Day 15 National Parks 2011
I finally rolled off bed at 8am when it was warm. I made hot and sour mung bean noodles with
arugula. Then I cooked the rest of the
quinoa, amaranth in aloo mutter with the rest of the carrots and potato from
the Thursday roast. I then boiled hot
water for hot coco. I shared my hot
water with campsite #88 who was making coffee.
When I have a trail hike planned on foot, getting up at 4am
isn’t too early. When I have a tourist
car pullout stroll around planned, getting up at 8am isn’t too late. Starting at noon after food, recitation,
contemplation, and tea is also not late at all.
I kept smelling the wonderful wood fire aroma in the air this
morning and wondered if it was a memory recall, or was it in my clothes mixing in with
the smell of the rain and sulfur at the park.
Then I saw smoke come out of #87 fire pit, and no one was around. So I went to put some snow on the fire to put
it out so they don’t get in park trouble and get sited.
The weather this morning was dry, grey, overcast, and
cool. Then it down poured at 11:45am and
continued with breaks here and there throughout the rest of the day. I went to pump gas. I filled up with ten and half gallons. My tank was low and the mountain incline
curves are hard on the car.
I drove to Tower Falls and saw a buffalo, a sleepy one
underneath a tree sheltering itself from the rain. I pulled over onto the Tower Falls parking
lot and sat in the car to wait the powerful down pour. The mountain landscape was pretty on the North
East side of the park. Then I tried a spoon of mountain berry ice
cream a.k.a. huckleberry or marionberry from Montana. I felt it was no lesser than European ones in
terms of texture and flavor. I opted to
buy Wisconsin huckleberry ice cream sandwich to try and I found it unimpressive. Now I know. I sat outside the general store to eat this
ice cream and found it disgusting that people were smoking everywhere on the
patio polluting this amazing healing air into a toxic cancer inducing air. Gross!
I pulled over to Calcite Springs and did the little loop
and saw big horn sheep on the mountain cliff.
There were three mama big horn sheep and three babies, none of them were
sliding. This is the only place safe for
the mama to give birth to their babies and the place to raise them safely
without them getting snatched by anther animal for a baby meal. It was a beautiful sight.
I then went to Roosevelt area and saw a black bear
looking for grub. I pulled over at a
pullout to wait out another down pour. I find it a wonderful experience to wait for
the clouds, sky, sun, and rain to change.
It is just amazing and beautiful to watch.
I saw more fuzzy buffalos grazing. There was no place to pull over, just a drive
by. I saw a lot of beautiful birds
today, they are camera shy so when I pull out my camera they dodge. I even missed the bald eagle. As I drove I saw two crows flying away with
someone’s egg in their beak. Somewhere
in this park, two mamas lost their babies.
It was a good decision to drive today, even in the
rain. I had contemplated the possibility
of meditating in my tent through all this rain and let my ankle heal so I can
do long hikes and maybe backpack. I was glad to not have missed all of this.
I saw three mountain sheep sitting on a grassy hill, I pulled over and parked the car. I ran up the hill like others and then I noticed a ranger showed up and put up her telescope by the road and through her telescope, I got to see the faces and horns in detail, crystal clear. It was amazing!
In a valley I also saw three baby buffalos in a herd of
buffalos. I tried to zoom in on the video
but I was too far away. Can’t get any
closer, parents are very protective of their babies and buffalos can charge at 30
mph, they run faster than I can. 
I also saw Prong Horns here. Three were sitting by the river in this same valley. The sun peeked through at
4:30pm. At 5pm I pulled over and watch
Mount Washburn change colors in sunset while I ate a buttery avocado with quinoa
and amaranth with nutritional yeast, nori, soy sauce. 
Drove back to camp totally sensationally stuffed and I
was super tired from all the excitement of the day. I decided to cook the rest of the roasted
carrots with aloo mutter and eat it too for dinner. I had more bread and chocolate spread with
Keeming tea. It was all very
lovely.
A resident volunteer came by to inform me that someone
saw a bear an hour ago at 5:30pm crossing camp and that it was best to put
things away and not in the tent for safety.
I was in camp at that time, sitting outside and I didn’t see any bear. I did hear dogs bark vigorously.
Tonight instead of building a fire, I sat in the car to
stay warm when the temperatures dropped at 6:20pm. I was in bed by 8pm tonight. I heard shots like fireworks set off, seven
times. This means a bear was in camp after
8pm. I hope the bear is okay and no one
was harmed.
Beautiful sighting, a nine year old blond girl in jeans
climbed a tooth pick, very young baby pine tree.
As she got the midway, the tree arched almost 90 degrees. It was super fun to watch, very cute, like a
live animation of cartoon characters.
Tonight, the sky was bright at midnight. It was so bright, the stars were tiny. The Milky Way is right above the
campsite. Getting up at midnight has its
perks, get to see the stars and the amazing Milky Way.
