By Amy, on February 11th, 2012%
It’s been quite a while since I posted any pictures from Glacier National Park, so here’s the next round. After seeing the bear warning as I drove into the Many Glacier area, I kept going along the road toward Swiftcurrent Lake and the Many Glacier Hotel.
This area of the park is peaceful and quiet. You’re well away from the Going to the Sun Road. I could have hung out all afternoon just enjoying the views:
This is one of my favorite shots from the park, and definitely my favorite from Many Glacier:
If I used a lens hood, I could have avoided that lens flare, by the way. But I never bother to carry one around, since there isn’t really room in my bag. Plus, I rather like the effect in a shot like this one.
Anyway, before I arrived in Glacier, I had researched this area with the intent of hiking a trail up to Iceberg Lake. You can see it on this map. However, it’s a long hike, and I didn’t want to wear myself out the first day of the trip. I had other goals in mind for later days. So instead, I settled for resting up a bit on the deck at the Many Glacier hotel–it was quite hot that day. And then I went to the trail head just to nose around a little without doing any actual hiking.
I did get pictures of the stream that flows out of Iceburg Lake, though. Doesn’t that water look like it tastes wonderful?
Then I got some flower pictures. Here’s an Indian Paintbrush, one of my favorites:
Another common flower in the park is Bear Grass. Bear Grass looks like giant Q-tips. I guess because bears have very big ears:
And finally, on my way back to the car, this little guy was hanging out at the trailhead. Probably hoping for folks to drop a little trail mix his way:
That concludes my time in this part of the park. I headed back to my hotel room for the night. Good thing I did, because a huge storm blew in on my way back. It was a rather blustery evening in that tiny little motor lodge. I remember hoping they didn’t get tornadoes in that part of the country! I was too worn out to worry about it too much, though. I ate dinner, tried to find a weather report on tv (without much success), and fell asleep looking forward to the next day’s adventure.
By Amy, on January 14th, 2012%
Someday I promise I’ll get back to working through the Glacier pictures. For now, though, here are more from last week’s visit to the zoo.
I knew something was up as I approached the Pronghorn Antelope exhibit. There were a couple of guys with cameras on tripods with honking massive lenses shooting away. They kept jockeying for better positions, and guys with that kind of equipment don’t get worked up over animals peacefully grazing, so I scurried over.
Sure enough, a couple of males were sparring. Although it’s winter to us, I know my birds feel spring coming as the days lengthen and are starting to show signs of breeding behavior. So it is with these antelope:
The other excitement was seeing the new Dhole exhibit. Dhole are a wild dog from Asia, and very few are left…less than 1,500, as I remember. The zoo is part of a breeding program, and they’ve brought in two males and two females.
I just love their fur. I wish my hair were this color!
Once I was done walking around outside, I headed for the aquariums. I’ve tried a couple of times before for a good turtle picture. I finally got one I liked. This is a Red-Eared Slider. Kinda sounds like what you’d call a White Castle hamburger with a lot of ketchup on it, doesn’t it? Not that I’ve ever eaten one. The hamburger, that is. Or a turtle, for that matter:
Yellow Perch on the other hand, I may have eaten a time or two:
By Amy, on January 8th, 2012%
The Minnesota Zoo has a lot of cold-adapted animals, including snow mokeys. I’m not generally drawn to monkeys. In fact, I was once bitten by a monkey. It was being cared for by a young woman at a field station where I was staying. He was not well-socialized and had already bitten a woman on the face. One day, he came into my room and grabbed a bag of raisins. I took the raisins away and tossed them across the room–figuring if the monkey took offense, it would run after the food. Nope, it screamed and ran up to bite me on the leg.
The commotion caused his caretaker to arrive and intervene. She spanked him, kicked him out of the room, and I closed my door. Dang thing came back a couple of minutes later, climbed through the window, leapt onto my face, and tried to bite my eyes. Thank goodness he was small, and I was able to peel him off and throw him across the room.
No, I am not fond of monkeys. They have a concept of revenge you simply don’t encounter in most species. Still, I found myself looking at the snow monkeys at the zoo today, as I so rarely do. This one looked back:
She kept swivelling around to get a better angle on me, very intent on staring into the lens. She almost looks like she’s posing for the cover of Cosmo, doesn’t she?
Don’t be fooled. In the heart of this monkey dwells a homicidal maniac. They are rather cute when they’re tiny, though:
And this one? This one was being downright goofy:
I still wouldn’t want to run into him in a dark alley, though. He’d rip your face off, steal your raisins, and run off laughing, I bet!
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