A Low Angle Detachment Landslide

Way back in 1972, I was a Geology student. As part of my degree, I needed to complete a summer of geologic mapping. As my university did not hold a summer field camp I applied and was accepted at Iowa State University for their summer field camp in Shell, Wyoming. The field work involved doing a lot of walking as each day we were handed an aerial photo several square miles or larger in size and were expected to complete a geologic map with correct formation contacts, folds, faults. At the end of the day were expected to turn in a completed map.

We also traveled to different areas to study unusual formations, one of which was the Heart Mountain Thrust fault outside of Cody, Wyoming. While there a Geologist with the United States Geologic survey talked about the Heart Mountain Thrust Fault. He explained how old rock formations could move on top of younger rock layers in a thrust fault. One of my fellow students, was attending Princeton, said that his professor said that the geologist was wrong . He said that he had learned that the mass of rocks had slid like an air hockey puck. Imagine a block of several thousand feet thick rock the size of Rhode Island moving at a speed of up to 700 miles per hole. The Geologist got angry as he had studied Heart Mountain and said that the idea was ridiculous. It turned out that the Geologist was wrong! If you want to see how it happened you need to go to YouTube and look up a presentation from Myron Cook on the Largest landslide the earth has ever seen, (well that we know)

On the second day of our trip we decided to drive the Chief Joesph Highway and enter Yellowstone National Park by the North East Entrance. This would allow us to travel backwards along the slide path and take some pictures… Now to really understand what you are seeing you need to watch the presentation. Thank you Myron Cook for your outstanding presentation! Clear skies Imagine a block of rock moving up to sixty miles, moving at 700 miles per hour. Imagine it racing towards you! Pictured above Heart Mountian, Dead Indian Point, and the Sheep Mountian Blocks thst moved from the sudden detachment in what is now Yellowstone National Park.

Driving from our Home to Buffalo Bill State Park

It’s been a while since we last posted. We are now back home, recovering, from an eight day trip to Cody, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone. I have so many pictures and stories to share so I guess I will start with the drive. In March we reserved eight days at Buffalo Bill State Park, outside of Cody Wyoming. The reasons were two-fold, spend quality time in two of our favorite national parks, and to sell our jewelry at the Cody Wild West Arts Festival, (July 2 through the 4th). After some truck repairs we loaded up the car and truck and took off for Buffalo Bill State Park. The journey was just two hundred and twenty miles and took us through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Having our cameras ready we entered Grand Teton National Park and encountered a traffic Jam. As I was driving the truck, loaded with our Camper, I didn’t have any place to pull over and ended up driving to a pull out near Leeks Marina. Renita was able to find a spot for the Subaru and tried to take pictures of the small bear. It is the only survivor of the three cubs of the grizzly 1063. It was not with its mother and its doubtful it will survive., (I will post the picture if I can find it…). Leaving the park we continued on to the South entrance of Yellowstone National Park. From there the first part of the drive was up to the rim of the Caldera’s crater, marked by a sign that we were crossing the continental divide. The truck did not overheat and as we headed down, we drove through a thick forest seeing little in the way of wildlife. Turning onto the Grand Loop Road we reached the edge of Yellowstine Lake and stopped at our usual place for a picnic. A cold wind was blowing off the water and so we ate and then headed for Sylvan Pass. There were not many people on the Fishing Bridge and we didn’t see the usual number of Buffalos along the shore of the lake. Starting up to the pass we encountered another bear jam. This one was a large grizzly bear busy digging up plants, The bear was either grubbing or rooting, (they have over two bhundred foods in their diet). It was in an area where trees had blown down from a past fire and the bear would disappear, occasionally lift its head over the deadfall to make sure the crowd of people were not approaching. No one was stupid enough to bother a large grizzly bear, (I am still looking for those pictures), As we could no longer see the bear, we continued up and over the pass to the East Entrance of the YNP.

Arriving at Buffalo Bill Stat Park we set up camp. Our campsite had great views of Rattlesnake,(first picture) and Sheep Mountain. I will write more on these two Mountains in one of the next blogs. Clear skies

Alpine, Wyoming Mountain Days, 2025

We only do five or six shows each year. The Texas shows are now an early memory and now it’s Wyoming showtime! Here we have a stretch where we exhibit and sell at three shows in three weeks. The first major show is the Alpine Mountain Days and this year the weather was windy and cold. The first day, the wind came up and gusts blew down some of the other canopy tents. Luckily, we were in a good place with trees, other secure tents, and even a school bus blocking the wind.

Another factor is the four fifty-pound bags we use on each corner and a ten-pound weight anchoring the center. We also have an advantage as our jewelry cases are heavy and so we never have had any major problem.

However, the first day ‘s crowd was less than usual and so we hoped for better weather on Saturday. The weather finally cooperated, and it reached sixty-five with some sun and we had a good day with many returning and new customers.

Sunday’s weather however was another matter as a cold front arrived, with snow just above our elevation, The show opened, with upper thirty-degree temperatures. It only warmed up to fifty-two! Both of us had every layer we owned on, and by drinking coffee we stayed kind of warm. At one point I was chilled and forced myself to eat, or inhaled, a hot funnel cake covered with sugar, (it helped, the first one I have eaten in years). In the afternoon some customers did return, and we had a few sales. Enough to make it an ok show, not great, but still ok. This week we are heading to Cody Wyoming where the temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-eighties. It’s usually a great show for us and hopefully this year will be good! Clear skies

Fly Fishing Wild Native Cutthroat

We are way too busy and it seems like every year gets harder to find fishing time. Remembering the wall hanging that Renita’s sister Pam gave us, (a quote from Jed Clampett)) that says, “ Anyone to busy to go fishing is too busy!”, we took a day off.

As we drove to one of our favorite streams, Renita discovered that she had forgotten her fishing license! This delegated her to a different role as the photographer! Reaching the stream, we parked and after rigging up my flyrod, a lengthy process, we walked to the nearest hole.

Making cast after cast nothing rose to my fly. There were quite a few fresh new boot prints so it was obvious that we were not the first anglers of the day. Moving to the next four holes produced nothing, but at the fifth hole, I got a fish to rise.

The fish was only slightly larger than my fly, which was a size sixteen dry fly. Fearing the worst, we walked to the next hole we finally had a larger but still small trout take the fly. It was my first cutthroat of the season. The next hole produced two more. All were safely released. These fish are wild native cutthroats, not hatchery produced, so keeping them would destroy the population.

At the next hole, a large trout rose and took my fly, I had switched to a size eighteen dry fly<(which is really tiny), and I lost the fish after a brief fight. Making another cast, I hooked it again and again and the fly pulled out! Moving further upstream produced a nice, larger trout. By moving a little further I ended up catching and releasing ten cutthroats. It had been a great morning and as we tire easier than we use too, so we called it a day.

Renita did a great job of taking pictures of my fish and also took pictures of wildflowers. All the pictures were taken with her IPhone. Next time it will be my turn as she found her license in another purse. Clear skies

The Grey's Lake Refuge, Spring 2025

Last year, we were so busy with the new park model that we were unable to take the time for a birding day at the Grey’s Lake Refuge. While we are still not done with our projects, we are waiting for a contractor, we invited our friends Fred and Becky and off we went for a fun day of birding.

Always hoping for a new life bird, we concentrated on recording the calls and taking lots of images. As we turned north on the East Refuge Road, we photographed a pair of Long Billed Curlews. Stopping we noticed several small chicks that belong to the pair and the parents provided a defensive wall as the chicks hurried to get in long grass and hide. It’s the first time we have ever saw Curlew chicks and they have a lot of their bill to grow! You can barely see the short bill. Not wishing to bother them anymore, we continued on, spotting Sandhill Crane pairs, a Northern Shoveler, and American Kestrels.

The Kestrels did not like their photo being taken and whenever we stopped, they would fly further down the road. Renita finally got a good image of one. It’s nice to have two people with cameras!

Further on we came across a

female Northern Harrier. The hawk was perched on a telephone pole and seemed content to let us take all the pictures we wanted. Next was a Western Meadowlark called from the top of a fence post. The call is my favorite, and I remembered the call as a small child, while visiting my Dads Parents graves in West Union, Iowa

At the refuge headquarters, Cliff Swallows had nested under the eves and the parents were busy feeding them insects. The noise made by the chicks was loud!.

It was the sound of spring and summer would not be far away. Continuing our drive two hawks hunted low to thr ground. I tried to take pictures as they would hover and then land on their intended victim. One of the hawks flew right at us and I got a grest shot of the male.

His head is owllike, and it allows the bird to locate the prey as its ears are far apart, (that’s how owls locate their prey). It was a Northern Harrier.

As we drove, we reached a place where the marsh waters stood on both sides of the gravel road and that’s when we saw lots of Yellow Headed Blackbirds.

This year I got a great picture of a female yellow headed Blackbird. A pair of American Avocets were guarding a nest and so we took a quick pic and moved on.

Next were Glossy Ibis and Western Phalaropes.

This year’s chicks were already swimming. They are so tiny, and of course I did not get a very good shot of them. Down the road I spotted a bird we see down south, a Marbled Godwit.

We didn’t see many other birds, but we did stop and spot four elk, or should I say Renita spotted them. Leaving the refuge, we headed back home after stopping for a picnic along the way. It had been a perfect day even though we did not see any new birds. Thanks for joining us, Fred and Becky! Clear skies

A nice day spent in Grand Teton National Park

It had been a while since we went to Grand Teton National Park. Renita had been watching Facebook and had noticed pictures of Black and Grizzly Bears. One even was taken of the dominant male grizzly bear nicknamed Bruno. Since we photographed him in April, he has had a fight or two and has had chunks taken out of his face, (not my pic so I can’t use it here). Arriving at the park we got our cameras out and drove our usual search patten, but did not see any bears.

Cow Elk were visible near the South Yellowstone Entrance, and a large buffalo herd, with red dogs was at it usual place near the Moran Junction.

The park was crowded as you would expect on Tuesday after Memorial Day. Renita spotted a Blad Eagle sitting on a nest, but it was so far away we could only see it’s head.

At the Sawmill Pond, we were rewarded with a Red-Tailed Hawk, glaring at us from its tree perch.

No moose, no bears but we did see a herd of life size Asian Elephants,just to the north of the National Wildlife Museum. The elephants are part of a traveling exhibit, and all are up for sale. They were constructed from a nasty invasive species weed in India. We talked about buying one but our place in Star Valley is too small. Guess we will just decorate it wilh more rocks….. Clear skies ps the opening photo is of a plant named Arrohead Leaf Balsom Root

Birding out the windows. Lots of Goldfinches

We have had lots of rain and snow showers. That has put a halt to most everything we do but it has given us a chance to work on projects inside and planning for home improvements. We hired a contractor to install a heating and air conditioning system so there went quite a bit of money, (it’s kind of a waste as we only use the air conditioning a few weeks in the summer, (we never had it in Gillette and we lived there for thirty years.

The entertainment has been the flocks of birds. They are feeding on the aspen’s flowers. Which look like brown worms, after they seed. The migrating birds are hanging around as the daily snows are keeping them at our elevation which is about six thousand feet. A few days ago, a flock od American Goldfinches have arrived and feed each day on our neighbors Aspen tree and bird feeders.

They are accompanied by Cassin’s Finches and now Evening Grosbeaks,

of which populations are declining dramatically. The Grosbeaks are here year-round. We are doing a lot of window birding. Meanwhile we putter around the house working on jewelry and grinding cabochons and enjoying home cooked meals.

It’s supposed to warm up this weekend and so we will head to the park. The bears are still acting like cows as the elk have not yet calved. Clear skies