With my last day on the early shift I knew it was the perfect night to drive the north loop last night. The weather has been rather cold lately (56 degrees yesterday) so I bundled up a bit and took off. It was rather uneventful with a few drizzly spots along my way to Mammoth. I took a few pictures of vistas that I have in the past figured I would take a picture of in the future. Just past Floating Island Lake I saw a beautiful black wolf just off the road. He was marking his territory and wandering around acting totally oblivious to those of us watching him. It had been quite awhile since I've seen a wolf even though there are regular sightings in Hayden. My wolf sighting really made my evening.
I passed a couple of bear jams (I am assuming they were looking at bears because of their location) but I just kept cruising along. Later in September and October I will do more stopping when I won't have to battle with crowds. It will be like this spring when I was able to watch a bear by myself or with just a couple other people.
Like I mentioned the Park is rather chilly. The surrounding areas are much warmer but with the elevation here it is a bit brisk during the days. Last night it was to get down to 33 degreees. I'm glad that I made a few sweatshirt purchases this summer as they are really coming in handy right now.
One of the Boys of Summer, the hare, the pine marten, a mule deer and a few ground squirrels have been by the dorms. And it is the simplest of the animals that amuse me........the ground squirrel. They scamper around and every once in a while they rise up and shout out their warnings to other squirrels in the area. I guess I'm not worth a warning as they pretty much ignore me as I come out to watch the squirrel families.
