Quote of the Day

If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine- but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good- and CARES about any of it- to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.
- Frank Zappa

Quote of the Day

Bureaucracy is the only form of human organization that can manage to pass a hot potato through a small crack.
- Norman Mailer

Black Bear Bonanza

As I was driving through Yellowstone I came upon what at first looked like a traffic jam. I've been there enough to know that traffic jams usually mean animals, and sure enough, this one was caused by a young black bear close to the road. I finally passed him and parked a bit further up the road so as not to contribute to the jam, then walked back down.

I must have spent close to half an hour watching and taking pics. I took over a hundred, but whittled it down to about thirty. There were lots of people milling about, cameras clicking, kids yelling, but we might as well have been flies for all the bear cared (see what I did there?). He went about his business (which seemed to consist of smelling every flower in the meadow individually) at a leisurely pace, sometimes stopping to scratch himself or studying a flower extra super intently.

At the same time, he was so cute and fluffy you just wanted to walk down there, grab his little face and blow a raspberry into his fur. Supposing, against all odds that you'd survive this, you would be as likely as not to repeat it if you saw him again; he was that precious.

All pics here.

Species: Black bear. Habitat: Yellowstone. Likes: Honey, berries and humans. Goal in life: To inspect each straw in the meadow individually.






Immediately after this pic was taken, he went up on his hind legs. I didn't catch it on cam, sowwy.


It's a bear's life out there in the meadow.

Yellowstone north

After Beartooth I drove the northern end of Yellowstone National Park, and got me some good pics of the local wildlife. I spent a good half hour on a young black bear and also got long distance shots of a grizzly. I also got some pics of what I assumed to be a wolf, but having looked at them today I'm not sure - could be a cougar I suppose.

All Yellowstone pics here.

Grizzly bear!


Dere be bars in dem dar woods!


Is it a wolf? Or a cougar? Or something else entirely? In this pic it looks almost feline.


Here it looks more like a wolf.


Buffalo.


Elks.

Beartooth Highway

I drove the Beartooth Highway in 2009, in early July. I couldn't see shit because the whole area was covered in fog, interspersed with the odd hailstorm. Now that I've gone the whole road in sunshine I have to agree with the critics: This is the purdiest road in America.

The journey starts with a grand climb up the mountains, then a more leisurely descent, full of vistas of green valleys, dark forests, bare rock and flowerfilled meadows. It's so purdy you just wanna get out of the car and sing "The hills are a aliiiiive with the sound of muuuuuusic" and dance around till the men in white come to take you away.

All Beartooth Highway pics here.

Steep climb and dangerous curves.


Mighty mountains.


View towards Yellowstone. The landscape here is just the same, very pretty and full of wildlife.


So cozy.


Coooozy.


Pwetty flowers.


Beartooth Lake.


Good to know.


Even better to know.


This crazy dude was cycling down the mountain. His girlfriend was driving a car alongside him.

Chipmunks

What's the only thing cuter than prairie dogs? Chipmunks! Feast yer eyes on these little cuties, folks. The pics are from the lookout point near the top of the climb up US-212 from Billings to Yellowstone, known as the Beartooth Highway. It is possibly the most beautiful road in the world, as my subsequent posts will demonstrate.

All chipmunk pics and Beartooth highway pics here.

Baby chipmunk eating. Possibly the cutest thing in the world.


Oh, hai!


Sniffing my feet and surviving. These things must be hardier than cockroaches.


Stuffing face indiscriminately. They'll run around so fast that sometimes they won't notice what's right in front of them. One of 'em almost came to an early end when he ran right up to two retrievers and started sniffing.


They'd go in and out of holes in the wall.

Quote of the Day

My notion of a wife at forty is that a man should be able to change her, like a bank note, for two twenties.
- Douglas Jerrold

Rainbows & Thunderstorm & Buffalo

The last post (phew!) from the Black Hills and State Route 87 is this batch of pics I took as a thunderstorm was movin' in late Tuesday. Thunderstorms occur very frequently in the summer in these parts, and the lightning is what causes all the forest fires. Normally, there's not that much rain, but on this occasion, the heavens really opened, so I had to get in the car.

As lightning flared across the skies, there were TWO rainbows on the horizon, and a lone buffalo was crossing the prairie. It doesn't get much better, does it?

All pics here.

You can JUST make out the 2nd rainbow to the right of the big one.


Buffalo on the left, rainbow on the right.


'twas a big rainbow.


Close up of the buffalo:


As I drove the last couple of miles in to Hot Springs, the strangest thing happened. One moment, the world was like this:


And next thing I knew, the world was blue. It was like someone had flicked a switch, or put a filter directly on my eyes. Stwange.

Rain on a sunny day

I just had to share these pics with y'all... the weather in the Black Hills can change very quickly, and sometimes you get pouring rain and bright sunshine at the same time. Like here.

All pics here.

If you look at the trees to the very right of the pic, you can see that it's pouring down.

More deer

The Black Hills is a mecca for deer of all kinds (possibly some antilopes too, I know fuck all about these species and what separates them) and if you drive SD 87, you're bound to see several groups along the way.

All pics here.

"Grass for dinner? Again???"


Another deer, same diet...


Just before Mt Coolidge, I spotted these two. The mom didn't care one iota about my presence, while the little bambi ran down into the bushes almost immediately.


So incredibly, unsufferably cuuuuute.


"What, me worry? Oh, hai!"


Very few animals look intelligent with their tongues sticking out... deer are no exception.

Buffalo from Black Hills

I strongly suspect that this is the same buffalo I watched laying down to take a nap a couple of days earlier. This time he was walking in the middle of the road and by the wayside, not giving a fuck about traffic. I guess when you're a ton of meat, there aren't all that many things that scare you...

All pics of the buffalo and other Black Hills animals can be found here.

Going from A to B whichever way he chooses. You gonna tell him otherwise? Thought not.


A determined look.


I drove a bit further down, to a proper parking lot. This, blessfully, caused him to veer ever so slightly and he proceeded to pass right in front of my car, almost brushing the front.


I think these animals were BORN looking grumpy.

How Green Was My Valley

Tuesday, I came upon a scene so stunningly beautiful I just had to stop and put it on camera. The only angle from which you can see the whole setting is as you fly by in a car, so I had to pull over and get out to take the pics. Imagine then, as you view these photos, yours truly placed on a huge stone block, toes curling with joy over what I see. The only sounds are those of birds chirping and the faint gurgle of the little stream way down below.

It is indeed a scene of tranquility, of serene, nay exalted enjoyment of nature at its very finest. Oh, how I wish I could live in a little house under that bridge. Or maybe on the corner of the two valleys so I could look down both. I'll always treasure this view, and keep it as yet another fond memory from this journey.

Bridge? Check. Rocks? Check. Pine trees? Check. Grass? Check. Stream? Check.


Sigh.


Double sigh.


This is from an area appx 30 seconds before, which also is a strong contender for most beautiful place in the world.