"There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of this great human principle." Franklin D. Roosevelt

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Somewhere over the rainbow lies the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. After a day of cold and rain the skies finally cleared and the sun shone through so I took my usual north loop. After spying on 1 bison and a handful of elk I decided the evening was a dud. Then after crossing over Dunraven Pass and coming down the south side I came around the corner and saw in the horizon a beautiful rainbow crossing over the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was picture time! When I returned I headed to the EDR for the pop, popcorn and peanut party. A bunch of us also decided to play the game Apples to Apples. It was a great time.

I noticed this evening that the park service has been busy yesterday and today puting up no parking markers that line the roads in areas that have high bear and big horn sheep sightings. It is now impossible to park along the side of the road in these areas. It's a good thing, too many people parking on the side and approaching the wildlife too closely. There will probably be a bad side, many people just park their cars in the middle of the road and wander away, camera in hand, leaving a line of cars behind them that are unable to proceed. We'll have to wait and see how the people handle the situation.

I started my workday in the bull pen ready to start taking inventory on the knives. Confections was understaffed and when it got busy I was sent over to give a hand. After my afternoon break I was sent back to Confections to be the barista. I had done this one day before, and to be honest, I wasn't too excited to go back and face that machine knowing I was now the one to run it alone for the afternoon. I was intimidated to say the least. Luckily, the afternoon was slow and only a few wanted lattes and such. More wanted ice cream (on a cold, windy and rainy day?) so I helped out with that too. I was a success on the machine and I dare say that I actually enjoyed it. Bring on the coffee mobs!

2009 Wildlife Sightings

Grizzly Bear: 25
Black Bear: 13
Moose: 2
Coyote: 4
Wolves: 12