Greetings from Buffalo!

After a roundabout trip back from Chicago we have all made it back home safe and resumed work. It’s amazing what can change after just a week being gone.  Before we left everything was still green and growing.  On our first day back in the field we quickly discovered that almost all the grasses have gone dormant, most of the forbs have stopped flowering, and everything is now yellow.

In the meantime, we have escaped to greener pastures by backpacking up to a glacier lake in the bighorns.  Up there are still flowers aplenty and being above the smoke haze was certainly a nice change.  However, it should be noted for future trips that marmots like to eat water bottles. Watch out.

The 4th of July was great.  There was still one fireworks show going on despite the fires, and it was probably the longest show I’ve ever seen…and I like fireworks.  This weekend is the Bighorn Mountain Festival, so we’re looking forward to a ton of awesome bluegrass music and a great time.