...a small town of 242 people located  along the Gros Ventre (pronounced Gro Von) river at the base of The Grand Tetons.  It was originally called Grovont, but was renamed Kelly in 1909 to avoid confusion with a similarly named settlement nearby. 

We traveled there one day to see it because my travel mate had read the book Merle's Door: Lessons From A Freethinking Dog...a book about a dog who lived in Kelly.  I'm reading it now.  Merle didn't look anything like this, but I imagine they are kindred spirits. 

Surprised

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Here's Looking At You Kid

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Grazing Bison

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