Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces

Hike into the bowels of the Clark’s Fork Canyon

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Leslie

We are going to hike into that canyon in the photo below. From this photo you can see the mighty Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone, the only wild and scenic river in Wyoming, un-runnable.

To the left you can make out Sunlight falls, where Sunlight creek meets the great river. What you can’t see is that just in front of the falls is Dead Indian creek running into the river as well, almost at the same spot but not as a falls.

Some day I’m going to take a raft down to the river and paddle upstream to that meeting place, but the Clark’s Fork needs to be slow and low.

Clark’s Fork Canyon

There are a few trails down there from above, most fairly treacherous or extremely steep. The best runs near Dead Indian Creek from the road. There used to be signage with the mileage but someone took that down. Its four miles to the river, but its the last 3/4 mile that’s straight down.

ANother shot of the canyon. See the little person to the middle right

Its an all day slog, and take water because there is none until you reach the canyon. Even though it wasn’t incredibly hot, the dog was panting heavily and needed the extra water I took for him.

That’s because its a fairly exposed hike. And plan to go in mid-August when the river is slower, take a lunch and chill…

Looking downriver

Looking upriver

Chillin’

The hike out is not welcome after the great rest at the river. Another alternative is to shuttle, leave a car at the mouth near Clark and hike down from the Sunlight Road. Someday I plan to hike an inflatable raft down there and spend a few days exploring upriver.

Filed under: Cody Environs | Tagged: Clarks Fork Canyon, Wyoming | 12 Comments »

Windy Mountain

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Leslie

The hike to Windy is not long, but an uphill climb. You can drive the 4 wheel dirt road to a parking area, which cuts out a few miles. But for some reason I hadn’t yet hiked to the top…either there was still snow, or it was too hot, or the bears were using it in the fall. There’s still White Bark Pines that are living up there and its bear area when the nuts are ripe.

But finally after 5 years I made the trek. The view is a great 360 and that’s why there used to be a fire lookout there.

Foundations of old lookout tower

The Beartooths still had snow on them.

Beartooths

The most wonderful highlight of this hike, aside from the views, is the old outhouse. Try imagining going to the bathroom here! I wouldn’t even get close, though for the ranger there was no clean-up!

Outhouse on cliff edge!

Another view

An old crude telephone line still had the poles standing. Its really quite a ‘hump’ to the top so I can imagine the pack horses carrying all this stuff up there, including the concrete. Probably built by the CCC I would guess (when just about all the country infrastructure was built). A surveyor’s marker from the 30’s said ‘Do not remove or there’s a $500 fine’. That’s a lot of money then.

Old telephone line poles

Telephone line into the distance

Although the map shows a clear trail leading north into another drainage called Reef Creek, the trail was not visible on the way up. I’ve been trying to find that route from the Reef Creek side so I kept my eyes open. There was no clear trail, but by bushwhacking a bit, we found the link and several hundred feet away a trail opened up. I’ll be hiking that this fall!

Filed under: Cody Environs | 1 Comment »

Yellowstone adventures and a close call

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Leslie

I came back a few weeks ago from an advanced tracking class with Jim Halfpenny in Gardiner. But before the class, I spent a day and an evening hiking around the Park.

Tuesday late afternoon called for a trek up Mt. Washburn, which I’d never done. They say if you only have time for one hike, Mt. Washburn is your ticket. Its a great view for sure of the Yellowstone volcano, but what’s more impressive is that during the ice age only 30,000 years ago, Mt. Washburn was the only land not covered with glaciers from there to the Tetons. The hike is not far but a good uphill and the alpine wildflowers were impressive. A group descending came bye and told me to watch for a grizzly they’d seen near the summit.

View from Mt. Washburn of the Yellowstone caldera

Polemonium

Pedicularis

Gentian close-up

At the top, a ranger is stationed and there’s a free telescope for viewing (Wow, something actually free!).

Wednesday morning after camping at Mammoth, I headed up past the Golden Gate looking for a nice dayhike. I thought I’d do Solfatara Creek. I parked at the isolated trailhead. Not my favorite kind of trail presented itself. An ’88 burn area, the trail was thick on both sides with young lodgepoles so tight you can’t move nor see ahead. Essentially, these kinds of trails are like tunnels and I don’t like them because if you come upon a bear there’s no where to go.

I decided to try the trail and see if it opened up. If it didn’t, I’d find another to hike. Sure enough, after about 700 yards, the trail opened to meadow and an unburned forest. As I approached the hot springs of Solfatara Creek, the trail showed lots of fresh bear sign. The creek was a beautiful and unusual greenish-blue, warm, slow water, but the mosquitos were thick. Between the bugs and the bear scat, which was thickening in tune with the mosquitos, I decided that since I was hiking alone I’d prefer to find another trail, one more open and less buggy.

I retraced my steps and when I got to the meadows, I noticed a troop of rangers off trail looking like they were doing some kind of vegetation studies. I figured they must have come through the ‘tunnel’ that was approaching, so maybe they’d scared off any bears. But just in case, as I always do when I can’t see well in front of me, I took my bear spray out of its holster, uncapped it, and held it in my right hand as I came through the trees.

About halfway through the forest, I came around a corner almost directly into a lone bison bull rubbing its horns on a sapling. I watched for a moment while debating where to go to get out of its way. He was coming my direction and I was headed towards him. If I went backwards from whence I came, I’d be stuck in the narrow thicket of trees on the trail in his way. I couldn’t slip pass him. Beside me was a teeny, tiny clearing of about 5′ square. I moved as far as I could into the clearing. He began to trot on the trail past me, but just at the last second he changed his mind and decided to charge me. At only about 6′ away, he lowered his head; his horns now directly facing my chest. Instinctively, I sprayed him with the bear spray I’d luckily been carrying unhinged and uncapped.

Immediately he made a right turn and trotted off down the trail, swinging his head side to side since his eyes were stinging. I left the trail, totally beefed up on adrenaline and thanking my lucky stars that it wasn’t my day to die. Bison scar me way more than bears as I feel they are much more unpredictable, way more dangerous, and definitely not as smart. This guy didn’t seem threatened by me. For him, it was more like I was challenging him, offering him a chance to have a sparing match. An old lone bull like him is a cranky old man.

Lone bison but not my bison

Grizzly lake, my destination after Solfaterre

On the way back to Mammoth, I got stuck in a bear jam. Two black bears were feeding on one side of the road and decided to cross over. What amazed me wasn’t the bears, but that people got out of their cars and ran as fast as they could towards the bears, getting as close as they dared to take photos. Luckily these bears were used to people, but not all bears in the park are that amenable.

Guy in the white T shirt on left is almost right on the bear

In this one you can see the bear and the lady in front not even paying attention!

Halfpenny always leads a fabulous class, highly recommended. The mornings were spent in the classroom and the tracking museum. He has a fantastic collection of plaster casts and other assorted items to help you to learn to track. The afternoons were spent in the field. Here is a track of a badger of which I made a cast. The upper left hand corner contains a coyote track as a bonus.

Badger track (coyote track upper left). Notice long claws

Young bull moose

Filed under: Yellowstone National Park | Tagged: Bears, Buffalo, Jim Halfpenny, Mt. Washburn, Yellowstone National Park | 8 Comments »

The Chipping Sparrow

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Leslie

Several days ago I went to a little spot near my house and sat underneath a Douglas Fir. It was a random choice, but in a few minutes I noticed a tiny nest on a low branch. As I watched, mom and dad Chipping Sparrow were taking turns feeding three very tiny newborns. I’ve been going there everyday for the past four days, sitting under the tree for about an hour, watching those good parents bring in food.

Mom feeding babies first days

Those babies are always hungry and their parents seem haggard. I’ve gone at random times of the day, and the parents spend their whole time catching food and bringing it in.

Close up of hungry baby, almost hairless

Newborn sparrow

How much they they’ve grown in such a short time! On the first day they were ugly little half-bald things, and now they look like almost grown chipping sparrows (without the typical coloration yet).

Chick

Four days later, how much he's grown

Besides these sparrows, I’ve been watching a robin sitting everyday on her nest in the corners of my home and a bluebird mom in one of my boxes. It makes me think: human mothers that are neglectful or unfit should be made to spend a few seasons watching, everyday for hours in the spring, these birds and how they care for their young. They are good and tireless parents and perfect models.

Filed under: Chipping Sparrow | Tagged: Chipping Sparrow, Sparrow babies | 4 Comments »

Coyote as Creator

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Leslie

Several weeks ago, while botanizing, I noticed a dead-end steep drainage with a series of picturesque hoodoos. It drew me and I decided to hike up and explore. The drainage was thin and narrow with steep sides, so I was following up the bottom. Although the nearby creek was full of run-off, this little tributary was dry yet there was vegetation as well as a series of downed dead trees.

As I rounded a curve, about six small balls of furry things ran quickly across the drainage for cover. What were they? Too big for marmots or squirrels and the wrong color, not moving like rabbits, it took me a moment to wipe my eyes and decide what I was seeing. Pups! Yes. And they were just the cutest things you’ve ever seen, scurrying back to their den for cover. One little guy got caught up in some dead branches and was trying hard to get over them.

Area around den. A perfect spot

I paused for a moment when they had disappeared, thankful their parents were nowhere in sight because I had the dog with me. Koda was a good boy. He saw their fluffy things and, in his curiosity, wanted to investigate but he obeyed and kept close by me. I retreated from the area right away, worried about their parents returning, the dog and my smell causing their parents to move to another den site.

These pups, from a URL, are about the same size as what I saw

O.K., I said to myself, were they wolf pups or coyote pups? It all happened so fast, but as I thought it through I realized they were all the same tawny brown color, a definite sign they were coyotes, and I guessed they were about 5 or 6 weeks old, just by having been around dog puppies enough to discern their bodies and skill set.

Interesting, with the late spring and all the snow this winter, everything is late. Two years ago on Mother’s Day, early May, I saw some coyote pups that looked about 12 weeks old. And here it was late June, and these little guys were only 6 weeks old.

Coyote pup mother's day 2009

A few days ago I ventured back. Coyotes leave their den when their pups are around 8 weeks old and I figured they’d be gone. Just to make sure, I negotiated a route from the back way. Instead of up the drainage, I came from high up on the top of the hillside where I could look at the site from above. I sat for quite a while and glassed the den area. When I was fairly sure there was no activity, I went and explored.

The den

The area right in front of the den, as pictured above, was clean as a whistle. I used my watch and shown some light inside the den. It too was immaculate–no bones or feces. There was another smaller opening nearby, and I understand that coyotes usually have a second entrance. The front entrance was about 12″x 14″. In the drainage directly below, under the debris of downed trees, scads of old bones and feathers lay around, and piles of scat. There were at least 3 deer skulls, but they were so old that I figured this den had been used quite a few times before.

Den in size relation to Koda. He would never be able to enter

I picked through some of the feathers. Songbirds, flickers, an owl and even a red-tail hawk. These parents were good hunters.

As I went on my way to continue searching for plants, I remembered something. Last year I took an early spring hike up this valley with a friend. The main valley goes far and narrows into dense forest with a year-round stream running through it. On our way up, we spied a coyote carrying a deer leg in the direction of this den. Could it have been one of the same parents? It was the right time of year. Maybe I caught a glimpse of the mom or dad.

Phacelia

Filed under: Coyotes | Tagged: Coyote, Coyote den, Coyote pups | 2 Comments »

More BLM thoughts and Jack Turner’s new book

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Leslie

I just love Jack Turner’s writing. He hasn’t written much, but the stuff he does write is great. His easy style of writing weaves a lot of good facts, ecological outrage, and story detail. I’ve just finished his new book “Travels in the Greater Yellowstone”. Each chapter explores a different area of the ecosystem, either with his wife Dana, or sometimes hiking with a friend.

Turner spurred some additional thoughts on my last entry regarding the Big Horn Basin BLM plans. The commissioners in the surrounding counties got together and hired, with our tax dollars, a company to do an analysis of oil and gas in the basin; really paying them to turn out a document that would support what the commissioners want. From the presentation the company gave at the commissioners meeting, they did a good job distorting facts to support massive development as a sound idea. For instance, they had slides of pronghorn and deer around gas wells.

Now for a pertinent comment by Turner in his chapter on the Green River Lakes, where the Jonah and Pinedale gas fields have taken over the Pinedale area:

“What is the status of sage-grouse populations here? As usual, none of the interested parties agree about the numbers–counting is political–but no one denies that this basin is one of the species’ remaining strongholds and that it is suffering plenty. One study suggests that the 1,200 or so sage grouse that live around the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline gas fields will be gone in twenty years. The government, worried sick that Endangered Species listing will radically curtail energy development, has called for a Sagebrush Grouse Summit. Nor is it just the grouse that are a problem. The mule deer population has already declined 46 percent in the area around the Pinedale Anticline field. They are supposed to be protected in the winter by limits on drillings, but the limits are a farce. The energy companies can request exemptions and the BLM grants damn near every one of their requests.”

Turner is my kind of guy. He is no-nonsense blunt when it comes to the environment. For those who are thinking in support of Plan C, the commissioners drilling dream, here’s another wonderful quote:

“So…Wyoming has another energy boom–there have been many. And when the boom collapses–all booms throughout history eventually go bust–the resources and traditions that could have sustained the state for centuries will be gone. Who will want to vacation in a Superfund site?”

That is my bold and for good reason, because our commissioners have forgotten what we love about the Cody area and why people come to visit here. They also seem to have forgotten the amount of revenue that comes from tourists.

Big Horn Mountains looking from the Big Horn Basin

At one time, I was going to buy land in the Pinedale area. This was before the boom. I’d been coming there every summer since 1996. I’d stay at the wonderful Wagon Wheel motel, a tiny place that’s been there forever. The town was just one street with no good restaurants, but a great outdoor equipment store. It was nice and sleepy and I loved it. Jackson was an hour and a half away, through the Hoback Canyon, “a canyon that in any other part of the country would be a national park“. Pinedale reminded me just a little of Jackson in 1972 when I first came to these parts. I could live here, I said to myself.

But then things changed, almost overnight. The next summer I arrived and there was an Americinn, charging $265/night vs. my little motel at $50/night, and all the hotels were booked.

“What is happening here?” I asked. The Jonah field, they said. It was the beginning. From what the townspeople told me, Bush/Cheney more than tripled the amount of lease permits allowed to be issued for drilling per year, pushing them through with little regulations, and nixed the required townhall meetings. That was over seven years ago and back then the townspeople were complaining about the lights to me…”You can see those lights in the oil fields from up in the Wind Rivers”. There’s been a lot of growth since then, so much so that ozone alerts occur regularly in the winter. They have worse smog/ozone in that area than the whole of Los Angeles. Needless to say, I was no longer going to buy property there. I began looking around Cody and the first thing I asked my realtor was about oil/gas development here.

“The oil fields are all old and pretty much maxed out”, he said. What he nor I didn’t consider was new technology and the nation’s thirst for energy.

Last summer I drove, quickly, through Pinedale up from the south on my way back from a trip through Big Sandy in the Winds. Miles of tacky housing fills the once open spaces, probably houses for the workers. The growth in just the last seven years, or degradation of the environment depending upon how you look at it, is amazing.

“Seventy percent of the Wind River lakes that are more than 9,000 feet have low alkalinity levels, hence they are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of oil, gas, and coal-bed methane development upwind in the Green River Basin and Wyoming Range, which will disgorge a cocktail of toxic fumes into the air twenty-four hours a day for the next fifty to hundred years. The Wind River Range and its three crown jewels of America’s wilderness system have the misfortune to be immediately downwind. Air standards already are being violated with only 600 wells in operation–and with 10,000 more planned, pollution can only get worse.”

Our last wild places in the lower 48, where grizzlies can still roam, and pronghorn can still migrate, are being chopped up and compromised. If this is not an outrage, then we are not awake.

Hear ye, Hear ye, Commissioners:

“When people ask what Wyoming should do with those billions of dollars in mineral royalties left over in the budget, I say: Invest them. Future generations in this state are going to need more than billions to clean up their wasteland.”–Jack Turner

Filed under: Cody Environs | Tagged: Big Horn Basin BLM plan, Jack Turner, Pinedale, Wind Rivers | Leave a comment »

An Open Letter to the BLM

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Leslie

I decided to publish my letter to the Bureau of Land Management regarding its draft resource management plan. This is the plan that will determine use for the next 20 YEARS! Twenty years these days is a very long time, and so many changes will happen that are unforseeable.

The Basin is huge, extending from the Shoshone Forest of the Absarokas on the west side to the base of the Big Horn Mountains on the eastern edge, north to the Montana border and south to Thermopolis. Predictably, the commissioners of the surrounding counties of the basin are only interested in $$, what they can put in their coffers right now to grow and develop and that means oil and gas leases. They envision Wyoming as the Saudi Arabia of coal, gas, and oil, with cowboy sheiks. But as Jack Turner so eloquently puts it in ‘Travels in the Greater Yellowstone’:

“Well, I reply, go to Saudi Arabia and take a good look. Saudi Arabia is butt-ugly from energy development. Do you want the Yellowstone country to look that way? I don’t. And I’m not so sure about those cowboy sheiks, either. The energy companies stand accused of bilking the U.S. Treasury out of billions of dollars–that’s our money for developing our resources on our land, and many of those companies are subsidiaries of foreign corporations whose headquarters are in places like Canada and the Barbados.”

Weatherman's draw is a beautiful place. Shall we drill here?

The Bighorn Basin, as part of the Greater Yellowstone, belongs to all of us and our voices need to be heard. We need to preserve the few places left for solitude and natural enjoyments.

Pronghorn migrate and live in the basin. Should we disturb more of their habitat?

I urge everyone, everywhere in the U.S. to give your comments on this plan at this website. Your few minutes could make a difference for the next 20 years.

Tipi rings, as well as other Indian signs, are all over the basin from 10,000 years of habitation

Below is my letter to the BLM:

Bighorn Basin RMP and EIS

Bureau of Land Management

Worland Field Office

P.O. Box 119

Worland, WY 82401

Dear Mr. Hiner,

The Big Horn Basin is one of the most unique and special areas in the lower 48. A traveler can walk the landscape and observe ancient seabed fossils or fossilized bones from extinct animals. A few steps away are arrowheads or petroglyphs from the earliest Americans 10,000 years ago. And within view are herds of pronghorn, elk, and maybe a coyote or wolf or a golden eagle.

The Basin is essential to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It provides migration routes, calving grounds, and a necesssary corridor for resident species to maintain contact with their own kind, ensuring genetic diversity. The Absaroka-Beartooth Front in particular is a critical component of the GYE. This portion of the Ecosystem is predicted to be among the most resilient to climate change given the intact nature of the landscape and its topographic variability.

The future of these lands is at risk in so many ways. Between habitat fragmentation and climate change, real estate development on adjacent lands and overpopulation, we need to ensure that our public lands serve the preservation of the limited amounts of wildlife that are left, most of which are squeezed into the GYE and its corridors.

I have been lucky enough to live in this area and view its abundance, even though, as we all know, so much has been lost over these last 200 years. And that is really the point: What will we do, as a generation, to ensure that no more is lost? What we will do so that our children’s children do not say “You once could see sage grouse mating here, but they are now extinct”?

The Big Horn Basin and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem face great challenges ahead, Climate change is a large Unknown and an unpredictable monkey wrench. Add to that the known factors of endangered or threatened species, plants and animals. With this in mind, Alternative C is a very dangerous and short-sighted plan. Alternative C is all about money. Alternative C values only profit, and what can line someone’s pocket. One cannot put in the bank the emotional and spiritual value of Land, the sense of awe and wonder, and how much it feeds the soul. Oil and gas development over the entire basin will compromise not only our water and air, but fragment habitat through roads and intensive use. We will lose, even if so incrementally that people just forget as a new generation grows up, what we have today. Memory is short, and what scientists call a shifting baseline has already happened in the Basin. We need to return our lands to a previous, more healthy baseline, not degrade it further with an open hand to oil/gas development.

In light of these concerns it seems obvious that Alternative B would provide the best safety factor for the future of the Big Horn Basin. We really do not know what our earth, or this area, will look like in twenty years’ time. We cannot take into account all the rapid changes we’ll encounter. We are losing species at an alarming rate that nobody could have predicted thirty years ago.

In terms of specifics of what is most important to me in the Basin: I spend a lot of time in the winter hiking in the basin, particularly around Oregon Basin and the Badlands of Polecat Bench. In the spring when the area opens up, I love to hike the Absaroka-Beartooth Front, Chapman Bench and the Clark’s Fork. I relish observing the fossils and finding tipi rings. In my day hikes, its now easy to avoid oil/gas development areas. The Absaroka-Beartooth Front MUST be protected as a Management Area (AFMA). Its abundance of wildlife, habitat quality, and scenery are unrivaled. The oil and gas leasing restrictions for this area laid out in Alternative D appear to be impossible to manage given their checker boarded nature. I feel that the best way the BLM can protect the world-class biological and scenic values of the Absaroka-Beartooth Front is by designating the area as unavailable for oil and gas leasing (Record #4080 alternative B). I support the creation of the Clarks Fork Canyon ACEC, as well as the creation of the Chapman Bench ACEC (Record #s 7105-113 and #’s 7084-83 alternative B). These areas are special to me. Alternative B also provides the most protection for sage grouse leks, something the BLM should implement if they are serious about keeping the bird from becoming listed as endangered. (Record #4120 alternative B).

Additionally, Alternative B is the ONLY proposal that restricts grazing on portions of the Basin. This is very important. Cattle are extremely hard on the land, the riparian areas and the plant resources our native wildlife depend on. We don’t need to allow cattle on all of the Basin as suggested in the other alternatives. That is management out of the early 1900’s when cattle barons ruled Wyoming. It’s time we think of the future of our land and begin to create a new paradigm. It also makes no sense the amount of AUM’s it takes in this desert landscape to support a cow compared with more fertile areas in the eastern U.S where the majority of the beef is produced. In addition, it’s not fiscally sound. Grazing fees do not cover BLM expenditures for operating the program, and they also fall far short of paying for all the environmental problems this kind of land use causes. I also find it disturbing that the BLM is actually proposing to weaken grazing regulations for areas previously covered in the Grass Creek RMP—I find this unacceptable. At the very least I feel that BLM should continue to follow the provisions set forth in the Grass Creek RMP for the Bighorn RMP. This includes prohibiting livestock grazing in elk parturition habitat during the birthing season. (Record #’s 6275-6282 alternative B).

Recently I went for the first time to Fifteenmile Basin. I was amazed. As far as the eye could see was unobstructed wilderness. No cattle, no oil wells. A window into the past, I could view a landscape as people did thousands of years ago. This special place deserves special protections. Alternative B would create a Badlands special recreation management area and impose a NSO restriction on oil and gas development within the management area. I feel that this would protect the Fifteenmile Basin so that generations to come can experience the same awe upon viewing this unique landscape (Record #’s 6094-114 alternative B).

May we have the wisdom to protect the last of this Specialness for generations to come. We have an opportunity to do the best we can for our lands, our wildlife, our grandchildren.

Thank you,

Leslie Patten

Filed under: Cody Environs | Tagged: Bighorn Basin, BLM Bighorn basin plan, Tipi rings | 5 Comments »

Yellowstone in June

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Leslie

: Wolf print on the trail following elk prints

: This was a very deep crevice, about 50′

: There were about 1000 Bison in the Lamar that day

: Watch out

: Bull elk in velvet

: Calf

: Cubs playing

: Lots of water, steam, this year

: Rams

: Herd of Rams lets us get close

: COY

: Marmot

: What a guy!

A blustery, unpredictable June brought with it fantastic wildlife watching in my three days in the Park. I spent two nights in Mammoth and did several hikes. On one, we ran into that herd of Rams you see. 150 years of no hunting leaves the wildlife very relaxed around people. The rams hardly noticed us, moving slowly across the trail and up the hillside about 20 feet away.

From what I heard today, so far not too many cubs of the year (COY) have been spotted. But I was a lucky one to get to watch a mom and 2 cubs for about fifteen minutes before they disappeared into the trees. The cubs spent the entire time playing, rolling around, and then catching up with mom…..soooo cute! One the way home I watched a courting pair of grizzlies. The female was collared. They rested together for quite some time under a tree while dozens of people watched about 100 yards away.

Yellowstone in May/June is the best time of the year. One woman told me she spotted 71 bears last year in two weeks. In early July grizzly bears move up into the high country to hunt for moths. The elk follow the grasses higher up as well. Wolves tend to follow the elk. So although you may see these animals in summer, the sightings will be fewer and more difficult to find.

The wildlife, the thermal activity, the incredible setting–that is the magic of Yellowstone and spring is the best time of year to come.

Filed under: Yellowstone National Park | Tagged: Bears, Bighorn Sheep, Elk, Grizzly bears, yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park | Leave a comment »

15 Mile Basin and the BLM Plan

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Leslie

There is a struggle going on over our federal lands in the Bighorn Basin. The Bureau of Land Management is taking public comments on their new draft-plan. This plan will set the guidelines for the next 20 years of land use. And the struggle, as I see it, is between immediate short-term gratification and greed, and open pristine lands for our wildlife and recreational and contemplative uses for human beings.

The politicians and the oil and gas companies would like the entire Bighorn Basin open to development for the next twenty years. And as we all have seen, once that open space is gone, its marred forever. An alternative plan of the BLM’s is for a compromise that protects and makes more pristine areas off-limits, but allows exploration in other areas.

One of these fantastic areas is called 15 mile basin, an area that right now is the largest contiguous space in the basin with no oil/gas leases. I’d never been there and the Wyoming Outdoor Council and the GYC were sponsoring an overnight with a walk the next day with Rick Dunne, a native seed farmer.

Our leader Rick Dunne

Besides a lot of fun and meeting new people, the area was quite incredible. Rick mostly explained the geology of the region and the Bighorn Basin in general. First we spent some time in Gooseberry Badlands Scenic walk-through. I’d been there once before, but today the river was running, making this a truly magical area.

Gooseberry creek

Then Rick took us on a 14 mile drive on a 2 track near Squaw Teats, with a quarter mile hike to an overlook. From there the basin stretched in all its colors and buttes as far as the eye could see without any roads, oil fields, or human structures. Rick told us that this area was probably rarely seen nor accessible because of the hiking and lack of water. It was strikingly beautiful.

The Basin--millions of years old

Many people don’t even know about BLM lands. In the early 1900’s, when the National Parks and National Forests were being created, the Bureau of Land Management was sort of everything left over. In those early years timber was what was of most interest to a growing country and so the National Forests were created to save our timberlands. BLM lands usually have high and low desert communities. These lands have their own beauty and solitude, with delicate ecosystems and unique wildlife. These lands belong to all of us, just like our Parks and National Forests. They are not the property of a few commissioners nor of the oil and gas industries.

Because you as an American citizen own these lands, even if you don’t live in the area, you certainly can comment on the proposed draft. In fact, those comments from the public are really what shapes the plan. I came to live in Wyoming because I spent every summer hiking in the Wind River Mountains outside of Pinedale. I wanted to move to that area, until the Jonas Field, a massive oil/gas field. Now the Pinedale area has more ozone level alerts than Los Angeles (where I grew up. Pinedale, Wy has more smog than L.A.!!??).

Here is a link

15 Mile Basin overlook

to help you see the BLM plan and comment. We have till July 20 to have our voices heard.

A Pronghorn struggles to find a place to go under a fence that is not wildlife friendly on BLM lands. He will be greatly impacted by oil/gas fields, new roads and fencing for development.

Filed under: Cody Environs | Leave a comment »

More elk calves and a lesson in Life and Death

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Leslie

“…that feeling in your stomach of “I don’t want this to be happening.” You try to escape it in some way, but if somehow you could stay present and touch the rawness of the experience, you can really learn something.” Pema Chodron

Yesterday, this morning, and today were all one large event, the event that is Life.

In my post yesterday, I wrote about the dead elk calf. This morning the mama spent a long time bugling for her calf behind my house on the top of the rise…a mournful sound of a mother calling desperately for her newborn calf. I went outside and watched her. I felt tremendous sadness for her. I knew she didn’t know what happened to her calf, just that it was gone.

It reminded me of a time two years ago in the spring in the Beartooths. A car hit and killed a cub of the year. The grizzly mom spent a week roaming and calling for her cub.

There is nothing so sad in the animal world as that sound–a mother calling for her baby that is dead. But I felt it was important for me to allow myself to feel this elk mother’s cries fully, and not push my own feelings away, even though it was difficult.

I stayed with her and listened. And those bugles were low, guttural; not the high pitched sounds you hear in the fall from the elk. Her cries came from a deep and ancient place, not unlike the cries of humans mourning intensely.

Today was the first really warm, beautiful day. I decided to go up to a favorite spot, a place that overlooks a deep canyon, and have lunch there. (Unfortunately, I took my cheap camera) Its about a 2 1/2 mile hike up to the top of this ridge-line. You pass through a forest until you top out at some high meadows. At the end of the meadows are sheer cliff drop-offs.

View from afar of the spot where elk is. This is the meadow and cliff

As soon as I broke through the trees and began crossing the meadow to the cliff edges, I spied a lone elk. She seemed a bit nervous at my presence (not unusual) but then I saw something else. A calf lay nearby. A wet calf. She had just given birth and probably just finished licking the calf clean of the afterbirth. I made a large circle and hid behind some rocks out of the wind.

Mom had taken off and left her baby there, probably hoping that I’d be more interested in following her and so not find her newborn. I watched that little guy for about an hour. Within about 10 minutes, he tried to stand up. He struggled unsuccessfully with his weak legs. Exhausted, he spent another 10 minutes resting. But soon he tried again. This time, although he still couldn’t stand up easily, he was getting stronger.

Keep trying...

First attempt to stand

I had a good feeling about this mom and her choice of a birthplace. High up, the only entrance was on one side. She placed the calf near a rock that had similar coloring as the calf. And not too far beyond the calf was the cliff, where no predator could come from. On my hike up through the trees, I saw no grizzly sign. Grizzly sign was on the other side of the canyon down below near the creek. If this calf makes it past a few weeks, he’ll be too fast for the bears. But then he’ll still have to contend with wolves, who do frequent the area.

Cliff edge near where calf lies

If he makes it through a month or so, when the snows melt, his mom will probably take him up to the Absaroka Divide and head to the Lamar. He’ll have a good year this year, more similar to what his ancestors used to experience before the long drought, because the grasses will stay greener for longer. Then next January I might see him again when he migrates back down here for the winter. He’ll be taller but still a youngster and still vulnerable to the wolves and the deep winter snows. But he might just be one of the tougher ones, the lucky ones, and live into his adulthood. Live to mate and make more elk and not be caught by a hunter’s bullet. I surely hope so.

Filed under: Elk, Grizzlies | Tagged: Elk calves, newborn elk | 3 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »