Diane sue that must be terrifying. I left the Midwest in big part because I could not stand the weather, thunderstorms and tornados, were a big part. THAT is scary. be safe, be careful.
deb it snowed a little bit, a dusting on trees up high but most of the snow is long gone. there are patchy spots and if you go high enough, there is certainly plenty, but we won't be doing that. it is old, rotten snow and not good for travel. You can still find places to ski but Im not that good a skier.
we did a hike in the park this morning. I forgot to stop my timer but at least 3 or 4 hours. the elevation is high to start with, and this trail goes up a ways and goes for 20 miles at least. we saw so much stuff today, it was wonderful!. it is spring and the babies are arriving. baby bison! OMG they are cute. lots of them! pronghorns don't calve until next month. elk are starting now. we saw hundreds of elk, starting in our back yard and then all over the park. so one turnout we saw a coyote, a group of bison with little cinnamon colored babies, and a sandhill crane all in the same field. saw lots of sandhills, heard a snipe. saw American avocets, a shore bird. loads of birds bluebirds, nutcrackers, warblers. then another coyote. they aren't that special but always have to make sure its a coyote and not a wolf. prairie dogs are out! millions of them. so cute. we saw a badger digging up and chasing around in the prairie dog colony. we hiked past pronghorns, bison /babies, and elk, and up a ridge with a specific goal. I stopped to take a flower pic, and DH was a little ahead and suddenly was galloping back waving, a grizzly bear sow with 2 tiny cubs running across the ridgeline just ahead of us. she kept going as far as we could tell, so we changed course and went the opposite direction, up a lesser bump close by to survey the territory and see if she was still around. we got to the top and DH turned to me and said, did I see anything? as I topped the hill, all I could do was point with my pole and turn as there was another grizzly a 100 to 150 yrds away. we could clearly see his face, not the same one with the cubs. we got down from there in a big hurry, and worked back to a different area to see if it was clear. you would not want to meet a bear on the route downhill, and since the first bear, we just wanted to see clearly that we weren't walking back toward her because we could not tell where she went. so that was enough, we looked at the goal spot, but no way going there with that many bears! we saw at least one more on open slopes up near our goal. we ran into two park rangers on our way down and chatted with them about the bears. they were trail crewing the area. we saw the badger again on our way own. all these years of hiking and only our second time seeing one.
I use poles and my am and wrist worked ok. no discomfort or pain. I LOVE this.