"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

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Canyon 2010

Old friends from Canyon have been contacting me these past few days as we find out who will be returning to Canyon next summer. There is a great group coming back. And I will be there, too. I will be arriving there May 10 with an end date of October 2, 2010. Great friendships develop over the summer since we all work, live and eat together and it will be great to see those faces again next May. I am looking forward to it. I am really beginning to miss some of my old summer haunts. I miss my drives through Hayden Valley and trips through the canyon to Cody. And my drives over Dunraven and finding bison wandering around on the road at the summit. I wonder what the Magnificent One is doing and if the Dorm Bison misses all the activity by the Canyon dorms. And if Bob has found another road to travel on.

I have been here in Mammoth for just over 7 weeks now. I've been seeing a real change in temps, its cold and the wind is really whipping outside. The store has a nice little fireplace and I enjoy warming up beside it. I have heat tape on the waterlines where I live and they are working great. Every morning I get a good dose of warm water from the cold water line when I brush my teeth. The other night I witnessed a spectacular sight. The moon was full and huge and I watched it as it rose over Mount Evert. I could see the outline of the trees at the top as the moon rose behind it. There had been a dusting of snow the other night and I came out in the morning to find huge wolf tracks right by my car. A motion detector night vision camera would be interesting to have.