Beth's Sense of Snow (She's A California Wimp)

Help! The Snow Is Attacking!Yellowstone and the surrounding area is under siege from winter. The storm attacked last night, banishing 50 and 60 degree pleasant fall weather with billions of white snowflake soldiers. By Sunday, the landscape will be vanquished with up to four feet of white. 

Despite my attempts to surrender and negotiate a few more weeks of fall, the storm continues to assault us. Today, I'm teaching at a conference on green business in Red Lodge, at the center of the battle, and the snow just keeps on falling. Luckily we have plenty of cookies and hot chocolate, so I don't anticipate any Donner-like scenarios.

Old Faithful in Autumn, California Friends, and the Abrupt Arrival of Winter

Tre and Susan, two of my good friends from California, visited me this week in Yellowstone. We enjoyed warm autumn weather for most of their trip, but a storm system is moving into the region tonight. After reading the forecast calling for 6-12 inches of snow, my friends promptly fled south—I had to exercise self-control not to join them. My winter anxiety became heightened since the special weather statement announced, “fall weather is about to come to an end with a sudden switch to winter conditions.”   I guess I’ll pack my shorts away until next July!

Here’s a selection of photos from our travels in the park:

Fall at Old Faithful Basin

Tre & Susan in Yellowstone

Young Elk Calf

Old Faithful

Gibbon Falls

Fall Landscape Near Lower Geyser Basin Tre, Susan and Beth

California Birthday & Doggie Reunion

It's been a very long winter in Yellowstone and even the locals are complaining about the weather. So for my birthday, I decided I needed some sun (and needed to work on my tan). Shad and my friends held a "Defrost Beth Barbecue" this past weekend and I had a wonderful time with my Yosemite pals. Thank you to all of my friends who made my visit home really special!

The most difficult part of moving to Yellowstone has been leaving my "children" behind. I had not seen Sasha, Cirrus, and Tioga for three months. Doggie treats were in abundance along with sloppy kisses.

California Dreamin' on Such a Winter's Day

Let me share the forecast for Yellowstone:

"Rest of Tonight--Partly cloudy early in the evening then becoming cloudy. A 50 percent chance of snow after midnight. Lows 7 below to 13 below zero. West winds around 15 mph after midnight. Wind chill readings 23 below to 33 below zero."

You read that correctly-33F BELOW ZERO!!!!!!!

This morning my car staged a revolt and made awful noises when I started it. And you know it's really cold when the bison standing in front of the Mammoth Hotel are coated in ice. I almost wept when I unpacked my shorts--I won't be needing them until maybe July.