Yellowstone Travels

Every year, all of the staff at work get together for a retreat. It's a great opportunity to get face-to-face time with everyone, since we're spread across the west, and work on important organization-wide issues. This year, we went to the BBar Ranch in Montana. It was just north of Yellowstone, which I'd never visited.

We stayed in cabins on the property that were adorable. We were greeted with fresh flowers in the common room and I often took the opportunity to sit on the couch and unwind between sessions or before dinner.

Each cabin was named after an animal and had lanterns to match. I was assigned to the hummingbird cabin. One of my favorite childhood memories is visiting my grandparents at Beaver Lake, Arkansas in the summer. They had hummingbird feeders outside of the windows and my sister and I would watch, mesmerized. Any time I see a hummingbird, I think of those vacations and my grandma.

The leadership team had already been at the ranch for a few days and when we arrived, they told us about bear tracks they'd found just outside of the gates. It was amazing to be so close to where animals could freely roam. We of course, had bear spray with us any time we went outside of the gates of the ranch. Spoiler: we didn't see any bears up close at the ranch.

After dropping off our bags and saying hi to everyone, a few of us grabbed some bear spray and went off to see the tracks. There's a few shots below of the tracks and the group checking out the amazing views from the road.

Bear spray with a view.

Tracks

Comparing the track to a human hand.

We walked up and down the road outside of the ranch in the evenings and during breaks. It was a bit chilly but absolutely beautiful. There was a recent wolf kill in one of the fields, which we visited one evening. We got there the second day after the kill and there was almost nothing left. It was amazing to see how completely nature uses everything after a death.

Yellowstone

One of the afternoons of the staff retreat was reserved for adventuring. Most of us chose to go to Yellowstone and I had a tough decision between hiking or animal watching. Hiking promised great views and possibly an animal sighting or two. Animal watching would mean most of the day in the car going to different areas for the chance to glimpse rare sight, like a wolf. I decided on the animal watching because our Wildlife Director was going to be in the car and I knew I'd be able to learn from her.

There are way too many photos to share, so I've uploaded them to Flickr album here.

A quick synopsis of our adventure was driving around and spotting animals, then we went for a walk along a river, and finally ended at sunset watching wolves and wolf pups far, far in the distance.

It was amazing!! My next post will be details about seeing a bear close up and almost too personal.