Yellowstone Adventure - Day 104

  Got up early today because I wanted to get to my hiking trail before the tourists took up all the parking spaces. The trail was named beaver ponds trail and it was located in Mammoth Hot Springs. So I ate a good breakfast and loaded the backpack into the car and headed down the road.
  Not too far down the road I stopped because a pack of coyotes were feeding on something next to the road. They did not run of when I stopped next to them and rolled my window down. I took a few pictures and a video of the three. It seems they do not like to share as one had control over something and was eating and would not let the other two at it until he had his mouth full. Very interesting.
  I continued down the road and noted that the smoke was thicker from the fire over the mountain from Old Faithful. The wind changed in the night because I smelled smoke in my room last night several times.  The drive to Mammoth was pretty uneventful except for the twenty minute stop for road construction. The park is repairing and expanding the road between Norris Geyser basin and Mammoth Hot Springs. So traffic is stopped for maximum half hour waiting for a pilot car to take them through. I hear that around September 9 the road will be closed to all traffic while they do a great big push to get the work done before the snow hits.
   Speaking of snow. I noticed on my drive that the park has started to put in the snow poles around the park. These poles are placed at the edges of the road and around all pullouts. They are around fifteen feet tall and used by the snow removal crew as markers of where the road is when they have to plow as the snows get pretty deep around here in the winter.  Without them the snow removal crew would not know where the road is under the piles of snow and may accidentally plow up trees or guard rails.
   I made it to Mammoth around nine and was pleasantly surprised that parking was available across the road from the beaver ponds trail head. I chose this trail as my last hike because the guide book said it was no longer than seven miles and was only moderate in hardness rating. Supposedly it only increased three hundred feet in elevation. 
  I got the backpack on and attached the bear spray. Grabbed my hiking stick and headed to the bathroom, because every good hiker knows to get your business done before heading on a long hike. :) After the morning constitutional I headed for the trail. Much to my dismay two ladies were mounting horses and heading up the trail ahead of me. I thought great dodging horse poop all morning. I let them get going ahead of me and started on the trail. The trail basically started to increase in altitude right from the start as I think most of the three hundred foot increase in altitude was in the first mile of the trail. Which I think was good in that at the start I have much more energy than having to climb at the end of the hike. After several switch backs, and yes horse poop to dodge, the trail finally leveled out and headed north. I was greatly relieved to see that when the trail came to a crossroad of another mountain trail that the ladies on horses took the ten mile mountain trail. So I was finally alone on the trail and without the noise of the horses and their tack I could have a better chance of seeing some animals.
  The trail went through woods and valleys as it winded it's way to the beaver ponds. Topping a ridge I went off trail to get some great views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. I definitely picked the right trail to end my Yellowstone hiking with. I took several pictures of the surrounding area and some videos to upload to Facebook as I hiked through the area. The smoke was still in the area from the fire up north and that sort of diminished the picture, but still great views all around.  After another mile or two I entered some woods and heard the distinctive sound of running water. Sure enough I came to a log bridge and was standing over a creek that fed into the first of many beaver ponds. I cannot believe that water is still running in the creek when we have not had any significant rain for a couple of months. I guess this is still snow melt and when I felt the water it was ice cold. I passed over that bridge and soon came to another bridge with another creek running into another beaver pond. I guess there are still beaver in the area but I did not see any. I did see the evidence of their existence on several trees that were down in the forest though. I would imagine that when Jim Coulter and other mountain men came through the area that they were thick in number and trapping was probably very good then.
  After about a quarter mile I came to the biggest pond and the trail just circled around it before heading back, as this was a loop trail. Rounding the other end of the pond I spotted several ducks in the water. They quacked at my presence, but still no beavers in sight.  Just about to the end of the pond the trail headed to a nice man made one log bridge. I did not go over it at first as I wanted to head down the creek spilling from the pond and explore a little. I saw a lot of animal poop here and when I rounded a rock there on the ground was a very big bleached out skull. I could only guess but I think it was an elk. I took a picture of it and will ask one of the people back at the dorm their opinion.  
   Returning back to the log bridge I crossed over and noticed at little memorial stone next to the trail and about three feet up in a bush. I got closer and the stone read "C S 7-7-38 to 5-3-15 Wanna B" followed by a picture of a dove. Above the stone hanging in the bush was a blue bird ornament. Don't know what to make of the memorial but I did not disturb it out of respect, but took a picture of it to show co-workers who may know what it is all about.
  The trail headed up in altitude exiting the forest and started to head south back to Mammoth. The route took me close to the canyon where people exiting the park headed north. The views were spectacular and that made the hike back really enjoyable. I looked at my watch and debated about having lunch there but decided I was not hungry yet. I headed down the trail and completed the hike in a little under three hours. The end of the trail came out right behind the Mammoth hotel and I walked down the street to the Mammoth general store, which is owned by Delaware North also. I used my employee discount and purchased and ice cold coke. I looked around the store and it was much smaller than ours but filled with the same tourist junk. 
  Leaving the store I headed to my car. I unloaded the backpack and changed into a dry shirt. I decided to head south to see the Hayden Valley for one last time. On the way to the valley I pulled off to a nice mountain overlook and had my PB&J lunch. Looking across the valley and the Yellowstone River I noticed two small fires on top of the mountain. Small tindrels of smoke were coming off of them. I wondered if the park knew about them. 
  After lunch I headed to Hayden Valley and the first thing I noticed was that there were no buffalo at all in the valley and I did not have any stop me on the road. There were hundreds in the valley two weeks ago. Traveling down the road I had the Yellowstone River on my left. Ahead were several people with telescopes and binoculars, so I decided to join them and see what was up. I also noticed a park ranger in the group. Luckily there was a parking space right next to an elderly couple with a telescope. I grabbed my binoculars and exited the car. I looked in the direction their telescopes were pointing and sure enough across the Yellowstone River was a grizzly bear head down and feeding on something. There were also buzzards around him. I asked the elderly lady what was up and she told me that early this morning a pack of wolves took down an elk. The wolves fed on it for a couple of hours and then the grizzly showed up and took control of the kill. I thought nature at its finest for sure. So I sat on the curb and watched the grizzly tear at the elk and every once in awhile shoo away a buzzard who got too close. The lady asked if I wanted to get a close up view using their telescope. I said "Sure that would be great and thank you." I stepped up to the telescope and looked into it. Man it brought that grizzly up close and personal. I could not only see the elk carcass but I could see the claws of that bear holding the elk down while it's teeth pulled at the meat of the elk. While I watched the bears head went deep into that carcass and moved side to side until it came up with a mighty tug and low and behold I watched as it pulled a complete rib bone out of that carcass. He dropped it to the ground and placed his paw on it and proceed to pull the meat off that bone. I let out an "Oh man!" The lady asked me what I saw and I told her. She laughed and said "They are certainly strong and hungry." I thanked her again and went to talk to the ranger. The ranger was a young man who was assigned to this spot to keep tourist from approaching the river. He told me to turn around and look. I did and there was the smoke from the central fire that I saw yesterday from the store. I told him that looks bigger than yesterday as the smoke was billowing very high. He said that the fire had consumed around a thousand acres already. The park still had not done anything to put it out and he said they won't until it gets bigger or heads to populated areas. I wished him well on his guard duty and headed to the car. I thanked the elderly lady and gentleman again for letting me use their telescope and piled into the car.
  I headed back to the dorm hoping to get some laundry done before dinner.  I am writing this watching the Cubs play the pirates. Hoping for an easier win than yesterday. Well that is about all for today. An exciting day for sure and a good way to end my hiking in Yellowstone. Tomorrow I will be heading to Big Springs to see some sights. Take care you all and be nice to one another.