28 people lost their lives when an earthquake brought the side of a mountain down on top of them, Aug 17th 1959

This is on the side of the bolder

Where the mountain slid down. Trees are just now starting to regrow on it

I saw this bird in Ennis, on our way to Virginia City

Virginia City

Looking into a country store

Where the "road agents" (outlaws) were buried after they were hanged, Jan 14th 1864

The outlaw graves on Boot Hill

Looking down on Virginia City from Boot Hill

Nevada City

8-12 (Thurs)
Left Mammoth at 7:30 to go to Virginia City, Montana. We drove through West Yellowstone and on to Earthquake Lake (Habgen Lk) where we stopped at the Visitors Center. We saw a film and read about what happened in 1959. It was so interesting. We walked up on the hill to a big bolder where there was a plaque with all the names of the people who were killed. It happened at midnight on Aug 17th. There was an earthquake and the entire side of the mountain slid down. Some people said they thought they were being bombed. Most of them didn’t have a chance. Many of them are still under the rubble where they were buried near the bolder with their names.
We drove on to Virginia City. This was a cute little town that has been preserved as it would have been in the 1800’s. The “sidewalks” were board walks and the store fronts were wood and looked like they did at that time. You could look into the store and see how they had been used - old carriages, the general store with all it’s merchandise, clothing stores with corsets, hats, shoes, long socks, and the Hangman’s Building where the vigilantes hung “road agents” (outlaws) on January 14, 1864. You could still see the “burn” marks where they hung by the ropes. Later the Virginia City Water Co run by Sarah Bickford moved into the building. She was a black slave who after the Civil War made her way to the West and became very successful.
The five hanged “road agents” were buried on the Boot Hill Cemetery. No one else wanted to be buried near them so they dug everyone else up and put them in a new cemetery a stone’s throw away.
We had lunch at the Virginia City Cafe. After walking around town and going into Cousins Candy Shop we headed down the road to Nevada City. There wasn’t much to it. Actually they brought in really, really old cabins that were left standing around Montana and assembled them into a village. It was a tourist trap because you had to pay to walk through them. We spent our money on ice cream instead.
On our way home we took a back way to Bozeman. It was a beautiful drive through some deep canyons. Naturally we stopped at Walmart in Bozeman for a little shopping. We ate dinner in Livingston and then made it back home by 8:30


8-13 (Fri)
We left Mammoth at 8:00 and drove to Midway Geyser Basin where we had planned to climb a mountain and take pictures looking down on the Grand Prismatic Spring. When we got out of the car the wind was blowing like crazy, it was freezing cold and spitting rain. We nixed that idea and drove on to Old Faithful where we shopped to stay out of the wind and then ate lunch at their EDR. We ate with some really nice women who told us the forecast is for snow at Old Faithful tonight. Of course they added that the forecast is never right.
We got the brilliant idea to drive down to Jackson Hole for the afternoon. About half way there we decided it was going to take us too long and we wouldn’t get back to Mammoth until real late. Since we have to work in the morning we went to West Thumb Geyser Basin. By this time the sun was shinning so we walked around there and took pictures.
We thought since the sun was shinning there we’d go back to Midway and try to see Grand Prismatic Spring. We got over there and it was still freezing cold. Nancy got out and went to take a look. I slept in the car while she was gone.
When we got back home we cranked up our heater then called and made reservations to go to Jackson Hole next weekend.

The Gardiner River on our Sheep Eater's Cliff hike

I saw this critter along the way

He kept posing for me

Nancy coming out of the thick canopy we walked through

Buddy and the boys

Nancy with family

8-6 (Fri)
This morning Nancy and I went on a hike to Sheep Eater's Cliff. We were walking along the Gardiner River which was lovely. There was one section where we had to hunched over and walk through some really thick bushes that formed a canopy over us.

Nancy's son, Buddy, from Orlando and his two boys arrived early this afternoon. We took them touring to some parts of the park. We had dinner at Roosevelt Lodge and then took them out to the Lamar Valley where they were able to see lots of buffalo. They also saw a grizzly and two cubs. It's always exciting when we can show our guest some of the animals.

Bill with bear slobber on his pants!

Celebrating the end of a great hike.

Taking a break on the trail.

At the top of Golden Gate.

The cowboys who told us about the bear.

Getting ready to start the hike.

Our friends, Patty and Marilyn arrived at Mammoth last Thursday. Bill and MA arrived shortly after that. They had been in Glacier. We all ate lunch in the EDR. The food was awful.
All of us minus MA went on the Golden Gate hike. Bill and I took his car over to Bunsen Peak and left if. We drove everyone to the top of the Terraces in my car and began the hike there. A group of 4 (one wrangler, mom and dad, and a young girl) passed us on horseback. They had a pack mule with them. They had been camping for two nights and riding for three days. When we got near the hoodoos they called back to us, “Bear on the left.” We weren’t sure what to do so we pressed on. Marilyn finally spotted it. It was a brown grizzly. It was eating some berries and didn’t pay any attention to us. We scooted on by. The hike took us three hours.
When we got back everyone went to their hotels to recover and shower. We all went to Raven’s in Gardiner for dinner.

On Friday we all went to Chico’s for lunch. It's a resort about 45 minutes from the park. Bill and MA left from there for Bozeman so they could fly home the next morning.
We took Patty and Marilyn through the Lamar Valley that night and to Cook City for dinner. Coming home we saw lots and lots of buffalo, they were in rut.

Hiking Beaver Ponds

Beaver Ponds

Beaver Ponds

Old Faithful Area

Old Faithful area

7-26 (Mon)
Bill and Mary Ann, my brother and sister in law, arrived Sunday night a week ago. We all went out to dinner that night. They toured around the park on Mon and Tues left for Cody to spend the night.

Thurs we took them down to Old Faithful. On the way down we saw a couple of bull elk with huge racks. Bill and I walked the boardwalks by the geysers while Nancy and Mary Ann shopped. When we got back we all sat out on the porch of the Lodge and watched Old Faithful go off.

On Friday Nancy, Bill and I hiked Beaver Ponds. That evening we all went horseback riding. What a bummer that was. It was nose to tail riding which the girl said it wouldn't be. The equipment was terrible. My reins were tied together and Nancy and a rope for reins! They didn't even adjust the stirrups on my saddle! Unfortunately it was a two hour ride. We could hardly walk when we got back to the stable. Then to top it off I couldn't find the keys to the car. We looked everywhere. One of the girl wranglers gave us a lift back to Bill's hotel. He and I took off to Gardiner for an extra set of keys while Nancy and Mary Ann drank wine. By the time we got the keys, picked up my car and got back to Mammoth it was past 9:00. As I was getting undressed that night, I said, "oh Nancy, I know where the keys are." They were in the glass case I always have hanging on my belt. I had put them in there for save keeping because it zips!

Bill and MA took off for Glacier the next day. They will be back late Wed night and fly home Sunday.

It's very hard to see but this is the osprey on the nest.



Wild flowers on the way up Mt. Washburn

If you look closely you can see the trail that we were taking up to the top.

The coyote walking right by us.

Above the timber line.

We made it.

Time for celebration.

Our goal, the lookout tower at the top of Mt. Washburn.

7-16 (Fri)
Nancy and I decided to hike Mt Washburn today. On the way there we saw a black bear and and osprey on her next with two young ones.
We got out of the car and began our hike at 10:00 We were at the top by 12:30. Right before I was on the final push to the top a coyote came walking down the path right between a group of us. He didn’t seem perturbed by us at all. We decided to go down the opposite side of the mountain that we came up. The only problem with this was our car was about 6-8 miles away. We began hitching. It took us about 15 minutes to get a ride but it seemed like forever since we were so tired.
After we got our car we drove down to Canyon and had a very late lunch.

Nancy and I drove down to Old Faithful this morning because the park was having a 40% off sale for employees. They have a bigger store than we do at Mammoth so we had more of a selection. Bruce called us as soon as we arrived (he was working there today) and told us to come to the EDR and have lunch with him which we did. We walked around to all the places we book in that location so we would know what we were selling.
On the way down we saw a coyote standing on a rock. It would have made the coolest picture but of course by the time we stopped he had gotten down. We did get some shots of him.
On the way back we stopped and took pictures of a young grizzly bear that was right up by the road. He wasn’t in any hurry to walk away.
Tonight we played BINGO in the upstairs lounge at Aspen.