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Free entry to Yellowstone and Grand Teton during National Parks Week April 21-29 – Yellowstone Gate

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Free entry to Yellowstone and Grand Teton during National Parks Week April 21-29 – Yellowstone Gate.

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The Roosevelt Arch greets visitors at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. (Flickr photo by Pete Zarria - click to enlarge)

From Staff Reports

National parks across the country will open to visitors without entry fees during National Park Week April 21-29, and Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks will be open for the start of the summer season, but with limited visitor services and amenities.

Road crews are working to plow snow from roads in both parks, and if weather conditions allow, roads along the west side of Yellowstone National Park will open to automobile traffic on April 20. Visitors will be able to travel by car through the park’s north and west ntrances to Norris, Madison, Canyon and Old Faithful beginning at 8:00 a.m.

The National Park Service and its official fundraising partner, the National Park Foundation, present National Park Week each year to offer visitors a chance to experience national parks without paying an entry fee, and to encourage citizens to visit all of the nearly 400 sites in the national park system.

Yellowstone National Park roads and distances.

Additional roads throughout Yellowstone will open in May. On May 11, travel will open to autos from the south entrance to Grant Village, West Thumb, Fishing Bridge and Lake over Craig Pass to Old Faithful. Also, Tower Junction to Tower Fall opens to autos. Park planners are expected to open the road from Cooke City over Colter Pass to the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway intersection to the Long Lake gate as soon after May 11 as possible. For information on roads outside of the park from Cooke City via the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, travelers in Wyoming can dial 511, while those outside of Wyoming should call 888-996-7623. Information is also available at the Wyoming Department of Transportation website.

On May 25, Dunraven Pass from Tower to Canyon is scheduled to open to autos. If weather permits, the road from Long Lake Gate over the Beartooth Highway to Red Lodge, Mont. is also scheduled to open. For information on the Beartooth Highway to Red Lodge, Montana, travelers in Montana can dial 511, while those outside Montana should call 800-226-7623, or visit the Montana Department of Transportation website.

In Grand Teton, the Teton Park Road from Taggart Lake Trailhead to the Signal Mountain Lodge and the Moose-Wilson Road from the Death Canyon Trailhead to the Granite Canyon Trailhead are expected to open May 1.

For recorded road information about Yellowstone, call 307-344-2117. For recorded road information about Grand Teton, call (307) 739-3614.

Lodges, restaurants and activities in Yellowstone National Park  will open in spring starting in late April with complete operations on board by mid-June.

Visitor services open in stages to coincide with increasing demand as spring gives way to summer.

Opening dates for lodges and campgrounds operated by concessioner Xanterra Parks & Resorts are:

Lodges       

April 20 – Old Faithful Snow Lodge Geyser Grill and gift shop

April 27 – Mammoth Hot Springs gift shop and Terrace Grill

May 4 – Old Faithful Snow Lodge, rooms, restaurant and cabins

May 4 – Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins, and restaurant

May 11 – Lake Yellowstone Hotel, rooms, cabins, restaurant, deli and gift shop

May 11 – Old Faithful Lodge, cabins, cafeteria. Bake Shop and gift store

May 18 – Old Faithful Inn, rooms, gift shop, snack shop and restaurant

May 25 – Grant Village, rooms, gift shop and restaurant

June 1 – Canyon Lodge, rooms, cabins, restaurant, cafeteria, deli and gift shop

June 8 – Roosevelt Lodge Cabins, dining and gift shop

June 10 – Lake Lodge Cabins, cafeteria and gift shop

June 15 – Grant Village Lake House restaurant

Campgrounds

May 4 – Madison Campground

May 11 – Fishing Bridge RV Park

May 25 – Bridge Bay Campground

June 1 – Canyon Campground

June 21 – Grant Village Campground

Activities

May 19 – Circle of Fire tour (Lake Hotel and Fishing Bridge RV Park)

May 23 – Old Faithful Inn Photo Safaris

May 25 – Lake Yellowstone Hotel Photo Safaris

May 25 – Bridge Bay Marina (dock slips)

May 25 – Mammoth horseback rides

May 26 – Yellowstone in a Day tour (Mammoth and Gardiner)

June 8 – Roosevelt horseback and stagecoach rides

June 9 – Roosevelt Old West Cookout

June 15 – Boat tours, rentals and charters

June 26 – Canyon horseback rides

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I’m getting old, getting behind, and getting tired…

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Ok, it’s whining time again.  For me.  Not you. :)

First, you may know that I am trying to walk more and be a little more active, physically, in my old age, 53.   I have started volunteering to take photos of headstones of cemeteries in the area.  The photos are uploaded to http://www.findagrave.com.  There are listings for cemeteries all over the world.

People place “memorials” for loved ones on the site, some people just place them based on obituaries in their area, to help out.  I have placed some.  For family members and for headstones that I have taken pictures of and found that they are not listed in the cemeteries in which they are interred.  Example:  I took two photos this morning, one was requested and the other was right next to the one requested.  Same family.  If I see a family all grouped together I will try to take photos of all of them, in case they are not on the site. Which does happen.  The second photo was not listed so I added it to the cemetery listings.  It helps people with their genealogy research, confirms dates, names, nicknames, etc…it also just helps some enter their loved ones names, as I did when my parents died almost 11 years ago. The site has been around for a while.

Anyway, I am not use to all this walking!  WOWEEE!!  Saturday I left right from work and went to the Chance,  Belfry, Bridger and Rockvale cemeteries.  All in Montana.  Here is my route, about 128 miles round trip.  Which isn’t much, but when you are stopping and looking, and WALKING, it takes a bit of time. I get off work at 7am.  I didn’t get home until about 3pm.

Saturday Route

Saturday Route

I didn’t realize how much this would POOP me out!  Honestly.  I think back to being in Honor Guard while in the Air Force and performing in parades, which went on for miles, and marching for funerals etc…don’t think I could do that today.  I know I couldn’t.  Bleh.

I thought I let myself recover after my friend’s husband died, but I didn’t I guess.  Haven’t seem to have been able to catch up to myself.  I have several awards to post about, I haven’t forgotten everyone, I am just slower than I usually am.  That is pretty bad too!

I did take one pretty picture, for me, on Saturday.   I don’t stop and take a lot of pictures when I am doing this cemetery stuff, finding the headstones can take a while.  None of those I went to on Saturday had directories and I feel pretty good that I was able to find 15 out of 18 headstones.  I looked at the Rockvale Cemetery, the last one I went to, and just about had a fit when I saw how big it is.  I see it all the time, but there is a little rise and I thought it was much smaller than it actually is.  I picked a block, looked, and found two!  AYAYAYAYAY Out of three.  Now I am waiting for someone to call me back and hopefully direct me to where the third is.  There are  almost 2000 graves there, that cemetery alone would take me all day.  I could have cried when I saw it.  Not use to this exercising stuff any more.  UGH!  Good for me, good for me, good for me.  My new mantra!  :)

Here is the pretty picture, so tired almost forgot I even said that above. ;)

Between Powell and Chance Cemtery. (Closer to Powell tho, haven't turned North to Chance yet)

Between Powell and Chance Cemtery. (Closer to Powell tho, haven't turned North to Chance yet)

Yellowstone Park elk population declines 80 percent since 1992

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Yellowstone Park elk population declines 80 percent since 1992 | Great Falls Tribune | greatfallstribune.com.

A bull elk sticks out its tongue in Yellowstone National Park's Hayden Valley in June 2010. Scientists say a major elk herd that migrates from Yellowstone National Park has suffered another steep decline because of a hard winter, predator attacks and hunting. AP PHOTO/THE POWELL TRIBUNE, BEN WETZEL,FILE

A bull elk sticks out its tongue in Yellowstone National Park's Hayden Valley in June 2010. Scientists say a major elk herd that migrates from Yellowstone National Park has suffered another steep decline because of a hard winter, predator attacks and hunting. AP PHOTO/THE POWELL TRIBUNE, BEN WETZEL,FILE

A major elk herd that migrates between Yellowstone National Park and Montana suffered another steep decline last year due to a hard winter, predator attacks and hunting, state and federal scientists said Tuesday.

New data from wildlife agencies show the Northern Yellowstone elk herd is down to about 4,174 animals, a 10 percent drop from the prior year’s count. That follows a 24 percent drop in 2011.

Yellowstone biologist Doug Smith said the herd remains healthy despite its smaller size. The number is more in line with historic levels since wolves were reintroduced and grizzly bears and mountain lions returned naturally, he said.

The herd peaked at about 20,000 animals in 1992, a few years before wolves were brought back from Canada after being absent from the region for decades. Since then, the herd has declined about 80 percent.

Some outfitters and others who live outside the park say officials have not done enough to curb predator attacks, particularly by wolves. The Yellowstone herd supported a thriving hunting industry, with several thousand elk killed in some years, before the numbers started to drop.

The Park Service has no set population target for the herd, but the latest counts have fallen below the target range of Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks.

The state wants between 3,000 and 5,000 elk in portions of Montana just north of the park. The latest count found 2,734 elk in that area.

Smith said it was inaccurate to heap too much blame for the elk herd’s decline on wolves.

Wolf numbers, too, have been dropping in recent years, from 94 in 2007 to 38 last year in the area populated by the Northern Yellowstone herd.

“That’s some bad news, a 25 percent decline last year and 10 percent this year. But the elk are looking really good,” Smith said. “This was one of the hardest winters we’ve had in decades … We’ve got a leaner, meaner elk herd.”

Conservationists credit wolves with helping restore balance to the ecosystem, in part by reducing the size of a herd that some had said was far too large at its peak.

To keep the herd from declining too far, Montana wildlife commissioners in February approved a new permit system for Northern Yellowstone elk. Although there are unlimited numbers of the $9 permits, the requirement is expected to reduce the number of hunters who come to the area, said Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim.

Agency biologist Karen Loveless said despite the decline seen in this year’s count there are signs the Northern Yellowstone herd could rebound. Loveless said the number of calves per cow elk appears to be on the increase, an indication that more of the animals survived than in past winters.

“I feel some encouragement in the long-term,” Loveless said. “We sure would like to see it at least level off and I would like to see it coming back up. There is a possibility that could happen.”

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