Rainbows and Sunsets

Work, as to be expected, has been less than excellent, but I'm finally starting to settle in. It's so much easier now that everyone is here and that I have some friends back from last season. I can't wait for when we finally have our weekends lined up so that we can start doing longer hikes and backpacks. I miss sleeping under the stars. 

On Tuesday, Haileigh, Daniel, Max, and I went fishing in Lamar. There is a spot where a stream comes into the Yellowstone River, and the trout leave the river here to spawn upstream. I didn't fish, but the other three caught something like fifteen fish between them.  It started raining lightly, and I looked up to see the brightest rainbow I've ever seen. It turned to a double, and it lasted probably twenty minutes. I'm used to rainbows in Arizona that last a minute or two before fading. 

Double Rainbow, Lamar Valley, 5/30/17.

After work on Thursday, Daniel, Paul and his roommate Adam, and I decided to drive out towards Tower and Lamar to see if we could find something to do. As we were driving, Paul pointed out a super steep hill that looked nearly impossible to climb. Daniel pulled over, and we all got out. It was probably the steepest hike that I've done in the park, but it was thankfully only about a quarter mile up. The view from the top was stellar. We could see the canyon that the river carves near Tower Falls and out to Lamar Valley. We sat up there and watched the light start to fade. Daniel was using binoculars to look across the canyon, and we saw a bear run into the tree line. It was a tan color, so I thought it was a grizzly, but Daniel said it looked like a cinnamon black bear through the binoculars. We waited for it to come out of the tree line, but it never did. We left soon after so that we could get back to the car before the sun set. 

A subpar shot from the hill, (maybe Thunderer Mountain), 6/1/17. 

I was off yesterday, so Haileigh, Columbian Daniel, and I went to Bozeman. On the drive back, we saw a yearling black bear right on the side of the road, munching on grass. We stopped and took some pictures, then as we were driving away, we saw another black bear further back from the road. We didn't stop to look at it though since it was too far away. When we got to Dunraven Pass, the sunset was too pretty not to stop. We missed the best color by just a minute, but it was still gorgeous.

Yearling black bear near Tower Falls, 6/2/17.

Sunset from Dunraven Pass, 6/2/17. 

Haileigh got off work super early today, so we're gonna find something to do this afternoon. 

My animal count is now up to 6 grizzlies (two female, two male, and two cubs), five black bears (a mom with cubs, one adult in the distance, and one single yearling), one bear who was either a grizzly or a cinnamon black bear, 7 big horn sheep (one male, six female), a bull moose, two swans (a mating pair), two ospreys and chicks (from pretty far away), a bald eagle, and the usual countless elk and bison.