Overhead

They say (the infamous they you know!!!) that the reasons Yellowstone is so terrific is the amount of water that comes in and out of the park.  Without it, it would just be another piece of dried parched earth.

So spring brings snow melt and lots of creeks and run-offs turn into rivers and sloughs with the inevitable wildlife surrounding it getting their fair share of the benefits.

One of those are the Yellowstone raptors who fish the rivers better than any professional fisherman (course they also get to keep their catch and eat it too).

So it's always fun when we're set up close to a river and see this fly overhead:

He was just perusing the river when we noticed him flying toward us.  Fortunately Walt had his camera all set and another great shot from him.  This fellow looks like he might be just entering maturity - maybe about 3 y/o-ish, marked by the spotty white in the under belly and the dark spots on his white head.  But definitely an American Eagle.

Our Favorite Yellowstone Ranger

Ranger John is one of our favorite rangers on the scene at Yellowstone.  He's always at the major bear jams, which are the penultimate traffic jams in Yellowstone.

He's also the author of such witicisms as:

Please all stay together as it's easier for me to keep track of you and easier for the bear to eat you!  

This is when the crowd spreads out too far for a ranger to manage and for a ranger to make sure that the visitors are always safe.   Of course he's joking, but it always gets a great laugh and immediately endears him to the crowd.

Another Ranger John witicisms:

Please make sure your car is off the white line and that you are on the side of the white.  A really mean ranger is getting ready to come on duty and he will write tickets like crazy so I just wanted to warn you before he gets here.  

And of course another round of laughter.

But Ranger John is best when he is talking about what's going on.  Lately he was explaining that this was a Black Bear sow with a black cub and a cinnamon cub which is more common than you think.  Another example of Ranger John's explanations was the time (last year) he explained while a Black Bear boar was scaring away some yearling cubs and mating with their mother, while school kids were present and some were expressing that this was cruel, Ranger John was very sensitive in explaining that this is nature's way and very normal for bears but not for humans!!!!

Basically the magic of Ranger John is that he is almost the perfect balance of discipline and education that is not patrician or condescending sprinkled with wonderful pieces of information that are not generally known.

This short video is just a small sample of Ranger John's great character.  When you see him, be sure and thank him for his service, and that makes you even more willing to obey all the rules, staying off the road, parking off the road and not getting sassy with the rangers.

And now for an awwwwww moment!

Why do bears cause such a commotion - who knows....but they do

And what could be cuter than a darling cub sitting behind it's mom....actually there are two cubs here, but the other one is up a tree right above them!

A face only a mother could love

I'm not sure what the plan was when a moose was created.  I'm sure there was a bottom line, but for the life of me, I can't see it.

The body is all out of proportion to the legs (they are too short) and then there's that head thing with the goofy ears and the long rounded snout.

For some reason we just haven't seen these a lot in the last couple of years, and this is one of the great things I love about visiting Yellowstone in the spring - you get to see EVERYTHING....

....including a face only a mother could love!

And after the amber waves of grain....

....comes the purple mountains majesty.

This is our first glimpse of the Teton Range (the Grand Tetons on the left), crossing the continental divide.  It was very cold there as you can tell.

Téton means nipple in French and theoretically some French explorers/trappers came upon these mountains and named them.  Either they were terrible confused or very horny!!!

They are very dramatic and very beautiful.

Traveling

As one travels through the amber plains of grain the land is beautiful, but flat and even though it produces so much food for the country, we're always looking for something a little different to photograph. 

This is the beginning of corn and winter wheat season, and the sprinklers were out in force.  Course professional agronomists do not call it sprinklers...it's an irrigation system!!!!

And they are amazingly efficient and yet really beautiful.

So as we are passing along on the interstate we're passing many, many trucks, and in the passenger side, I'm noticing the mirrors in the trucks......

Yep, that's us passing a red trucker - unfortunately his other rear view mirror is in the way - I'm not sure why it has to be there anyway - they could just take it off while we're passing them!!!!

After all!!!!

We are getting ready to head out for points north, which means we will be posting here frequently....also if you would like to keep up with us you can Like us on our Facebook page, or you can click the link to the right!

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