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.

Brink of the falls

Nancy and Bruce

In front of the lower falls

Lower Falls

Lower Falls again

Hiking Elephant Back

View from the top of Elephant Back

At breakfast this morning we invited our friend, Bruce, to go hiking with us. We went to the Lower Falls. We walked to the “brink” of the falls, hiked Uncle Tom’s Trail (320 steps plus) and walked down to artists point. In the afternoon we hiked Elephant Back. That was five miles round trip. We got back to Mammoth just in time to have dinner and do our laundry.