Another Grizzly Bear spotted and photographed April Sixteen, 2025

It was a nice day and so we drove to Grand Teton National Park Entering the Park we tried to photographed a hawk, and a pair of soaring bald headed eagles. (badly focused picture),

At the Oxbow we photographed a pair of Buffalo Head Ducks,

and just before leaving the park, another grizzly bear! One of our new set of images this year is to try to photograph the face of the bear to look for scars from fights. This would allow us to identify bears that do not have tags. We were not the first ones to spot the sleeping grizzly bear. It was so well camouflaged that we had to have it pointed out(see top photograph). There were quite a few cars parked, an obvious bear jam. Do you see it in the photograph? As it woke up the shape of its head became visible

and it was obvious as it walked out of the thick brush on all fours.

Comparing it with other pictures of Bruno and Bear number 610, we were able to eliminate both from the facial scars and chewed up ears. It maybe one of the three subadults 610 released last year.

If so 610 could emerge with a new coy, (cub of the year. However last year was a poor berry year and so she may have not been able to implant any fetuses/zygptes.

Time will tell. Clear skies

National Elk Refuge

After the bear encounter, we returned two days later and found out the road had been closed, (due to bear activity). After a day of laundry, we decided to head over to the National Elk Refuge, just outside Jackson. It was the earliest we have ever been there and the Bighorn Sheep still had on their winter coats, (later in May they will be shedding and will look mangy. As the Bighorn Rams descended the steep mountainside, two of the rams decided to butt heads.

Two more cars with photographers showed up and started to point out things we were missing. There were five coyotes, an elk that had been killed the night before by wolves, and lots of ravens. Renita had heard howling the night before,

We never saw the wolves, they had already left, and the coyotes moved in ate their full and were followed by a flock of ravens.

Soon after the ravens began feeding, three bald eagles decided it was their turn, and they claimed the carcass for the rest of the day.

One fed while the other two watched and waited for their turn.

One of the other photographers pointed out a coyote on the hillside.

It stood up and snuck down the mountain, spotting three resting bighorns. The wind shifted and the sheep detected the danger.

The larger sheep stood up, facing the coyote, which promptly decided the bighorns horns were too dangerous and wandered away. Finding a lone bighorn on a rock face the coyote moved towards it until the sheep ran down the hill and joined a large group of other rams.

Things finally settled down and so we took a short walk, our first exercise since we left the Texas Coastal Bend. It had been a great day, and we headed into Jackson for a bit of grocery shopping. Clear skies

Bruno, A huge Grizzly Bear in Grand Teton National Park

Our first day in Grand Teton National Park and we encountered the largest Grizzly Bear we have seen at GTNP (we saw a larger brown bear in Alaska). The bear was on a walkabout to the south and didn’t seem to care about the photographers.

While some stuck their bodies out to take pictures we drove ahead and tried to maintain a safe distance.

At one point the bear walked next to our car and I could hear the snow crunching from its footfalls, (windows were up, car was running and we tried not to antagonize him). We could also see the ice crystals being dislodged as it strolled along at a fast and steady pace.

As he passed our car, he glanced at us and not losing a step kept walking. The bear is a big boar, (male), and we think it is the one named Bruno. It’s the first time we have ever seen Bruno and we are glad it was not on one of our hikes.

We left Texas earlier than we ever had hoping for pictures of a bear in the snow.

Notice the claws! Clear skies and remember I am using a 600 mm telephoto lens.

The Petrified Wood Museum, Ogallala, Nebraska Making a Stone Butterfly

The Petrified Wood Museum, in Ogallala Nebraska, exemplifies, the lapindary work of Howard and Harvey Kenfield. They were Masters of Lapidary Art and took their skills to another level. They collected petrified wood from around Western North America, and developed techniques to make petrified wood artwork.

The artwork included making petrified wood music boxes and three dimensional picture art. The theme of the work included stone churches, stone houses, stone outhouses, and stone buildings reduced to scale. In addition, they also made butterflies out of various natural colored agates.

The Museum not only shows pieces from their huge collection of petrified wood but also includes agates from the western United States. One unique feature in the Museum is the display of how to make the stone structures and stone butterflies, (or at least the brothers techniques). In an earlier visit I decided to attempt to make a stone house, and the results were less than stellar. In fact, my building looked like something a three-year-old would make, so I dismantled it telling myself that some day I would do better.

This visit I paid close attention to the brothers step-by-step approach. I decided that first I will try to make a butterfly with various gemstones for the wings, body, and other parts. The equipment necessary is in my shop and I certainly have lots of beautiful rocks, just waiting to be cut, shaped and polished. The challenge of couse is to find the time, as in retirement I have discovered that there is simply not enough time to do everything I want to do. No rocking chair for me! No doubt unforeseen problems will arise, plans will demand change, and delicate pieces will break. Now if my health will just hold…… Clear skies

Ps I f you ever find yourself traveling interstate 80 across Nebraska, stop and enjoy the free Petrified Wood Museum, (this is our third time we have studied the lifetime works of the two bothers)

Spring Migration, it’s time to head North

Winter is long over and its getting hot and humid in South Texas on the Coastal Bend.. Too much for us Winter Texans so the Northward Migration is in full blast. Earlier a group of friends from Oklahoma left and now the rest of them are leaving.

We gathered to watch our friends go and the first to leave were a couple from South Dakota, Doug and Maureen. The Happy Hours Cat, Susie also watched, (she is a feral cat that allows us to per her!)

There was a short delay as the next couple had to remove their state flag, Colorado, from their rear view mirror, but Kenny figured it out, (it was all in good fun as his fishing buddy, we won’t mention Bill’s name, from Michigan admitted the prank).

Next to head north were friends from Oklahoma, Lynn and Bobby, Joyce, and Ed and Marsha. Most of their Oklahoma contingent had already left. Finally, Pam and Roy, Renita’s sister and her husband Roy started their four-day drive to Iowa where they work as campground hosts in one of our favorite county parks.

The park was emptying, and the next day we joined the exodus along with our friends Dan and Barb. They are fulltimers, stopping for a birding week at High Island Texas, before trips to Alabama and Tennessee. We don’t pull our fifth wheel anymore, but have it stored twenty miles from the Gulf of Mexico’s Coast, hoping to avoid any possible hurricane damage. We are traveling further than anyone else with a migration of over nineteen hundred miles. As I am writing this, we are staying in a motel in Ogallala, Nebraska, watching snowflakes welcome us back to the North, (we see snowflakes in May and June at our home in Star Valley, Wyoming, (we live at 6200 feet in elevation). Tired and sore from four days of driving we are going to spend a couple of nights here before we get back on the road. This gives us time to visit a couple of rock shops! One can never have enough rocks, (it’s a safer investment than the current stock market) Clear skies Ps RVers never say goodbye but instead like to say, “See you down the road!”

This Winters Last Gathering, A Free breakfast

We had managed to accumulate a small amount of money from our Monday Morning meetings, Sunday Ice Crean Socials, and a small amount from the Valentines Day Dinner. Not wanting any left over money we decided to hold a Free Breakfast. The menu was to be pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, with milk added, fruit cup, coffee, tea, and Sunny delight orange drink. Our friend John, who organized many of the breakfast gatherings, gave us a suggested menu and its cost per person. He also suggested how to cook large quantities of food for our gathering. Putting up a signup sheet we ended up with sixty people, including many who never attended a potluck or other social events. At the next Monday Morning meeting we asked for volunteers and were happy when so many volunteered.

Dan cooked the eggs, Barb, the pancakes and hall set up

, and Marsha led the fruit cup crew chopping fruit filling the fruit cups and pouring the orange juice. I ended up also flipping pancakes and we had several assistant chefs.

Mean while Maurine prepared the batter and

Doug cracked and mixed the eggs and milk, and Sherry, Shelly, Betty, Rhonda, Diana and others sliced up the fruit and poured the orange juice,

(my apologies to those I missed naming). Breakfast was served from 9-10 am and the Recreation Hall was crowded! We barely kept up with the pancakes but survived the onslaught and even ended up with a few extra pancakes. We ended up serving fifty-six people at a total cost of about one hundred and forty dollars, which came out to two dollars and fifty cents per person. Thanks for all who volunteered and everyone involved! Today, some have already left, and most are leaving very soon. As rver’s we don’t say goodbye, but we simply say see you down the road! Clear skies and safe travels

A Blue Lagoons happy hour fish fry.

Each Year we have a fish fry. These fish fries have been going on for at least twenty-three years. This year was harder to plan as we didn’t catch enough fish, at least for a while. Finally, nine different fisher people, (men and women), had just enough fish so that we could feed the twenty-four people in our happy hour group.

Dave and Jane always host the event, and we hold it in an empty space in the rv park. Dave prepares the fish, with very little help from me, and then he sets up his deep frier and I shake the fish in his special coating, (it took eight years before I was promoted to be the official shaker).

Meanwhile Jane and others set up tables with covers and filled them with each persons dish. Denny always does the beans, Barb bakes bread, and Renita makes a sugar free coleslaw,(low carb of course). Then when the last of the fish are fried, dinner is announced and after a short prayer the line forms. As always, we barely had enough fish to feed the hungry group, (twenty-five or so), and no one leaves hungry. That’s one of the many feeds we put on in our rv park. Spending the winter here allows us to make friends from all over. In the first picture are people from South Dakota, Michigan,(both trolls and Uppers), Illinois, Wyoming, Colorado, Iowa, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, and Minnesota. Thanks to Jane and Dave for planning and hosting the event!