You Asked For WY Pictures...

I give you WY pictures. Lots of 'em.

(by the way, thanks so much for the comments on the last post...I will be responding individually, I just haven't had a chance to yet. Also in knitting news since there hasn't been much of that for a long time...I am one half of a sleeve, a few hours of seaming, time to block, and a few minutes to sew on some buttons from being done not 1, not 2, but 3 finished knitting objects. Shocking I know...hopefully can get those things done in the next couple weeks and get some pictures to post!).

Sunlight Valley...location of our accommodations.

So mostly a good trip. The weather was amazing unlike last September when depending on the hour it rained or snowed or hailed on us...temperatures in the 30's and 40's! This year was sunshine every day and temperatures warm enough that we had to shut down a couple afternoons. Too hot for the animals, too hot for the helicopter at that elevation.

The motley crew (left to right)...J, biologist, student, pilot, mugger...me on the ground.

One of the highlights of the trip...J and I were sitting on a hill one morning waiting for the helicopter to come back and pick us up. I saw some movement up the hill about 75 yards and then saw 2 gray wolves dart out from some bushes and jog across the hill. I'm not sure they actually knew we were there. I've seen wolves in the wild but it's still amazing every time.

And then a downside...one of our collared cows ended up getting killed by a griz bear. We went in to track her (via helicopter) and found a griz on her...fairly fresh kill. When we went back for fuel, the PhD student running the project informed me that he wanted me to go in on the cow and collect the data (I'm the only one who can collect what he wanted). I thought he was kidding so I just said no thank you and smiled politely. A few minutes later I find out he is not kidding when he asked me to take pictures of the kill site. The lines I don't cross may be a wee bit different than your average person, but this is a line I will not cross. I simply am not getting dropped off on a hill, walking down 200 yards into the trees onto a grizzly bear on his kill with only a can of bear spray for protection. Do not tell me the helicopter can fly above me and scare it off for the duration...what the helicopter actually would be doing is masking any noise whatsoever (including the radio) so I couldn't hear if it were to come back. I'll add that this request came to me after the same student told me a lovely story the night before about an attack a month before in the same area we were working. Go read that. So yeah, seriously? Dude was asking me to walk in on a griz?!?! Not crossing that line. Grizzlies are amazing creatures and I'm fascinated by them...but I also have a very healthy respect...and let's face it...fear, of them.

Ridge as you go into the Park

Arty shot of the brilliant blue sky and one of the snags left behind after the fire.

Another arty shot of the burned trees, blue sky and vegetation that was just starting to change colors.

Elk girl very happy to be leaving us behind.

Another elk girl happy to leave us...this was on a ridge at about 9500 feet.

Hills outside of Cody, WY in the early morning.

Landscape between Cody and the Park.

Can't drive through the Park at this time of year without the obligatory bison picture. This boy walked right past my truck and his back was higher than my truck. I knew they were big, but holy crap...I didn't realize that big. Impressive animal.

**Public service announcement: Please ignore the highly annoying black smudge that shows up on most of my photos now. It's somewhere within the camera that I can not get to. Will be investing in a new camera this winter at some point so ignore until then. Thank you.

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Now playing: Calling All Angels by The Wailin' Jennys from their new Live album