Not familiar with the name


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Posted by Ballpark Frank (69.178.8.75) on 11:37:37 02/21/16

In Reply to: Exact location of the "lunch room" posted by rickyberetired

ricky,

I have not heard this name for an area across Lamar Valley from the road (or for that matter, referring to any other area). It has been 4 years since I spent much time scoping for bears in the valley, so my "dictionary" is not current. I also rarely read any trip reports concentrated on wildlife sightings, so I'm not exposed to the most likely source of update on new geographic names in use.

Having said that, I will tell you that I have wandered around Jasper Bench many times, hiking in from the Petrified Forest trailhead, going past the location where the Crystal Creek/Bench wolf acclimation pen was located. I have hoofed it up past the petrified forest to the top of the ridge, then wandered both uphill and downhill along the ridge on various occasions. I have hiked the Specimen Ridge trail end to end several times, and hiked one-way from the Specimen Ridge trailhead up the trail to various turnaround points.

In all those wanderings, I have not discovered a particular area like what you have described,other than Jasper Bench and the broad tier of open bench above it. Some of the open areas along Jasper Bench are obscured from the ridgeline by the spiny ridges that extend down toward the bench from the ridgeline. I suspect one would have to know the exact area they were wanting to surveil, and then walk along the ridgeline until you get visibility to it. I do know that there are quite a few areas where one is surprised at how much lateral distance there is between the ridgeline and the bench area. In between, there are all sorts of landforms, including the aforementioned spiny ridges, burned forest, and unburned forest.

Given that you are talking about the first week of August, the bears are likely to be widely dispersed, unless something like an auto or rut-killed bison carcass attracts them, and those are usually down on the valley floor, between the road and the river. Wolf-killed elk carcasses can show up anywhere, but that time of year, the elk are also widely dispersed.

I hope someone else on this page is familiar with the "lunch room", and can be more helpful.

Ballpark



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