It's that time of year again. Time to leave the park and head east. So here is one last bear pic for the season. I hate leaving, but the park is so empty this time of year, it makes it a little easier to leave. Even the bears will be bedding down soon. I hope everyone enjoyed the pics. There will be tons more next year! 

 
Hurry, Hurry, Hurry! Even though Bandit is little, he can give Lucia a run for her money. They both really enjoy the snow and chasing snowballs. It's sad that it almost never snows where I live in the winter. 

 
Lucia and I taking a break from packing. This was taken the day before we left Yellowstone. A friend stopped by with his jack russel, so it was a good excuse to take a break and toss snowballs to the dogs. I'm really staring to hate packing:) 

 
My friend Brien "fell asleep" on my couch after a potluck dinner. After the guys poked at him, to make sure he was asleep, I covered him in dog toys. He never moved until Lucia crawled on top of him to retrieve her toys. She didn't find it as amusing as the rest of us. 

 
These guys are so cute! After playing on the dock, they went fishing near the boat launch. Whenever they would surface, they would have a small fish in their mouths. Lots of playing going on, too. 

 
Otters! Seven in all. It looked like two adults and five young ones. Probably born in the spring. They were hanging on the boat docks at the marina. Now that all the boats are gone, they like playing on the docks. 

 
The island is full of waterfowl. There are a couple of bald eagles that hang out there, too. I saw one while out there, but no good pics. 

 
A pic of Stevenson from the water. This was taken from the narrow side. The island is pretty long. 

 
This is a pleasure boat that was used on the lake very early in the history of Yellowstone. I forgot the name, sorry. There was a dispute between the owner and the park. Details are sketchy, but it suddenly burned on the island. Pretty sure the owner had some hand in it. It was brought to the park in pieces and assembled here. I'm pretty sure it only had a couple of voyages before it burned. 

 
A picture from Stevenson Island. I was on my last kayak trip of the season. Very sad! I'll miss paddling on the lake. There are so many more cool place I need to see. I guess I'll just have to come back next year :) 

 
A nice pic of the snake river. This is a really nice open area that's pretty popular with the canoeists and kayakers. 

 
Can you believe these colors?! I love this time of year. This was taken just south of Jackson Lake Lodge in the Tetons. 

 
This is one of my favorite pics. It was taken back in May. Karen and I were on our first paddle of the season. A friend was on an overlook high above the lake and took some pics of us paddling. She didn't know it was us until a few weeks later when she over heard us talking about being on the lake that week. How lucky that she was walking by during our conversation or she never would have have known it was us. 

 
This is Mishi. She's a 7-8 year old Northern California King snake. She travels across country with me along with Neiko and now Lucia. She's between 3 and 4 feet long. Creeps out some of my coworkers though. Especially when I have the frozen mice sent to the ranger station. 

 
Another nice view of the Absaroka mountains east of the park. 

 
A view looking east over Yellowstone Lake. Only the higher elevationas have snow. It's been a pretty warm fall for the most part. No where near the snow fall we had last year at this time. 

 
This is such a pretty time of year. All the Aspen trees turn the coolest color yellow. The dark backdrop makes them look even more vibrant. 

 
More yellow! 

 
My friend Mark paddled into the shot as I took the picture. Very cool! We got back to shore with just enough light to put the boats back on the cars. 

 
Check out that sunset! Sunsets are much cooler when the pics are taken from the water. A friend and I were out for an evening paddle after work. 

 
Here's the start of the storm. Everything was solid white by morning. 

 
Storm clouds coming in over the lake. They left about 4" of snow in the Lake area and much deeper at the higher elevations. A lot of roads had to be closed last night for safety. 

 
The trail followed this stream bed the whole way. On the few sections of stream that needed to be crossed, people had pushed over trees to walk across. 

 
A view from the top of the trail. The trail went up between two mountain peaks. A very pretty forest hike. Check out the snow coming in over the mountain in the background. I was about 1000ft or so lower than the peak and when the cloud hit me, it was nothing but a cold thunderstorm. Thank goodness for rain jackets. 

 
Cattails line a pond in a picnic area at the Fireman's Memorial in the Wapiti National Forest. The memorial picnic area sits at the trail head that leads to a memorial for 15 firefighters that were killed and 39 were hurt during a flashover while trying to control a burn.