An Osprey nest that sits safely in the Yellowstone River Canyon. Here is a mom and here two babies. I watched her fly around for a long time catching small rodents and feeding them to her young.
 

We call this job security. The picture was donated by a tourist who watched this woman approach way too close to a bathing grizzly. As you can see, he charged the lady at a good rate of speed. Grizzlys can run up to 35 mph. The crowd yelled and screamed to attract the bear's attention. This worked well and the woman lives, without injury, to temp Darwinism again some day. This is not a petting zoo folks!
 

Here are a few of the people I work with at the ranger station. All are nice folks from very diverse backgrounds. This makes for an interesting work environment and good stories.

 

Bear stuff

Please check out these links. They have really cool info about grizzlies. The government is trying to take them off the endangered species list. There are only 600 or so in the park. Even though their numbers are steadly going up, is there really enough to take them off the list so soon? It will be giving farmers and hunters free reign to shoot them anytime a bear "endangers" live stock or property.

http://www.bearinfo.org/home.htm
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/08/14/news/mtregional/news04.txt
http://www.yellowstone.net/wildlife/grizzly.htm

Hellroaring Creek. Very quiet right now. I backpacked in about 9 miles and camped out at the base of a canyon. The mountains rose straight up on 3 sides of the camp and the creek ran next to where I pitched my tent. I camped by myself. The solitude was great, but sharing it with someone would have been nice, too. (they could have helped me carry gear!)  

Buffalo Basin. I passed through this area on a backpacking trip to Hellroaring Creek. It reminds me of a scene from Dances With Wolves. I kept wondering when the indians were going to come over the top of the hill. 

A little black bear I saw on my backpacking trip to Hellroaring Creek. He was playing in the water on the opposite side of the creek from me. Needless to say, I descided to cross a little farther up stream. This was the first black bear i've seen in the park. There aren't too many here.  

An early morning at Tower Canyon. The whole river basin is filled with these huge "towers". On this particular morning, a giant cloud had settled over the river. It was pretty cool seeing the giant towers poke through the top of the clouds. 

My chariot. This thing is way out of date, but gets the patients where they need to be. It even has 4 wheel drive for those exsessively snowy days. 

Me in my Smokey the Bear uniform. Kinda funny, huh? The uniform is actually pretty comfortable and the pants have plenty of cargo pockets for all my medic junk. 

Here is my Rex. 04 Subie Impreza WRX. Functional, fast and takes a snowbank better than my old chevy pick-up. Currently everything I need to survive will fit in here. Everything else non-essential is in storage.  

Imperial Meadows. This place is just north of Old Faithful. While standing in the center, you can see the rim of the caldera. This is a definate reminder that I live inside the mouth of a volcano.  

I took this from my front porch. Don't get too close. I watched a large bull chase two guys up a hill side today because they thought they could walk right up to him. Stupid tourists....job security for me! 

The Bandlands are so amazing! It was hard to choose a single picture to put here. The view is so different in every direction you look. I think I made a good choise with this one. 

Mount Rushmore is really cool! Check out Crazy Horse while you're there. 

Dad and me at the Spam Museum. 

Early morning at West Thumb Geiser Basin. Average thermal water temp is 147-202 F. There are basins like this one dotted all over the park. If you walk up on one during a hike, it's not wise to walk to close because there are hidden ones that can break open if you walk over them.

This was taken at the top of Elephant back trail. It's on top of the mountain behind my house. I live in one of the little whites dots at the bottom of the picture.  

The pelicans of Pelican Creek. Yes, we have them in the mountains, too. 

Bison herd in Hayden Valley. Mmmmmm......taste good med-rare over an open fire.  

The lower falls at Artist's point (Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone). 308 ft tall. 

An awesome view from near the ranger station I work out of. I get to see this everyday! 

This is Mollie, one of our volunteers. She's a great chick, but will be us leaving on Aug. 29 for D.C. I'll miss my hiking partner when she goes. 

This guy lives in my front yard most of the time. There are between 1000-2000 more down the road in Hayden Valley. It's the largest heard of wild bison in the country. 

I live in Yellowstone.....of course there's gonna be pics of Old Faithfull! 

Rappell training at the East gate of Yellowstone. That's me at the bottom.