June 10, 2014

This was a more interesting day.

The first item of business was to take a sunrise photo of Moulton Barn. I have a 4x5 negative of it, but I wanted a digital picture. In addition, I wanted a high resolution photo, so the idea was to use the 70-200 mm zoom lens (my sharpest) and do a mosaic. That's where you stitch together several photos to make one big one. So, at 5:15, I left on the 25 minute drive to the barn. When I got there, there were several other people waiting for the light.

The light did get better:

Then, on my way back to get the trailer and move up to Tower campground in Yellowstone, I was planning to stop at an overlook and take some good shots of the Tetons. But, the weather wasn't cooperating. In act, it was raining lightly. But, as I was driving along, I saw this:

I went back, collected the trailer and drove up to Tower. I expected to find the campground nearly empty, but, to my surprise, I got the last site – one in the shade. Not good for my solar panel. I'll have to move within a week or so.

After getting set up, chatting with the campground host, and making lunch, it was time to explore. Being as it was around 12:30, I wasn't expecting much wildlife, but I did get some good sightings. One in particular was a black bear near Pebble Creek Campground. It was slowly making it's way down Soda Butte Creek, on the other side. After a while it got close enough for this shot:

After that, it was drive around looking for cell service. I finally found it almost all the way to Mammoth Hot Springs.

When I got back to camp, I discovered that the emergency brake cable had been pulled from it's housing on the trailer and I had been draining 7 amps from the batteries all day. It amounted to around 45 amp hours – about 2 days worth of usage. That makes moving to a sunny sight more important. So, I walked around and found a sunny site where the people are leaving after 2 nights. So, on Thursday morning (this is Tuesday) I'll move and hopefully, everything will be fine.

Later that evening, I went out to see I could find phone service. On the way out, I saw a black bear near Rainy Lake and on the way back in, there was another with 2 tiny cubs. It was too dark to take any photos, though. I've been hearing that they are being seen fairly often in the area, so I'll have more chances.