We made it back in pretty much one piece (except for a pair of sunglasses). We were gone for 7 weeks , put about 8K miles on the truck, and most all of our adventures were in Wyoming. Originally, we had planned to go to Yellowstone National Park and at some point in the planning process the trip morphed into a camping/fishing/wildlife viewing/rockhounding trip with a stop at Yellowstone. I’m really glad we added in the rockhounding part, since it gave us something to do at a fairly low elevation to warm up and to break up the higher elevation parts of the trip.
It was a little hectic around here in May with packing and turkey season, but we got out the door on the scheduled date of May 15th. Turkey season was a little slow, but I did kill a couple birds, so that was good.
Our first stop was to see the Greater Prairie Chickens dance. It was a little late in the season, but we did have a good show at daybreak and probably saw between 2 and 3 dozen birds on the lek.
Prairie Chicken at daybreak (it is darker than the picture looks)…
Pair of Northern Shoveler dropping into a pothole…
Little Truck on the Prairie…
Our camp on the grassland…
Truck and coach ready to go further West…
COCKBIRD!!!
View of the rig from the Bear Lodge fire tower. It was more fun driving up to the tower than turning around once there…
After that we headed to Devil’s Tower National Monument…
Rig at Powder River Pass of the Bighorn Mountains, WY - elevation is 9666…
Our camp South of Tensleep (little white rectangle on lower left).
Collecting plant fossils south of Tensleep. The plants that formed the fossils were buried by a mudslide of volcanic ash. The detail is amazing…
Thunder/Hailstorm made for particularly slipperly gumbo and an exciting race to camp…
We camped along Boulder Lake for a few days waiting out a big storm that was pushing across WY with high winds and snow…
Our camp was on the little bay to the rear and right…
The snow that we were avoiding fell a couple nights in the higher elevations…
Gus wanted to catch a big Rainbow. I was glad when it was in the net…
Rainbow was promptly released…
Ever since I was a kid I’d always wanted to catch a Grayling…
The Grayling were hitting well and we boated a couple dozen - Jen was high hook for the day and Gus caught his first as well…
From Boulder Lake we were headed to Yellowstone for a few days. One of the goals of the trip was to get Gus to see the animals of the West and over the course of the trip we did really well. Yellowstone was pretty good for animals, but we saw a lot of animals outside the park and that was cool.
Grizzly with cubs…
Elk…
Bighorn ewe with lamb…
Everyone loves Bison, they are easier to see then Bighorns too…
Black Bear
A typical creek in Yellowstone…
I was excited to see a Badger…
Awww - baby Bison…
This cow chased the dogs and I into the coach, she had a calf nearby…
From Yellowstone we went to Green River Lakes and stayed a few nights. Camp along the Green River…
Green River. Snipe were winnowing nightly in marshes along margins…
Lower Green River Lake is scenic enough, I guess…
Importance of a good net man can’t be over stated…
The Rainbows were holding on one stump along the river channel of the inlet, I got a half dozen cookie-cutter Rainbows like this one off the same stump. Note moose in background…
Were able to pick through and get a nice dinner of little ones...
From Green River Lakes we went to Big Sandy Reservoir to collect petrified wood and algae. Collecting fossilized algae…
Gus with a Horny Toad…
You never know when you might need a canoe…
Collecting petrified wood…
Tailgate shot. We got a triple limit that day…
Fetching the dogs. I checked the water temp first…
From there we went to Kemmerer to dig fossil fish. This stop was very worth doing and anyone with a kid into fossils should do it. You can’t collect vertebrate fossils on public land, so if you want to collect them, you need to pay a quarry.
Camp on the Ham Fork Plateau...
Jen splitting rock for fossils in the quarry…
Tailgate shot…
Scale of a Gar…
Part of a rib cage…
Herring…
Rig at fossil fish quarry…
Rig and dogs camped near McKinnon…
Camp on Delaney Ridge near Wamsutter, WY…
View from camp…
The elusive Black Turritella of Wamsutter (it is actually a really cool rock made up of fossil shells)…
Everyone loves to watch the wildlife…
Jen with a prize specimen…
Solar powered oil well…
If you get a chance to ride a Jackalope, you don’t pass it up.
Camp at Fish Lake…
Pretty enough lake…
Jen with one of many Cutthroats
Good population of Brookies in this creek, some made the trip back to CT to go with our Spring Peas…
Needed some bacon to stretch the fish that day…
Lily lake, our last real camp of the trip (camp at right)…
About the prettiest Brookie I’ve caught…
Along Beartooth Pass at 11,000 feet…
Alpine flowers along the Beartooth Highway…
This will work for my driveway…
To end the large mammal quest, we did finally see some Mountain Goats (center of picture)…
Anyway, a good trip… saw a lot of stuff, caught some fish, found some cool rocks and fossils and generally were successful in getting off the beaten path…
It was a little hectic around here in May with packing and turkey season, but we got out the door on the scheduled date of May 15th. Turkey season was a little slow, but I did kill a couple birds, so that was good.
Our first stop was to see the Greater Prairie Chickens dance. It was a little late in the season, but we did have a good show at daybreak and probably saw between 2 and 3 dozen birds on the lek.
Prairie Chicken at daybreak (it is darker than the picture looks)…
Pair of Northern Shoveler dropping into a pothole…
Little Truck on the Prairie…
Our camp on the grassland…
Truck and coach ready to go further West…
COCKBIRD!!!
View of the rig from the Bear Lodge fire tower. It was more fun driving up to the tower than turning around once there…
After that we headed to Devil’s Tower National Monument…
Rig at Powder River Pass of the Bighorn Mountains, WY - elevation is 9666…
Our camp South of Tensleep (little white rectangle on lower left).
Collecting plant fossils south of Tensleep. The plants that formed the fossils were buried by a mudslide of volcanic ash. The detail is amazing…
Thunder/Hailstorm made for particularly slipperly gumbo and an exciting race to camp…
We camped along Boulder Lake for a few days waiting out a big storm that was pushing across WY with high winds and snow…
Our camp was on the little bay to the rear and right…
The snow that we were avoiding fell a couple nights in the higher elevations…
Gus wanted to catch a big Rainbow. I was glad when it was in the net…
Rainbow was promptly released…
Ever since I was a kid I’d always wanted to catch a Grayling…
The Grayling were hitting well and we boated a couple dozen - Jen was high hook for the day and Gus caught his first as well…
From Boulder Lake we were headed to Yellowstone for a few days. One of the goals of the trip was to get Gus to see the animals of the West and over the course of the trip we did really well. Yellowstone was pretty good for animals, but we saw a lot of animals outside the park and that was cool.
Grizzly with cubs…
Elk…
Bighorn ewe with lamb…
Everyone loves Bison, they are easier to see then Bighorns too…
Black Bear
A typical creek in Yellowstone…
I was excited to see a Badger…
Awww - baby Bison…
This cow chased the dogs and I into the coach, she had a calf nearby…
From Yellowstone we went to Green River Lakes and stayed a few nights. Camp along the Green River…
Green River. Snipe were winnowing nightly in marshes along margins…
Lower Green River Lake is scenic enough, I guess…
Importance of a good net man can’t be over stated…
The Rainbows were holding on one stump along the river channel of the inlet, I got a half dozen cookie-cutter Rainbows like this one off the same stump. Note moose in background…
Were able to pick through and get a nice dinner of little ones...
From Green River Lakes we went to Big Sandy Reservoir to collect petrified wood and algae. Collecting fossilized algae…
Gus with a Horny Toad…
You never know when you might need a canoe…
Collecting petrified wood…
Tailgate shot. We got a triple limit that day…
Fetching the dogs. I checked the water temp first…
From there we went to Kemmerer to dig fossil fish. This stop was very worth doing and anyone with a kid into fossils should do it. You can’t collect vertebrate fossils on public land, so if you want to collect them, you need to pay a quarry.
Camp on the Ham Fork Plateau...
Jen splitting rock for fossils in the quarry…
Tailgate shot…
Scale of a Gar…
Part of a rib cage…
Herring…
Rig at fossil fish quarry…
Rig and dogs camped near McKinnon…
Camp on Delaney Ridge near Wamsutter, WY…
View from camp…
The elusive Black Turritella of Wamsutter (it is actually a really cool rock made up of fossil shells)…
Everyone loves to watch the wildlife…
Jen with a prize specimen…
Solar powered oil well…
If you get a chance to ride a Jackalope, you don’t pass it up.
Camp at Fish Lake…
Pretty enough lake…
Jen with one of many Cutthroats
Good population of Brookies in this creek, some made the trip back to CT to go with our Spring Peas…
Needed some bacon to stretch the fish that day…
Lily lake, our last real camp of the trip (camp at right)…
About the prettiest Brookie I’ve caught…
Along Beartooth Pass at 11,000 feet…
Alpine flowers along the Beartooth Highway…
This will work for my driveway…
To end the large mammal quest, we did finally see some Mountain Goats (center of picture)…
Anyway, a good trip… saw a lot of stuff, caught some fish, found some cool rocks and fossils and generally were successful in getting off the beaten path…
