"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, August 9, 2009

Scarface

An old grizzly (approx. 25 years old) has been seen at the Canyon RV Park. According to the rangers he has been forced out of the mountains by younger grizzlies. He is pretty battered up and his face is scarred (thus the Scarface name he has been given). He has been behaving himself just the occassional sighting as he passes through......until yesterday evening at aobut 6:30. Two of my co-workers were walking down the road in the RV park when they came upon Scarface who was hidden behind a bush. When Scarface noticed them he charged them. My co-worker Barney yelled at the bear and he came to a stop about 8 feet from them. A very close encounter! It was witnessed by some of the other residence and I'm sure that quite a few of them broke out into a sweat watching the whole thing unfold. Scarface left the immediate area and the rangers had to come and discharge some blanks to scare him off further. I'm sure everyone in the RV park will be ultra careful when walking around.

On Thursday as I was heading to Cody I came across an accident on Sylvan Pass. It looked as if a car rolled on the pass. Glass was all over the road and the car was in pretty tough shape. The ambulance was there and later I passed another heading to the site from Cody. On Tuesday night on my way home from Old Faithful I came across another accident. From the tire marks on the road it looks as if a bison was in the road and the car braked and skidded into the other lane. Yet again there was an ambulance and a wrecker there. Both are a reminder at how dangerous the driving conditions are here at times. Taking your eyes off the road or driving a little too fast can cause a vacation nightmare.

On Friday night Carl took me to West Yellowstone to the IMAX to see the movie Yellowstone. He was all spiffy in his new pants and shirt. He even shined his shoes and bought us sandwiches. The movie was a lot of fun and Carl even put up with my browsing in a couple gift shops. After watching the movie previews I decided that I really need to see the movie Bears that they have there. They also have Alaska, which also looks very good.

Carl left this morning. I had to work the early shift and he searched me out to say goodbye. We are all hoping that Carl will be able to make it back this year. Time will tell.

Some people who read my blog stopped in the store Friday and said 'Hi' to me. I've also have been recieving e-mails from people ("Hello!" to all of you). The person who was in the bison charge in June sent me pictures that he had taken that evening. He got a few shots of the bison actually charging. I sent him a picture of the group I had taken and he was able to pick out his family in the picture.