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Category Archives: National Parks

The Illusive Hoary Marmot

28-Nov-06

Back at the end of August we went to Seattle on a short vacation. We took a hike at Mt. Ranier with some friends.

For twelve years or so, we’ve traveled to various National Parks. At some point along the way, reading about local wildlife in one of the parks, I learned of the Hoary Marmot. At once I was hooked. I had to see a Hoary Marmot for myself. Any animal that had been deemed “Hoary” deserved attention it seemed.

Turns out the little stinkers are not that easy to come across. At least not for me. It wasn’t until this trip to Ranier that I finally saw one. Frankly, I had written them off to legend, never expecting to see one.

I asked our friends on the ride up to Ranier, “Do they have the illusive Hoary Marmot up here?” I got laughs instead of an answer. “No, I’m serious! There is a Hoary Marmot and they live in high mountainous regions.” I said. More chuckles…no answers…change of subject.

Well, we arrived at the visitors center and what to my wandering eyes appear? A stuffed Hoary Marmot with claims that they lived near!

We set out on a hike of no particular intention or direction. We were just having fun and cutting up. Then, out of nowhere, one of our party shouted “Look! Looky! What’s that?!” I looked in the direction she was pointing and there it was…in the distance…in a barren, pebbly field of brown dirt, with grass clumps scattered about…The Illusive Hoary Marmot.

At last, after ten long years, the quest had ended.

Cute little dickens ain’t he? He (or she, who the heck could tell) was about the size of a badger or beaver with a nice reddish brown top on his tail. He came out of his burrow to snack on some grass. Not much of it around. I’d have to hope he had something else stored away in that burrow to eat because the grass pickin’s were slim. Maybe all the grass was in the burrow? (Very scientific aren’t I? We quest minded people are like that.)

Anyway, I had time to get a few pictures with the digicam. Tonight I decided to sketch him up and post the story. I won’t win a nobel prize for my efforts. I won’t have the fame of Teddy Roosevelt returning from safari in far off lands. There will be no movie. No book. No place for my name in the annals of biological history.

In fact, when I eagerly told a passing Park Ranger that I had seen a Hoary Marmot, he replied, “Yeah, they’re real friendly. They come right up to your feet. They’re all over the place up here. Hard not to see one.”

Party Pooper…
QUEST KILLER!

I thought that Hoary Marmot looked at me like I was nuts. Hoppin’ around and pointing like that. I probably scared the hell out of him so he just kept his distance. One eye on the grass, one eye on me, one foot in the burrow…

Also filed in Animals, Nature, Stories, Travel Sketches | | Comments (4) »

ACEO, Rocky Mountain National Park Stream

24-Aug-06

This scene is from a trip we took a few years back to Rocky Mountain National Park. I’ve posted a couple of other paintings from there. I’ll probably do more. Practically anywhere you look there you’ll find subject matter.

This particular stream is on a hike up to Emerald Lake and you can go even further if you have the wind. The big boulders in streams like this always amaze me. These aren’t so big but there are some in the Tallulah River up in North Georgia that are bigger than that Cadillac Escalade that was tailing you today. One I’m familiar with would make a nice sized two room cabin if it were hollow.

That’s a good project. Hike to “The Boulder” and place “The Wife” in the stream beside it and sketch it for reference to size. Perhaps I’ll do that later this year.

For now, we’re off to Seattle and Victoria for a four day vacation (flights were on sale and cheap from Atlanta). I’m going to sketch a lot. “Sketch or Bust” is my motto on this trip.

I’ll post the results upon my return.

BTW, posts have been sparse this month and for that I apologize. I’ll make up for it when I return. Sometimes life gets a bit hectic as I’m sure you all know.

Also filed in ACEO Art Cards, Landscapes, Nature, Stories, Travel Sketches | | Comments (5) »

Rocky Mountain National Park, II

31-Jul-06

Im going to be posting several paintings of RMNP over the next few days. As I said in the original post, it is a place about wildlife and beauty.

When I go to such places, I look for those things that others overlook and find the beauty in them. Its quite common to paint or sketch the main attractions. For that reason, I try to record the beauty that is passed by. I try to find a story in those images too.

Certainly, the main attractions are main for a reason. They simply are known for producing an overwhelming sense of awe. The Grand Canyon, Biltmore Estate, Pikes Peak, The Tetons, Mt. Rushmore, Niagraso manynever ending it seems. We are fortunate here in Americaso very fortunate.

In all of these places, there is also great, even grand beauty in the details and stories that are off the beaten path. One but has to go and lookand risk perhaps, not seeing something beautiful. Ive very rarely been dissapointed in wandering away from the main.

Robert Frosts poem, The Road Not Taken sums up my angle on the observation of life, places and people.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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ACEO, Rocky Mountain National Park I

30-Jul-06

This Painting was Sold on ebay

My wife and I have been to RMNP two times. Well go again no doubt. Its that kind of place. Its not elbow to elbow with crowds like many of the parks.

There are lots of visitors mind you, but they more or less spread out. The City of Estes Park is right on the front door step of RMNP. If you see crowds, it will be in town where all the shopping boutiques are located. Estes Park is charming.

RMNP is about wildlife and beauty. Elk herds congregate in September-October and the bulls can be heard bugling their rutting calls from just before dusk to dawn. Its an eerie sound really. Especially because you can hear them for quite some distance through the mountains. Once youve heard the call, in the dark of the night, you never forget it.

The elk, their calls, and their harems are striking. The elk is a handsome and majestic creature. When one witnesses a large bull bugling in the cool morning air, the jet of steamy breath leaving his mouth and nostrils at the end of his outstretched head, a sense of strength and independence comes upon you. You know that he owns that turf at that moment.

And surrounding that strength and independence is wild, yet tranquil, beauty. High mountains, rolling meadows, contrasts of dark forest against golden grass. Its a painters paradise.

This little painting is the first in a series Im going to do. Its a lone, windswept, ponderosa pine at the edge of a meadowjust as the earth begins to incline upward to the higher elevations. Smaller specimens dot the hill side and far in the distance a nice stand exists.

I suspect this one survived a fire. The youngsters in its shadow look up to it, as if for inspiration.

Much like the elk, its a symbol of strength and independence. When I saw it, I knew it owned that turf for the moment.