Hoerman's House
My life day to day
Archive for the tag “great outdoors”
Bugs creep me out
I know bugs are necessary, but I will admit, I have a definite phobia when it comes to them.
Luckily this guy was outside so we had a nice glass barrier between us. Unfortunately, I went and googled praying mantis and found this webpage which creeped me out even more….I thought they just ate other bugs. I didn’t know they could take down a bird!
Traumatizing a Possum
Our dog, Lucy, loves to be outside in the evenings now that the temperature has started cooling down. Sunday evening it got to be time to go to bed so I went to let her in. She was laying on the front porch but was reluctant to come to me. I didn’t think anything about it. Finally, after calling her a couple of times she got up and ran inside. To my horror, there was a very small possum laying next to where Lucy had been. When I say small possum, I mean it had to be this years model and booted from momma’s pouch not too long ago. I stood there watching it when it started to stir. Silly thing had been playing dead. I was very worried it had been damaged by Lucy so Glen and I went out and it immediately played dead again. We inspected it as best we could and didn’t see any blood so we decided to let it be and see if it would leave or stay on the porch. Luckily, as soon as the porch light went out the little fella took off at a fast pace. We have no idea if Lucy was playing with it or if she was babying it because the poor thing was very wet with her slobber…..so rough housing or giving it a bath? Thank you God for her not finding a skunk!
I know it looks like the little guy is bleeding in the picture, but I assure you, it is slobber.
Getting Cloudy
Yesterday evening a weather front moved in bringing thunderstorms in it’s path. No sleep with our fraidy dog Petey.
Turkey Vultures
Glen and I got home late Sunday night. We didn’t get a chance to sleep in because our crazy birds knew we were home and squawked and screeched until we got up. I just happened to look outside and saw three turkey vultures at the end of our driveway. Apparently something got struck by a car and killed while we were gone and the clean up crew had arrived.
Have no idea what they were consuming because when we left mid morning to go get the cat from the vet’s office it was all gone. Very nice that they cleaned everything up…..but kind of gross too.
Back Country Horseback Ride
On our last full day Glen and I went on a half day horse back ride. It was a cool rainy day, but the horses were nice and warm so we didn’t get cold. It was a very fun and different thing to do, however, my backside was definitely sore by the end of the ride.
My horse is the butt on the left. His name was Chickasaw.
Meet Glens horse. His name was Calhoun.
Off we go…..There was a group of six of us. There was a couple from Boston and the other couple was from upstate New York. The couple from New York had a very had time controlling their horses.
Entering a nice treed area….getting close to our lunch break.
Here I am waiting my turn to get off my horse so I can eat my lunch. The lady in the background with the cowboy hat on was our guide. Her name was Carrie and she was very knowledgeable about the area and….well….horses.
We took a different trail back to the Corral. The guide called it “the hoo doo’s”. It was a very rocky area that was affected by an earthquake. All the rocks were laying every which way.
When we got back to the corral where the horse trailer was, this bull buffalo was walking down the road. Our guide was like we need to hurry, hurry, hurry and get off these horses. She said that buffalo scared her far worse than bears, because buffalo were so very unpredictable and fast.
After our horseback ride we decided to drive over to an area that we hadn’t been to yet, the Tower/Roosevelt area. It was a cloudy rainy day and we didn’t see much and I was having a very hard time keeping my eyes open and kept nodding off. We had decided earlier that we would take a side/scenic road, which turned out to be a non paved road that was rougher than rough. Along the way we came across a momma black bear and her cub. SCORE! The only critters that were on our list to see that we didn’t see were a moose and wolves. Maybe someday we will be able to see them in the wild.
Scenic Drive to the Grand Tetons
Last Friday Glen and I dedicated a whole day to drive down to the Grand Teton National Park.
Our day started off a bit foggy.
We pretty much stopped at every turn out to take pictures because there was a significant chance for thunderstorms and the thunderheads were forming behind us. This picture is one of my favorites, Tetons with the Snake River.
Glen took a nice panoramic shot of the Tetons at Jackson Lake.
On the way home we spotted some Pronghorns.
When we got back into Yellowstone, we stopped at a geothermal area we hadn’t seen yet. We arrived just in time to watch the Great Fountain Geyser erupt. It shot water into the air every bit as high as Old Faithful. Was very impressive.
Of course no trip home would be complete without spotting some amazing animal. This time the bald eagle was closer so I could get a better picture.
When the bald eagle flew off I looked to my left and there was a beautiful female elk crossing the river. She stopped in the middle to get herself a nice little sip of water.
Best.Day.Ever!
Yesterday Glen and I went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was gorgeous! The upper and lower water falls and all the treacherously step trails to get to the best vantage points. After the Grand Canyon we decided to unwind by driving to Hayden Valley. That was the best choice ever!
View of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
This is the stairway on Uncle Tom’s Trail. It has 328 stairs….and yes, Glen and I did that. The stairs take you down to the base of the lower falls.
Glen and I at the bottom of the Uncle Tom’s Trail at the lower falls. A very nice German man took our picture.
Upper falls
Hayden Valley had a very large herd of buffalo. We took our time and took a ton of pictures.
Here they are crossing the road. However, the animals don’t need to be in the road to cause a complete traffic jam. A single animal laying or grazing in the grass can cause traffic to come to a complete stop.
This is an osprey that was nesting in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Bald Eagle….first time I had seen one in the wild!
Look closely…..River Otters
Coyote….This guy was not shy at all. There was a large group of us tourists and he was about 50 yards out mousing.
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