Where the Wildlife Is

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Adventure Tuesday

Yellowstone National Park - Winter Edition

Lamar Valley is a safe bet for wildlife

In the wintertime you can see almost all the animals you can in the summertime. The big difference of course are the bears. You’ll probably wont see any bear if you go in December or January, unless something is very very wrong. Lamar Valley is a safe bet for a lot of wildlife. The snow white open plains makes it easier for you to spot just about anything, including large boulders that looks like large wildlife :) You’ll always see large herds of bison here, especially in the wintertime since the bison move down in elevation during this season. Of course as always this is the prime spot to see coyotes or wolves. I haven’t seen many wolves in Yellowstone National Park, actually I haven’t seen many wolves at all, anywhere. Wolves do exist in Yellowstone of course, but they are more rare to see. What you do see a lot of are coyotes. I have seen countless of coyotes in Yellowstone. If you don’t have any binoculars or a very good zoom lens it will be impossible to say if you are watching a wolf or coyote. Wolves are very big, and the coyote is a lot smaller, and since wolves are a bit more rare we tend to lean towards coyotes.

Animals Everywhere?

Of course, if you screen the landscape well enough, you will see animals almost everywhere. One winter we ended up seeing close to 10 lone Coyotes, all close to the road or on the road. That was a weird year I would say. Not sure why they all were congregating along the road that year, but to me it seemed odd. Right after you enter Yellowstone National Park through Gardiner, there will be a somewhat narrow road that takes you through some cliffs on both side of the road. That is a prime location to spot for Bighorn Sheep. Of course any place in the park where the road passes some cliffs are prime location for Bighorn Sheep. Other animals you should be on the lookout for are elk and whitetail deer.

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Have you been to Yellowstone? What is your favorite animal you have seen there?

All the Roads Lead to Yellowstone?

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Adventure Tuesday

Yellowstone National Park - Winter Edition

The Park

We have traveled to Yellowstone many many times the past few years. Mostly in the wintertime, but lately a bit more in the summertime. Well, lately as in last summer of 2017, when we went there twice. Yellowstone is divided up into East, West, North and South Yellowstone. It's impossible to do it all in one day. It takes quite some time to drive from one end of the park to the other, especially if you include bisonjams and tourists. I have driven through all the entrances in the park over the years. From the northwest entrance in Gardiner, to the northeast entrance in Cook City it is about 56 miles. From the entrance in Gardiner to the west Yellowstone entrance its about 54 miles, and to get to Old Faithful from Gardiner it is also about 56 miles. From the northwest entrance in Gardiner to the south entrance (the one that takes you into Grand Teton National Park) its about 94 miles. On the website of Yellowstone National Park you find all sorts of maps, gps coordinates and brochures about how to plan your trip. There is even an app nowadays.

Christmas Celebrations

W is from Bozeman, and he has been in Yellowstone many many times. He has done research there, and his dad does research there. So, both of them knows the ins and out of all of Yellowstone. Ever since the first Christmas I spent with W in Bozeman, we have visited Yellowstone every time we go there. In the wintertime we always enter through the North Entrance, the one in Gardiner. Not all the roads are open in the wintertime, but it is possible to get to most places if you go by snowmobile or snowcoach. Of course there are restrictions on where you can drive your snowmobile or not. You can also go on snowmobile or snowcoach guided tours in the park, but we have never done that. We usually ski, or drive around looking for wildlife. You can drive from the northwest entrance to Mammoth hot springs, but not farther south unless you go by snowcoach or snowmobile. Different years have different closing and opening days of roads, so the best thing to do is to check the website for up to date information.

Have you ever been to Yellowstone in the wintertime?

Fieldwork in Yellowstone part 2

Looking south towards the Madison River

This forest was burned in 1988, and then again in 2016. This is the aftermath. All those small black specks in the ground are tree stumps, they are the remnants of that deep forest that used to be there. Fires are occuring more frequently in these ecosystems, and it's still not 100% clear what will happen with these deep forests in the future if this continues. 

Adventure Tuesday

My life choices and interests

    Often times I stop to think about my life choices, where I started, what paths I took and how I ended up over here, here in the US. There is no doubt that I am living a life that I love, I get to do all those things that are of big interest to me. Sure, I get the boring parts too, but even the boring parts can be enjoyable, which in some sense proves that I actually do love what I am doing. This summer I got to do fieldwork in two different areas, not my own fieldwork for once. I went to Puerto Rico with my job, and helped out with some fieldwork there. A few weeks later I flew into Jackson Wyoming, W picked me up and we drove into the Grand Teton National Park. The following week we spent most of our time in both the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. The fieldwork itself was in Yellowstone during this trip.

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A tale of several fires

    Both W and I study fires for our PhDs, I study how wildfires affect the stream water chemistry and the connection between the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems up in Alaska. Our work is based on climate change and its effect on wildfires, we are trying to understand how a shift in climate might affect the future ecosystems in Alaska, and in the rocky mountains. W studies how changing wildfire regimes and climate affects tree seedling establishment after fires in sub alpine and boreal forest. Alaska with its boreal forests and the Rockies with coniferous and sub alpine flora are two very different ecosystems, but with many similarities. One really important similarity is that changing fire regimes likely mean profoundly different ecosystems in the future. 

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Getting dirty

    We share the passion, the passion for our nature. I usually get tangled up in the small details while W tries to understand the bigger picture. We spent most of the fieldwork on all fours, counting seedlings, stumps, trees, charred vegetation, cones, ghost logs and logs. Temperatures were in the 90s and we were basically in a black forest. Mosquitos were not necessarily a big issue, but they were there. By the end of each day we were all black, tired and hungry. We camped at a campground outside the park and swam in the river most evenings. I had the time of my life.

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    Did you go on any adventures this summer?