Thursday, April 28, 2011

Trivia

We didn't do so well at trivia this week -- 7th place for Greg, Tara (a coworker), me, Cora, and Trevor.


The highlight of the night came when Cora won eyeball bandages for answering a bonus question correctly.


Trevor was excited for the non-bandage eyeball sticker:

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Yellowstone, Day 2

Wednesday, on our way to Mammoth Hot Springs, we passed by the Norris Geyser Basin. Julie and I were surprised at the amount of steam rising from the area:


We also passed by Roaring Mountain:


The highlight of Mammoth Hot Springs was the hillside, with terraced pools oozing minerals.


The day before, I had remarked that I hadn't seen any small mammals yet. At Mammoth Hot Springs, we saw a black-tailed jackrabbit:


and a chipmunk:


Then we headed off to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We weren't able to access the North Rim, but we were able to see the Lower Falls from Artist Point:


Then we went back to the Norris Geyser Basin and hiked around the geysers there. My favorite was the Steamboat Geyser. Not only was it fairly active (with occasional 10 foot spouts), but it had a neat little vent that looked like a mini volcano (the gray mound in the foreground).


On our way out of the park, we saw either a wolf or a coyote:


We also saw an elk that still had its antlers:


We drove to Jackson that night, and home to Boulder on Thursday. It was a great little trip -- now Julie and I both want to go back in the summer when the whole park is open (and we can enter it from Wyoming instead of Montana)!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Yellowstone, Day 1

Our day started out in Jackson. Here I am at one of four gates made from discarded elk antlers at the town square:


A few hours later, we were finally in Yellowstone National Park. The first thing we saw was an elk close to the road:


Then several bison passed us on the road:


We saw dozens of bison and geysers today. Here is combined photo of the two!


One of the geysers contributing to that steam was this one:


This geyser area also had a bubbling pool of mud:


Most of the steam in the bison picture came from this geyser:


After many stops, we eventually made our way to see Old Faithful.


This is a picture of (L to R) me, Old Faithful, and Julie:


We then walked around the Old Faithful area checking out other geysers.


We spent enough time wandering that we saw Old Faithful erupt a second time!


We stopped by the Midway Basin after Old Faithful.


Then we drove around looking for wildlife. We saw this bald eagle, which was perched nicely on the top of an old burned tree until just before Julie was about to snap his picture, at which point it flew away, leaving Julie to frantically take its picture as best she could:


Then we came upon a bison traffic jam:


We eventually had to turn around and head for our hotel in West Yellowstone. Just when we thought our day was over, we came upon this wolf eating a carcas:



It was the first time I'd ever seen a wolf in the wild. A professional photographer was in another car that had pulled over to watch. Through her scope, we saw the wolf up close. It was like watching a National Geographic special! There were three other wolves sitting and waiting off to the side. Eventually, this wolf finished gnawing at the bones, left the remains to the crows, and headed off with the other three wolves. It was the highlight of the day!

Boulder to Jackson

Julie and I are taking a short trip to Yellowstone. Yesterday, we drove from Boulder to Jackson, Wyoming. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. Fortunately, Julie remembered hers!

We stopped for lunch in Laramie. We're using a 15-year old Lonely Planet guidebook, which has so far been surprisingly up to date. For example, it recommended Jeffrey's Bistro for lunch, which is still in business!


Julie took some nice pictures along the way. We passed through some heavy rain in Southern Wyoming, but eventually the skies cleared.



We even passed through the town of Boulder!


Eventually (finally!) we drove into mountainous terrain.


We arrived in Jackson just before sunset. Our hotel is at the base of some ski slopes. I took this picture of the sunset.


And finally, here I am just before we headed inside for dinner.


Today, we go to the park!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Rockies Game

First, this morning I took a picture of the same tree bud at the bus stop one day later.


I went to a Rockies game this evening with Julie, Tara, and John.


It was Jackie Robinson day, so every player wore the number 42.


Unfortunately for John, the Rockies won.

Julie and John after the game:


Denver:

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Surprise

I opened my door this morning to go to work, and ...


discovered it had snowed the night before!

I took a bunch of pictures on my walk to the bus stop.


My bus stop is under the tree on the right.




On the way to trivia Tuesday night ...

as Cora, Trevor and I were walking down the street, Trevor spotted two birds on the peaks of roofs:


One was real:


The other wasn't:


We came in second place!


Not bad, considering we thought we had no shot because we were in 9th, then 10th place after the first two scoring breaks.